The History of Video Games: 1973

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Published on June 21, 2016 6:00:04 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJAZKAjh_eQ

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1973 wasn’t the most exciting year in the history of video games, even if it was filled with firsts and controversy thanks to Atari. Pong Doubles shook up the Pong scene by introducing 4 player co-op to the already popular table tennis game, and Gotcha sparked conversations around the world due to the unorthodox styling of its controls. In this video, i’ll be going over the events that transpired in 1973 in the history of video games. This is… The History of Video Games: 1973.

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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Fallout 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDwdSsxOzkk
10 Things You Didn't Know About Fallout New Vegas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNJI01OA9AY
10 More Things You Didn't Know About Fallout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qu5Ix_b30w
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The History of Video Games: 1973 (in text form)
We’re well past the early history of video games now. Sure, the games coming out now aren’t crazy in terms of graphics, but things are still going smoothly. Pong was still bringing in unprecedented amounts of money for a coin-operated arcade game. But similar games soon started popping up, in Andy Capp’s Tavern of all places. Even Bushnell’s former employer had created a Pong-like game, called Volly. Atari hadn’t filed the proper patents to protect their game, so there wasn’t really anything they could do about the other games.

While they couldn’t do anything about the clones, they could do more with Pong. Later in 1973, Atari released Pong Doubles, the first four-player video game. It was Pong but allowed 4 people to play. Midway Manufacturing Company, founded in 1958 as a manufacturer of amusement equipment, licensed Pong from Atari to make their first video game arcade game, called Winner.

But 1973 didn’t solely belong to Pong. Another familiar, and beloved, gaming company emerged that year, Konami. Konami, like a lot of the early video game companies, didn’t start out making video games, they were founded 4 years earlier in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair company in Osaka Japan.

In mid-march 1973, Kagemasa Kozuki shifted his business from jukebox’s to manufacturing “amusement machines” for arcades. Despite this new found passion, they wouldn’t even make their first game until 1978, and they wouldn’t see mainstream success until the early 1980’s, so we’ll come back to them later.

Back to Atari, they were at the center of some controversy in 1973 after they released the first maze arcade game, entitled Gotcha. The bulk of the controversy came from the game’s controls, the sticks used to control the game, to some people resembled breasts. Surprisingly, Atari would later, albeit jokingly, say that the sticks resembled phalluses, erect penises. Later of the version shipped with standard analog sticks.

Other games were released in 1973, like Lemonade Stand, the business simulation game, but I can’t go over all of them. So i’ll stick to the more important games from here on out.

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