February 1981

Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

Williams fights copycats Sierra beats Atari and Holograms promise the third dimension

These stories and many more on this episode of the Video Game Newsroom Time Machine

This episode we will look back at the biggest stories in and around the video game industry in February of 1981. As always, we'll mostly be using magazine cover dates, and those are of course always a bit behind the actual events.

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Links: Peter's 7 Minutes in Heaven https://www.mobygames.com/game/arcade/astro-blaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2kStMWBCs

Corrections: https://videogamenewsroomtimemachine.libsyn.com/january-1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Bowser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanders_Associates https://www.mobygames.com/game/adventure https://www.mobygames.com/game/akalabeth-world-of-doom/cover-art/gameCoverId,51963/ https://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,4577/ https://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=1113

1981: Williams defends its rights to Defender Replay February 1981, pg. 6 https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8709

Atari loses preliminary injunction against On-Line System's Jawbreaker https://archive.org/details/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_2.1/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_2.1/page/n3/mode/1up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jawbreaker_(video_game) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY-yUGwLoM0

Atari warns developers against copycats https://archive.org/details/softalkv1n06feb1981/page/21/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/softalkv1n06feb1981/page/37/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-38/page/n15/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-38/page/n16/mode/1up https://archive.org/details/softside-magazine-38/page/n16/mode/1up https://www.mobygames.com/game/missile-command_ https://www.mobygames.com/game/apple2/abm_ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb87qqEhEd0 https://videogamenewsroomtimemachine.libsyn.com/ed-zaron-interview

Mattel introduces the Discovery System Toy and Hobby World, February 1981 pg. 102 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEQXKzrskd4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXSH60XQRs0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Discovery_System https://web.archive.org/web/20160308024718/http://www.ggdb.com/GameByName.aspx?c=Handheld&s=Other&vid=6592 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1981-Sears-Christmas-Book/0558 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1981-Sears-Christmas-Book/0666

Atari announces Hologram system Toy and Hobby World, February 1981 pg. 270 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Cosmos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Invader https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waY3svOHGGI

Siro-Tech launches its first title https://archive.org/details/softalkv1n06feb1981/page/12/mode/1up http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/2020/05/ http://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-return-of-the-sdraziw-of-sir-tech/ https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/wizardry-games

Time Zone will finally hit shelves https://archive.org/details/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_2.1/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_2.1/page/n3/mode/1up https://www.filfre.net/2012/06/time-zone/ https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/sierra-hi-res-adventures https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/scott-adams-questprobe-series

Sirius becomes a corporation https://archive.org/details/softalkv1n06feb1981/page/12/mode/1up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_in_Japan_(Alphaville_song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ3uSL9aeqg

SPI releases Dawn of the Dead boardgame Toy and Hobby World, February 1981 pg. 275 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1773/dawn-dead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcXuy1Jocfw https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

Recommended Links: The History of How We Play: https://thehistoryofhowweplay.wordpress.com/ Gaming Alexandria: https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/ They Create Worlds: https://tcwpodcast.podbean.com/ Digital Antiquarian: https://www.filfre.net/ The Arcade Blogger: https://arcadeblogger.com/ Retro Asylum: http://retroasylum.com/category/all-posts/ Retro Game Squad: http://retrogamesquad.libsyn.com/

Sound Effects by Ethan Johnson of History of How We Play and Enzo Maida.