Events

• December 27 - Starcade , a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.

Notable releases

• October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console

• Bally/Midway releases the Tron arcade game before the movie
• Gottlieb releases the Q-Bert arcade game
• Namco releases the Pole Position racing arcade game; releases the Dig Dug arcade game (licenses it to Atari)
• SEGA releases the Zaxxon arcade game
• Warner Communications' Atari releases the Quantum arcade game.
• Williams Electronics releases the Joust arcade game; releases the Robotron: 2084 arcade game
• Parker Brothers releases (Atari 2600 and Intellivision), the first Star Wars video game.

Hardware

• Atari releases the Atari 5200 home console.
• Acorn Computers Ltd releases the BBC Micro home computer, which brought the game Elite to prominence
• Astrocade Inc. (formerly Astrovision ) releases the Astrocade console
• Coleco Industries releases the Gemini home console
• Commodore releases the VIC-20 home computer
• Emerson releases the Arcadia 2001 home console
• Entrex releases the Adventure Vision home console
• GCE (General Consumer Electronics ) releases the Vectrex home console
• Milton Bradley Company releases the Microvision home console
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX Spectrum home computer, at the time the most common gaming computer in the UK
• Coleco releases the Colecovision home console

Business

• New companies: Electronic Arts Inc., Lucasfilm Games, MicroProse Software, Inc., Enix Corporation