1972Consoles
Magnavox Odyssey launches
The first commercial home video game console arrives, bringing interactive play to television sets for the first time.
Milestone: Established the home console as a product category.
Explore by Decade
Gaming in the 1970s
The birth of the industry — arcades, Pong, and the first home consoles.
Key Events
1972Games
Atari releases Pong
Pong becomes the first commercially successful arcade video game and launches Atari as an industry force.
Milestone: Kick-started the commercial arcade industry.
1977Consoles
Atari 2600 released
The cartridge-based Atari 2600 popularizes interchangeable games and dominates the home market.
1978Games
Space Invaders ignites arcade craze
Taito's Space Invaders sparks a global arcade phenomenon and reportedly causes a coin shortage in Japan.
Consoles of the 1970s
Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox
- Released
- 1972
- Units Sold
- 350,000
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- CPU
- Discrete transistor logic (no microprocessor)
- Display
- Analog overlays on TV
- Media
- Game cards / circuit boards
- Launch Price
- $99.99
The world's first commercial home video game console, predating the Atari era and proving that interactive entertainment could live in the living room.
Table Tennis
1970s · Discontinued 1975
Atari 2600
Atari
- Released
- 1977
- Units Sold
- 30 million
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- CPU
- MOS 6507 @ 1.19 MHz
- Memory
- 128 bytes RAM
- Media
- ROM cartridges
- Launch Price
- $199
Popularized interchangeable game cartridges and the microprocessor-based console, becoming the defining platform of early home gaming before the 1983 crash.
Pac-ManSpace InvadersPitfall!
1970s · Discontinued 1992