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1978 saw the release of new video games such as Space Invaders. The year is considered the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. The year's highest-grossing video game was Taito's arcade game Space Invaders, while the best-selling home system was the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS).
Financial performance
Highest-grossing arcade games
Space Invaders was the top-grossing video game worldwide in 1978. The following table lists the top-grossing arcade games of 1978 in Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! Market
! Title
! Gross revenue
! Inflation
! Cabinet sales
! Developer
! Distributor
! Genre
! class="unsortable" |
|-
| Japan
| Space Invaders
| $670,000,000
|-
! Worldwide
! Space Invaders
!
!
!
! Taito
!
! Shoot 'em up
!
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="6" | Arcade video games
! colspan="6" |Arcade electro-mechanical games (EM games)
|-
! Rank
! Title
! #1
! #2
! #3
! Points
! Rank
! Title
! #1
! #2
! #3
! Points
|-
| 1
| Space Invaders
| 48
| 7
| 4
|
|1
| F-1
| 2
| 4
| 0
|
|-
| 2
| Super Speed Race V
| 1
| 18
| 8
|
| 2
| Shoot Away
| 0
| 2
| 7
|
|-
| 3
|
| 4
| 9
| 8
|
|3
|
| 1
| 3
| 1
|
|-
| 4
| Scratch
| 3
| 4
| 5
|
|4
| Mogura Taiji (Whac-A-Mole)
| 1
| 2
| 2
|
|-
| 5
| Speed Race DX
| 3
| 4
| 3
|
| 5
| Submarine
| 0
| 3
| 2
|
|-
| 6
| Cosmic Monsters
| 2
| 3
| 0
|
| 6
|
| 1
| 1
| 1
|
|-
| 7
| Acrobat
| 1
| 2
| 2
|
| 7
|
| 0
| 1
| 1
|
|-
| 8
| Gee Bee
| 1
| 1
| 3
|
| 8
|
| 1
| 0
| 0
|
|-
| 9
| Super Breakout
| 0
| 2
| 2
|
| rowspan="2" |9
| Clay Champ
| 0
| 0
| 2
|
|-
| 10
| (Sankyo)
| 0
| 1
| 2
|
|
| 0
| 1
| 0
|
|}
The following titles were the highest-grossing games on each Game Machine arcade chart. Nintendo's EVR Race was the highest-grossing medal game for the third year in a row.
|
| 100,000
| Taito
| Shoot 'em up
|
|-
| Medal game
| EVR Race
|
|
|
| Nintendo
| Racing
|
! RePlay
|-
|Bandai Baseball
|Bandai
|Handheld
|
|
|
|-
|3
|TRS-80
|Tandy Corporation
|Computer
|8-bit
|150,000
|
|-
|4
|Commodore PET
|Commodore International
|Computer
|8-bit
|30,000
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |6
|IMSAI 8080
|IMS Associates, Inc.
|Computer
|8-bit
|5,000
| rowspan="2" |
- In North America, the first regular consumer-oriented column about video games, "Arcade Alley" in Video magazine, is penned by Bill Kunkel, Arnie Katz, and Joyce Worley.
Business
- New companies: Automated Simulations (later Epyx), Koei, Muse, Supersoft, Synergistic, U.S. Games.
- The American arcade game market earns a revenue of $1 billion (equivalent to $ in ).
- The American home video game market is worth $200 million.
Notable releases
Games
;Arcade
- June – Taito releases Space Invaders in Japan. The worldwide success of Space Invaders marks the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. It sets the template for the fixed shooter genre and influences most subsequent shooters.
- October – Midway gives Space Invaders a wide release in North America.
- October – Namco releases their first arcade video game, Gee Bee, in Japan.
- Atari, Inc. popularizes the trackball controller with Football.
- Atari, Inc. releases Super Breakout, the multi-directionall scrolling game Fire Truck, Canyon Bomber, and Avalanche. Avalanche later inspires Activision's Kaboom!
- Konami Corporation releases their first arcade video game, Block Game.
- Nintendo releases their first arcade video game, Computer Othello.
;Computer
- The book BASIC Computer Games, microcomputer edition, is released.
Hardware
thumb|[[Bally Astrocade]]
;Computer
- Elektor releases the TV Games Computer.
;Console
- December – Magnavox launches the Odyssey².
- APF Electronics releases the APF-M1000.
- Bally/Midway releases the Bally Professional Arcade.
- Entreprex releases the Apollo 2001.
- Interton releases the VC 4000.
See also
- 1978 in games