The Home Computer Hybrids: Atari, TI, and the FCC

Summary

It’s difficult to say with certainty what the most popular titles or genres were in the early years of computer games. Many of the games were sold directly by mail-order, or through tiny single-proprietor stores, and no software trade organization was collecting comprehensive sales statistics. In 1980, the magazine Softalk began running a list of the top-thirty best-selling Apple II programs based on retailer surveys. It did not (and could not) provide absolute sales figures, but, although VisiCalc sat at the top, twenty-two of the titles were games. Most were CRPG, adventure, and arcade action games (including Automated Simulations’ Temple of Apshai, Sierra’s Mystery House, and a maze game called Head On). Microsoft Flight Simulator and the chess game Sargon II took second and fourth position, while the wargames Computer Bismarck and Computer Ambush, from Strategic Simulations, Inc. (SSI), could be found in the twenties.[1] The earliest glimpse of hard numbers comes from a 1982 survey of software publishers by Computer Gaming World. Some firms refused to release sales numbers, but the highest selling title among those who did, the (now utterly forgotten) action game K-RAZY Shoot-Out, had sold 35,000 copies to date. Adventure and CRPG games made a strong showing: Infocom claimed 32,000 sales for Zork, Automated Simulations 30,000 for Temple of Apshai¸ Sierra 25,000 for The Wizard and the Princess, Sir-Tech’s Wizardry came in at 24,000 and Richard Garriot’s Ultima at 20,000.[2] Softalk software sales ranking, October 1980 Computer Gaming World industry sales figures, September/October 1982 However, within the parallel universe of home video games, which had grown up simultaneously with but independently of personal computers, selling 30,000 units would hardly be something to brag about in 1982. Sales for hit video games regularly hit six or seven figures—Atari’s 1982 E.T., for example, which is retrospectively considered a flop because of excess production, nonethele...