Category
page 11981 video games

Donkey Kong
1981 arcade game

Galaga
is a 1981 fixed shooter video game developed and published by Namco for Japanese and European arcades; it was distributed by Midway Manufacturing in North America. It is the sequel to 1979's Galaxian, and the second game in the Galaxian series. Controlling a starship, the player is tasked with destroying the Galaga forces in each stage while avoiding enemies and projectiles. Some enemies can capture a player's ship via a tractor beam, which can be rescued by another ship to give the player a "dual fighter" with additional firepower.

Frogger
is a 1981 action video game developed by Konami and published by Sega for arcades. It was released in North America by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct five frogs to their homes by dodging traffic on a busy road, then crossing a river by jumping on floating logs, turtles, and alligators.

Centipede
1981 video game

Castle Wolfenstein
1981 video game developed by Muse Software

Defender
1981 video game

Qix
( ) is a 1981 puzzle video game developed and published by Taito for arcades. Designed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer, Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division (another is Zoo Keeper). At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, containing the Qix, an abstract stick-like entity that performs graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the rectangle. The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness
1981 computer game

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
1981 video game

Tempest
Atari vector arcade game from 1981

3D Monster Maze
1981 video game

Zaxxon
is a 1981 scrolling shooter video game developed by Sega with assistance from Ikegami Tsushinki and published by Sega for Japanese and European arcades; it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin in North America. The player pilots a ship through two heavily defended space fortresses, and the outer space areas between them, to confront the Zaxxon robot at the end of the second fortress.

Scramble
1981 arcade video game

Stargate
1981 arcade game

Kaboom!
1981 video game
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Gorf
Gorf is a 1981 fixed shooter video game developed by Dave Nutting Associates and published by Midway Manufacturing for arcades. It features five distinct levels, the first of which is based on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian. The game makes use of synthesized speech for the Gorfian robot which taunts the player, powered by a speech chip. Gorf allows the player to buy two additional lives per quarter before starting the game, for a maximum of seven lives.

Softporn Adventure
1981 video game

DONKEY.BAS
Donkey, often known by its 8.3 filename DONKEY.BAS, is a video game written in 1981 and included with early versions of the IBM PC DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a top-down driving game in which the player must avoid hitting donkeys. The game was written by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and early employee Neil Konzen.

Jungler
Jungler is an arcade maze game developed by Konami and released in 1981. Distributed by Stern in the United States beginning in 1982, the game has players controlling a multi-segmented creature attempting to destroy similar enemy creatures by either shooting them or eating them. A sequel titled Battle Jungler was planned for the PC Engine on 1992, but was cancelled.

New Rally-X
1981 video game

Super Cobra
1981 video game

Radar Rat Race
1981 video game

Route-16
is a 1981 maze video game developed and published by Sun Electronics for arcades. The game was released by Tehkan (not yet a video game developer by its release) in Europe and Centuri in North America. It was ported to the Arcadia 2001 console. An enhanced version was released in Japan as Route-16 Turbo for the Famicom in 1985.

Wizard of Wor
1981 video game

Bosconian
is a 1981 multidirectional shooter video game developed and published by Namco for Japanese and European arcades; it was distributed by Midway Manufacturing in North America. The goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying enemy missiles and bases using a ship which shoots simultaneously both the front and back.

Lady Bug
1981 video game

Asteroids Deluxe
1981 video game

Make Trax
1981 video game

Mouse Trap
1981 video game

RobotWar
RobotWar is a programming game written by Silas Warner. This game, along with the companion program RobotWrite, was originally developed in the TUTOR programming language on the PLATO system in the 1970s. Later the game was commercialized and adapted for the Apple II and published by Muse Software in 1981. The premise is that in the distant future of 2002, war was declared hazardous to human health, and now countries settled their differences in a battle arena full of combat robots. As the manual states, "The task set before you is: to program a robot, that no other robot can destroy!"

Vanguard
1981 video game

Crazy Kong
1981 video game

Eastern Front (1941)
computer game for the Atari 8-bit series created by Chris Crawford in 1981

Round-Up
1981 video game

Tennis
1981 video game

005
1981 video game

Armor Attack
1980 video game

Jump Bug
1981 video game

Sabotage
1981 computer game

Omega Race
1982 video game

Computer Baseball
1981 video game

Threshold
1981 video game

Star Strike
1981 video game

Fantasy
1981 video game

Pelé's Soccer
1980 association football video game

Warlords
1980 video game

Colony 7
1981 video game

Venture
1981 video game

Sky Skipper
1981 arcade game

Asylum
series of adventure video game of the early 1980s

Zarzon
Zarzon (, ), also known as , is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade game developed and manufactured by SNK and licensed to Taito for North American release. The gameplay is a variation of Space Invaders.

Astro Blaster
1981 video game

Lock 'n' Chase
video game published by Data East

Laser Blast
1981 video game

Apple Panic
1981 video game

Jawbreaker
1981 video game

Cosmic Avenger
1981 video game

Astrosmash
Astrosmash is a fixed shooter video game for the Intellivision console, designed by John Sohl and released by Mattel Electronics in 1981. The player uses a laser cannon to destroy falling meteors, bombs, and other targets.