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Events

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

Notable releases

Q*bert

• October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console.
• Activision releases Barnstorming and Megamania by Steve Cartwright for the Atari 2600.
• Bally/Midway releases the Tron arcade game before the movie
• Gottlieb releases the Q-Bert arcade game.
• Atari releases E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, possibly the biggest flop in video game history and one of two major video game releases (along with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man) that helped spark the video game crash of 1983.
• Mattel releases Utopia by Don Daglow for Intellivision; Utopia was the first sim game.
• Namco releases Dig Dug, Pole Position, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Man Plus and Xevious.
• SEGA releases the Zaxxon arcade game.
• Starpath releases Dragonstomper by Stephen Landrum (the only RPG for the Atari 2600) and Escape From The Mindmaster also for the Atari 2600.
• Warner Communications' Atari releases the Quantum arcade game.
• Williams Electronics releases the arcade games Joust (designed by Barry Oursler, art by Constantino Mitchell) and Robotron: 2084 (designed by Eugene Jarvis).
• Parker Brothers releases Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Atari 2600 and Intellivision), the first Star Wars video game.
• Edu-Ware releases Prisoner 2 for the Apple II, Atari, and IBM PC.
• Sir-tech Software, Inc. releases Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds, the second scenario in the Wizardry series

Hardware

• Atari releases the Atari 5200 home console.
• Astrocade Inc. (formerly Astrovision) releases the Astrocade console.
• Coleco Industries releases the Gemini home console, an Atari 2600 clone.
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Commodore 64 home computer.
• Emerson releases the Arcadia 2001 home console.
• Entrex releases the Adventure Vision home console.
• General Consumer Electronics releases the Vectrex home console.
• Sinclair Research releases the ZX Spectrum home computer, which would become the most popular gaming computer of its generation in the UK.
• Coleco releases the ColecoVision home console.

Business

• New companies: Electronic Arts Inc., Lucasfilm Games, MicroProse Software, Inc., Enix Corporation.
• Ultimate Play The Game (later to be known as Rare) is founded.