Notable video games around in 1979 included Asteroids, Galaxian, Atari Football, Missile Command, Lunar Lander, Lunar Rescue, Head On and Heiankyo Alien. Arcades offered space shooters, sports, racing and maze games. Space Invaders was also a familiar arcade hit, but it debuted in 1978—not 1979. These are representative examples, not a complete worldwide release list.
Notable arcade games from 1979
Arcades were the most visible setting for many of the year’s games. The examples below show how varied the field was beyond space combat.
- Asteroids: Atari’s arcade game was released in November 1979. Players steered a triangular ship among moving space rocks. The Strong National Museum of Play traces its inspiration to Spacewar (1962) and Computer Space (1971). The Strong’s history of Asteroids.
- Galaxian: A 1979 Namco title; the Museum of the Moving Image notes that Bally/Midway manufactured it in the United States.
- Atari Football and Missile Command: Both are listed as Atari 1979 games in the Museum of the Moving Image collection.
- Lunar Lander and Lunar Rescue: Both appear in the Museum of the Game’s index for 1979.
- Head On and Heiankyo Alien: The same index classifies these as maze or labyrinth games, offering a very different kind of challenge from a shooter.
The Museum of the Game’s 1979 arcade-game index also includes titles across racing, sports, shooters and maze games. Its entries are useful examples, not proof of a complete global release calendar.
Why Space Invaders belongs in the picture—but not as a 1979 debut
Space Invaders was a major arcade presence around 1979, but the National Science and Media Museum dates its introduction to arcades to 1978. The Museum of the Moving Image also includes it in a collection of games dated to 1979; that listing does not make 1979 its debut year. The National Science and Media Museum’s video-game history.
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Arcade games and home consoles were different parts of the story
A game’s arcade release date does not tell you when it appeared on a home console. Atari’s Video Computer System (VCS), later commonly called the Atari 2600, had launched in 1977 with nine games. Mattel produced the Intellivision console in 1979. Those dates describe the hardware, not the release year of every game available for each system. The National Science and Media Museum’s account of early consoles.
So, if you are asking what you could play on an Atari in 1979, the hardware’s presence is established, but the arcade titles above should not automatically be treated as 1979 Atari 2600 releases. The available historical listings cited here document arcade examples and console context, not a complete, verified catalog of games for every home system that year.
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How to read a 1979 game list
- Check whether a title was new that year or already popular. Asteroids has a specific November 1979 release date; Space Invaders dates to 1978.
- Separate genre from venue. Space shooters shared arcades with sports, driving and maze games.
- Treat year indexes as representative records. Release dates could vary by region, and the sources cited here do not establish every game’s date across every market.
For another view of the hardware’s history, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum documents an Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge. It is a home adaptation connected to the arcade game, not the original 1979 arcade cabinet. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection record.
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