1977 had sequels such as Super Speed Race and Datsun 280 ZZZAP as well as several new titles such as Space Wars. The year's highest-grossing arcade games were F-1 and Speed Race DX in Japan, and Sea Wolf and Sprint 2 in the United States. The year's best-selling home system was Nintendo's Color TV-Game, which was only sold in Japan.
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In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1977, according to the second annual Game Machine chart. Both arcade video games and electro-mechanical games (EM games) are listed on the same arcade chart. Namco's EM racing game F-1 was the highest-grossing overall arcade game for the second year in a row, followed by Taito's racing video game Speed Race DX (its predecessor Speed Race was distributed as Wheels by Midway Manufacturing in North America).[1][2]
Arcade electro-mechanical games (EM games) | Arcade video games | ||||||||||
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Rank | Title | #1 | #2 | #3 | Points | Rank | Title | #1 | #2 | #3 | Points |
1 | F-1 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 53 | 1 | Speed Race DX | 8 | 5 | 8 | 42 |
2 | Mogura Taiji (Whac-A-Mole) | 5 | 1 | 3 | 20 | 2 | Breakout | 3 | 6 | 4 | 25 |
3 | Shoot Away | 4 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 3 | Scratch | 2 | 5 | 3 | 19 |
4 | Flipper (Pinball)[a] | 3 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 4 | Circus | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
5 | F-1 Mach | 0 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 5 | Road Champion | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
6 | Shooting Trainer | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 6 | Superbowl | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
7 | Laser Clay | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | Sprint 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
8 | Block Cut[b] | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Super High-Way | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
9 | Dead Line | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 9 | Gran Trak 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
10 | Heli-Shooter | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Man T.T. | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
Crane[c] | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Super Speed Race | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Note: Medal games are listed on a separate chart, with Nintendo's EVR Race being the highest-grossing medal game for the second year in a row.[1][2]
In the United States, Play Meter magazine began publishing annual lists of top-grossing arcade games in 1977. The following titles were the top ten highest-earning arcade video games of the year on the annual Play Meter and RePlay charts. Lifetime arcade cabinet sales are also given in a separate column.
Rank | Play Meter[3] | RePlay[4] | Lifetime cabinet sales |
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1 | Sea Wolf | 10,000[5] | |
2 | Sprint 2 | 8,200[6] | |
3 | Breakout | 11,000[6] | |
4 | LeMans | Drag Race | Unknown |
5 | Gun Fight (Western Gun) | Starship 1 | |
6 | Night Driver | Double Play | |
7 | Death Race | Night Driver | |
8 | Tornado Baseball | Bazooka | |
9 | Datsun 280 ZZZAP | Robot Bowl | |
10 | Blockade | Datsun 280 ZZZAP | |
Indy 4 |
Rank | System(s) | Manufacturer(s) | Type | Generation | Sales | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Color TV-Game | Nintendo | Console | First | 800,000 | [7] |
2 | Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) | Atari, Inc. | Console | Second | 250,000 | [8] |
3 | Personal computer (PC) | Various | Computer | — | 150,000 | [9] |
4 | TRS-80 | Tandy Corporation | Computer | 8-bit | 100,000 | [9] |
5 | Altair 8800 | MITS | Computer | 8-bit | 10,000 | [9] |
6 | Commodore PET | Commodore International | Computer | 8-bit | 4,000 | [9] |
7 | Apple II | Apple Inc. | Computer | 8-bit | 600 | [9] |
Sea Wolf, which was another creation of Dave Nutting, did solid business, selling more than 10,000 machines. (A later color version sold an additional 4000 units.)