Under license from Namco, the game’s Japanese originators, Midway Manufacturing introduces the obsession that is Pac-Man to American arcades. Titled Puck-Man in its homeland (due to the yellow character’s resemblance to a round hockey puck), Midway swaps vowels for fear that vandals will turn the letter P into an F on the arcade cabinets. With its cute characters and instinctive game play, Pac-Man catches on immediately, propelling the video game industry into overdrive. 
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Arcade game maker Midway introduces the coin-op video game Rally-X in American arcades. The game, originated in Japan by Namco, is rolled out at a 1980 trade show for amusement and arcade machine operators alongside another Namco/Midway import, Pac-Man. With its more-accessible-to-mainstream-America race car elements, Rally-X is considered the hot favorite of the two, possibly a major hit in the making. (more…)
ITV airs the 22nd episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Jack Weston guest stars.
Soyuz 36 is launched by the Soviet Union on a one-week mission to space station Salyut 6. The crew consists of Apollo-Soyuz veteran Valery Kubasov and the first Hungarian in space, Bertalan Farkas. During the crew’s week-long visit to Salyut 6, they undertake an exhaustingly jam-packed series of experiments before swapping Soyuz vehicles with the long-duration station crew – technically, the Soyuz 36 crew returns in the Soyuz 35 vehicle on June 6th.
Xerox Education Publications releases the novelization Jason of Star Command 1: Mission to the Stars by Ken Sobol, based on the Filmation live-action TV series. (more…)
Peter Gabriel‘s third self-titled solo album is released by Charisma Records (and, in the United States, by Mercury). The album reunites Gabriel with former Genesis bandmate Phil Collins, and features his earliest collaborations with Kate Bush; the single “Games Without Frontiers” becomes a hit in Europe. (more…)
ITV airs the 23rd episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Richard Johnson guest stars.
RSO Records releases The Story of The Empire Strikes Back, an adaptation on LP for younger listeners, recreating and encapsulating the movie’s story with audio from the film, narrated by Malachi Throne (Star Trek). (more…)
An advanced version of a new Soviet Soyuz spacecraft is launched with a crew for the first time. Soyuz T-2 is launched on a three-day mission to visit the Salyut 6 space station, with its primary goal to test a new automated approach and docking system for use with the Salyut space stations. After spending almost four days in orbit, cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev and Vladimir Aksyonov return to Earth; due to their vehicle’s flight test status, the T-2 crew does not swap spacecraft with the Salyut 6/Soyuz 35 crew.
In the journal Science, in an article titled “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction”, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, propose their theory that the 110-mile-wide Chicxulub Crater discovered in the past few decades on the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is evidence of a large asteroid collision with Earth, resulting in the widespread death of the dinosaurs 65 million years before the modern day. A contentious peer review of the published theory follows, with many opposing theories proposed, though the Chicxulub hypothesis is eventually accepted as the “smoking gun” that killed the dinosaurs (the theory of an asteroid collision with Earth causing the extinction had been in circulation since the 1950s; the Alvarez theory is the first to point to a specific geological feature as evidence).
ITV airs the 24th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Robert Lang guest stars.
ITV airs the 25th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. This concludes the second season; future seasons will rely on Dahl stories less frequently.
MCA Records releases an album of songs from the upcoming movie musical Xanadu, with the first side of the LP devoted to songs performed by Electric Light Orchestra, and the other filled with songs by Olivia Newton-John (who also stars in the film). Hit singles from the album include the ELO/ONJ team-up “Xanadu”, Olivia Newton-John’s “Magic”, and ELO’s “All Over The World” and “I’m Alive”. The album is a bigger hit with critics and the public than the movie (which premieres well after the album’s release). (more…)
Atari releases the home version of Night Driver as a cartridge for the Atari 2600. This game is one of the few to use the console’s “paddle” controllers. (more…)
Sega releases the arcade video game Carnival in the United States, developed by their subsidiary Gremlin Industries. (more…)
Atari releases the Adventure cartridge for the Atari VCS home video game system. Designed and programmed by Warren Robinett, Adventure is the first of its kind – a VCS game with a playing field larger than the TV screen, mapped out in the program’s memory – but later becomes better remembered for one “room” in the game’s maze which contains the programmer’s name, one of the earliest video game “Easter eggs.” (more…)
Chicago-based pinball manufacturer Stern makes one of its earliest forays into the booming video game industry with an altered version of the hit game Space Invaders, retitled Astro Invader. The game proves successful enough for Stern to invest in development of original games. (more…)
The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 37 on a week-long mission to visit space station Salyut 6. Part of the Interkosmos series, Soyuz 37 carries an international crew consisting of veteran cosmonaut Viktor Gorbatko and the first Vietnamese space traveler, Pham Tuan. Joint experiments are conducted with the long-duration crew of Salyut 6/Soyuz 35, and the Soyuz 37 crew departs in the Soyuz 36 capsule on July 31st, leaving the station crew with a fresh vehicle with which to make their own return home.
Japanese import Moon Cresta bursts into American arcades, challenging veterans of previous slide-and-shoot space games to dodge its never-ending waves of multi-colored invaders. Also on display is the best metaphor ever for “extra lives”: the player has to assemble a three-stage rocket to fight off the attackers. (more…)
Cinematronics’ vector graphics arcade wargame Armor… Attack hits the market, pitting players against armed ground vehicles and enemy helicopters. (Of course, players have to insert their entire defense budget of 25 cents first, and even then, it’s still down to reflexes.) (more…)
Atari releases the arcade game Asteroids Deluxe in the United States, adding shields and other twists to the familiar game play of the smash hit Asteroids. (more…)
ITV airs the 26th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. This episode opens the third season, the first season in which adaptations of Dahl’s short stories are in the minority, with more original scripts and adaptations of works by other writers.
Ballantine Books publishes the third in a trilogy of original novels based on the Star Wars characters Han Solo and Chewbacca, Han Solo and the Lost Legacy by Brian Daley. All three books chronicle the misadventures of everyone’s favorite Corellian smuggler and his Wookiee sidekick – and avoid clashing with the recently-released sequel The Empire Strikes Back by setting these events before Star Wars itself. 
ITV airs the 27th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Jessie Matthews and Bill Maynard guest star.
ITV airs the 28th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Jeremy Clyde and Dudley Sutton guest star.
Mattel Electronics releases the Space Battle cartridge for the Intellivision home video game system. Early in its development cycle, this game was intended to be a licensed tie-in to Battlestar Galactica. (more…)
ITV airs the 29th episode of Roald Dahl’s anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected, hosted by the author himself and adapted from his short stories. Julian Fellowes (Knights Of God, and future creator of Downton Abbey) guest stars.
The 526th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the first story produced by John Nathan-Turner, who remains as showrunner through the series’ cancellation in 1989, and features a redesigned title sequence and – for the first time in the series’ history – a major revision to the theme tune. Adrienne Corri and Nigel Lambert guest star. Season 18 begins with this episode. (more…)
California Pacific Computer releases the computer role playing game game 
Mattel Electronics releases the Major League Baseball cartridge for the Intellivision home video game system. (more…)
The 527th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the first story produced by John Nathan-Turner. Adrienne Corri and Nigel Lambert guest star.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
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NOAA’s GOES-4 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral into a geosynchronous orbit over 98 degrees west longitude on Earth, a position which will change several times over GOES-4’s career until 1988, allowing it to monitor weather over the continental United States and Europe. In 1988, GOES-4 will become the first satellite to be boosted into a “graveyard” parking orbit using its remaining propellant, leaving it intact in a higher-than-geostationary orbit to avoid collisions with operational satellites.
Midway releases the arcade video game Gorf, a collection of space-shoot-’em-up themed minigames with voice synthesis. The game started its development cycle as a licensed arcade game based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. (more…)
The 528th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the first story produced by John Nathan-Turner. Adrienne Corri and Nigel Lambert guest star.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
Order Earl Green’s book VWORP!1 from theLogBook.com Store
The first episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Horror premieres on ITV. Patricia Quinn (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) and Ian McCulloch (Survivors) guest star in an episode written by Antony Read (Doctor Who).
This series is not yet chronicled in the LogBook. You could join theLogBook team and write this guide or support the webmaster’s efforts to expand the site.