ITV airs the 78th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Peter Cushing (Dr. Who and the Daleks, Star Wars) guest stars.
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Activision releases the Enduro cartridge for the Atari 2600 home video game system. Competing directly with Atari’s home version of the coin-op racing game Pole Position, Enduro features night driving, different surface reactions (driving on ice), and numerous changes of scenery.
North American Phillips (formerly Magnavox) announces at the summer Consumer Electronics Show that it has put the Odyssey2 video game console’s slightly more advanced successor, the Odyssey3 Command Center, on hold indefinitely – just six months after unveiling it – rather than meeting its July release date. What Phillips doesn’t announce is that active game development on the Odyssey2 has also been halted; the company’s game designers are now focused on a new effort to publish games for non-Odyssey consoles under the Probe 2000 name.
A&M Records releases the fifth and final Police album Synchronicity, featuring the singles “Synchronicity I”, “Synchronicity II”, “Every Breath You Take”, “King Of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger”.
ITV airs the 79th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Andrew Ray guest stars.
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NBC airs the 19th episode of James D. Parriott’s time travel series Voyagers!, starring Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce. Kip Gilman guest stars as Alexander Graham Bell.
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NASA’s Pioneer 10 unmanned spacecraft becomes the first human-made spacecraft to pass beyond the orbit of Pluto, the outermost known planet in the solar system. (Pioneer 10 merely crosses the planet’s orbital path; Pluto itself is in a different part of its orbit, nowhere near Pioneer at the time.) Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and observe the giant planet Jupiter at close range, blazing a trial for other outer solar system robotic exploration missions.
The first episode of The Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Peter Cook guest stars.
Electric Light Orchestra‘s ninth album, the science fiction/time travel concept album Secret Messages, is released, featuring the single “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King”. Originally a double album (slated to include the legendary lost song “Beatles Forever“), Secret Messages is pared down to a single LP late in production, and the resulting orphan tracks become the source of most of the group’s unreleased songs for several box sets to come.
The second flight of Space Shuttle Challenger is a six-day mission to launch two more communications satellites (one for Canada and one for Indonesia), as well as featuring the first American woman in space (20 years behind the Soviet Union’s launch of Valentina Tereshkova). Challenger’s crew for this flight consists of Commander Robert Crippen, Pilot Frederick Hauck, and mission specialists John Fabian, Sally Ride and Norm Thagard.
Recording solo material with elements of funk, R&B and reggae that he deemed unsuitable for the band that made him famous, Split Enz, Tim Finn releases his first solo album, Escapade. Slightly more in line with mainstream musical tastes than Split Enz’s usual quirky output, Escapade quickly makes the top ten – and goes platinum – in Australia, where it is first released.
The second episode of The Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Jim Broadbent and Miriam Margolyes guest star.
Broderbund Software introduces the earliest versions of Doug Smith’s computer game Lode Runner to hit the market. Inspired by the obscure arcade game Space Panic, Lode Runner gives players a weapon that digs rather than directly disabling enemies. A game franchise spanning multiple platforms and decades is spawned.
The ongoing race to improve arcade game graphics takes a sudden turn with the introduction of the first laserdisc-driven game to hit arcades, Dragon’s Lair. Featuring animation by former Disney protege Don Bluth, and a branching structure that depends heavily on players performing the right actions at just the right times, Dragon’s Lair is rigid in game play, but breathtaking in beauty; most arcade operators set the price for a single game at 50 cents just to offset the cost of the machine – and players gladly wait in line just to watch others guide Dirk the Daring through the castle.
ITV airs the 80th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Eleanor Bron guest stars.
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A latecomer to the glut of companies trying to provide software for the Atari 2600 video game system, US Games is closed down by its parent companies, Quaker Oats and Fisher-Price. Barely a year old, and with only 14 titles released, US Games is dubbed “an experiment” – but apparently not an experiment capable of surviving in the rapidly contracting video game market.
Soyuz T-9 lifts off from the Soviet Union, bringing a new long-term crew to space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Lyakhov and Aleksandr Aleksandrov take up residence on Salyut 7 for a 150-day stay, including work aboard the recently-docked Kosmos 1443 temporary space station module. The disastrous failure of the next Soyuz mission to reach orbit means that Lyakhov and Aleksandrov spend their entire stay in orbit with no visits from other crews. They return to Earth on November 23rd.
Activision releases the Robot Tank cartridge for the Atari 2600 home video game system, Activision’s answer to Atari’s home verison of Battlezone. As usual, Activision raises the ante with such features as a night vision mode and multiple targets.
The third episode of The Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. William Russell (Doctor Who) and Arthur Hewlett guest star.
ITV airs the 82nd episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Dick Smothers, Sharon Gless, and Heather Locklear guest star.
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The fourth episode of The Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson.
With the video game industry crash taking its toll, and Atari’s financial status in free-fall, CEO Ray Kassar resigns from the company shortly after a disastrous earnings report showing two straight quarters of multi-million dollar losses – the first Warner Communications suffered since the year before it bought Atari and installed Kassar as CEO. Kassar has also drawn fire for accusations that he sold thousands of shares of his Warner stock minutes prior to the fateful December 1982 announcement that heralded the beginning of the industry’s downturn. Kassar is replaced by former Philip Morris marketing VP James Morgan, who has no prior experience in the consumer electronics field; his previous experience has been in tobacco marketing.
NBC airs the 20th and final episode of James D. Parriott’s time travel series Voyagers!, starring Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce. Julia Duffy guest stars as Nellie Bly, and Michael Ensign guests stars as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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The fifth episode of The Black Adder airs on the BBC, starring Rowan Atkinson. Frank Finlay guest stars.
In Japan, Nintendo launches the Famicom (Family Computer) home video game system, with a few games available at the product’s launch, all of which are ports of popular Nintendo arcade games. Within months, major technical problems are reported and faulty consoles are returned, and Nintendo discovers that a design flaw is responsible. All Famicom units are recalled and refurbished at the company’s expense. In two years, the console will be launched in North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System, almost single-handedly reviving the video game industry around the world.