Continuing the share, my games of the 80s, maybe a few others if I'm into it. This is 1981.
The first video game magazine, Electronic Games, was founded and ran until '97. It's not EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly - '88-'09) which I read in the late 90s. The only magazine I read in the 80s was Dragon ('76-'13), a DnD magazine.
Arcade
Some big new titles I played in my local arcades were: Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Galaga, and Tempest.
One I'd love to play today is Space Dungeon, a twin-stick shooter by Taito. I used to have it on the PSP collection Taito Legends Power-Up but I don't have that system anymore and I don't see anyplace else you can play it. Rats!
Home Console
Atari 2600: Activision's Tennis was a frequent play of mine. I used to play sports games of the sports I was playing in the field, Baseball and Tennis. Other video games were Missile Command, Freeway, Kaboom!, Asteroids, Super Breakout and my favorite, Stampede.
Intellivision: Astrosmash and Space Armada. I didn't play these much at my friend's place but I played them at least once there.
PC
Ultima, Wizardry and Castle Wolfenstein came out. I only played Wizardry and not until '84 or so when my parents bought an Apple IIc.
This is the year of the IBM PC and probably when my Aunt and Uncle got one and I played Zork at their place at Thanksgiving for the first time.
Handheld
The gold Game & Watch with an alarm clock came out. The first one was silver in 1980. These were apparently in the U.S. at this time but I never came across one, or I just never considered getting one. I'd kind of like one now though.
Board Games
Axis & Allies, a kind of simplified WWII strategy game to be more accessible than the usual war board game with their huge number of rules. I knew of it, just didn't play it, but I picked up a rerelease a few months back at a Goodwill and will give it a run.
Car Wars was a pen and paper game where you built battle cars and fought against other players in a post apocalyptic world like that of The Road Warrior. I played this is in college after a roommate showed it to me around 1988 or so.
Donkey Kong got a board game. I noticed by scrolling through board game lists that a lot of games, movies, books and tv shows got board game treatments at least through the 90s. I'm always surprised at what got a board game version.
Film
1981 is memorable to me, especially in film because that was the year of Excalibur, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, Stripes, Cannonball Run, For Your Eyes Only, Time Bandits, Clash of the Titans, History of the World Pt. 1, Dragonslayer, Escape from New York, Eye of the Needle, Heavy Metal, An American Werewolf in London, Das Boot, The Evil Dead, and Pennies From Heaven just to mention the ones I liked! Think about how many video games came out of these films in later years! It was a good year for fantasy, scifi, adventure and comedy flicks. They're all etched into my mind because it was the first years I started going to films more often. I still had to go to films with my dad for stuff like Excalibur though, but it was a thing to try and sneak into films you weren't old enough for too.
That's quite a year for games.
Don't forget Ms. Pac-Man was in 1981!
You know, Nintendo always tells us how popular Game & Watch was, but I don't remember seeing one until the NES was already out. And the only ones I remember seeing before G&W Gallery came out was Super Mario Bros., Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and the Zelda G&W.
There's always something I'll miss. I liked Ms. Pac-Man more than the original.
Yeah, I didn't even know about G&W until I saw the G&W collections for GBA!
Oh dang, what happened to your PSP??
I've heard of Car Wars! Sounds like a fun game. It's just so hard to get into pen and paper stuff these days.
I traded it and all my games. I had trouble getting the UMD discs to read consistently. The door seemed a little flimsy. I always had problems with it. I guess I didn't like worrying about it breaking all the time. Plus the batteries would wear out and expand. I used to plug mine in instead.
I only played Car Wars 'cause my roommate in college would play it with me. It's not for solo play, even though I used to play Squad Leader solo all the time. I've been looking for a copy of Car Wars. I think it was reissued recently. I remember seeing it at Barnes & Noble once - should've bought it.