Documented to the year
Three finished machines create a market for personal computers
The Apple II, Commodore PET and Tandy TRS-80 all reached buyers in 1977, each sold as a working product rather than a kit. Games spread through user groups, magazines and cassette tapes almost immediately.
All three reached buyers during 1977; the collective nickname was applied later
Entry 32 of 164 in the record
What happened
Owning a computer before 1977 generally meant assembling one, flipping switches and reading answers off lamps. The three machines that arrived that year each shipped ready to use, with a keyboard, a programming language built in and a television or monitor for output. The Apple II offered color, sound and expansion slots. Commodore's PET packed screen, keyboard and cassette drive into one metal case. Tandy sold the TRS-80 across Radio Shack counters in small towns nationwide, which mattered more than any specification.
Games appeared before anyone had planned a way to sell them. Magazines printed listings for readers to type in, user groups swapped cassettes at monthly meetings, and one-person operations mailed tapes in plastic bags with photocopied instructions. Each machine's quirks shaped its software, so a game written for one was rewritten rather than ported. Out of that cottage activity came the first computer game publishers, several founded by married couples working from home, and a distribution system built on hobby shops and mail order.
The world at the time
Microprocessors had become cheap enough by 1977 for a small firm to build a computer around one, and hobbyist clubs in California and elsewhere were already full of people who wanted to. Consumer expectations were set by calculators and stereo equipment. Retailers had no idea how to sell a computer, which is why Radio Shack's existing store network proved so effective.
Historical significance
A second platform for games came into being alongside consoles, with entirely different economics: no licensing, no manufacturing approval, and a machine the buyer could program. That openness produced genres consoles could not support for years, including simulation, strategy and adventure, and it created the independent developer as a category.
What it changed
The three machines and their successors built the software industry's first mass channel, and by the early 1980s inexpensive home computers were outselling consoles in several markets. Their descendants absorbed players displaced by the console collapse of 1983, and the personal computer has remained the platform where the industry's least commercial ideas get tried.
Sources consulted
- Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer
- Personal computer
- Replay: The History of Video Games
Listed sources support the facts in this entry. Wording throughout is original to this archive. Read more about how entries are researched in sources and methodology.
Last reviewed September 2, 2026. Report a correction