What was the first four-player game?

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

What was the first four-player simultaneous game on a console? I cannot seem to find an answer on the Internet or in any of the forums.

My thinking is that it is CheckMate, a built-in game on the Bally Astrocade, which came out in 1978. Warlords on the 2600 came out in 1981, so it can't be that.

Anybody know for sure?

[Gameguy]

Video Olympics came out in 1977 for the Atari 2600, you can play 3-4 players using two sets of paddles.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

Video Olympics came out in 1977 for the Atari 2600, you can play 3-4 players using two sets of paddles.

Thanks, that must be it! Video Olympics was a 2600 launch game in October 1977.

Technically, the Astrocade could be ordered as early as September 1977, but it never arrived until 1978.

[njb12287]

To be correct the Odyssey 200 was the first game to offer in home 4 player games. If you mean as far as a cartridge than i beleive Gameguy is correct

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

To be correct the Odyssey 200 was the first game to offer in home 4 player games. If you mean as far as a cartridge than i beleive Gameguy is correct

Yeah, I should have said first four-player cartridge.

[A Black Falcon]

The Coleco Telstar Arcade also supported 4 players, via the paddles only (two built in, two more via plugin addon), and was technically a cartridge-based system and also came out in 1977... specifically, Cartridge #2 was the compatible cartridge and came with the additional two controllers packed in with it. I have no idea when in the year either the system or it were released, though.

[j_factor]

Sprint 4 came out in 1977 also.