History of Nintendo
In 1972, the first commercially available video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, had a light gun accessory, the Shooting Gallery. This was the first involvement of Nintendo in video games. According to Martin Picard in the "International Journal of Computer Game Research": "in 1971, Nintendo had -- even before the marketing of the first home console in the United States -- an alliance with the American pioneer Magnavox to develop and produce optoelectronic guns for the Odyssey (released in 1972), since it was similar to what Nintendo was able to offer in the Japanese toy market in 1970s".
History of Western role-playing video games
The earliest role-playing video games were created in the mid-to-late 1970s, as offshoots of early university mainframe text-based RPGs that were played on PDP-10, PLATO and Unix-based systems. These included "Dungeon", written in 1975 or 1976, "pedit5", created in 1975, and "dnd", also from 1975. These early games were inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games, particularly "Dungeons & Dragons", which was first published in 1974, and J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Some of the first graphical computer RPGs (CRPGs) after "pedit5" and "dnd" included "orthanc" (1978), which was named after Saruman's tower in "Lord of the Rings", "avathar" (1979), later renamed "avatar", "oubliette" (1977), named after the French word for "dungeon", "moria" (1975), "dungeons of degorath", "baradur", "emprise", "bnd", "sorcery", and "dndworld". All of these were developed and became popular on the PLATO system during the late 1970s, in large part due to PLATO's speed, fast graphics, and large number of players with access to its nationwide network of terminals. PLATO was a mainframe system that supported multiple users and allowed them to play simultaneously, a feature not commonly available to owners of home personal computer systems at the time. These were followed by games on other platforms, such as "Temple of Apshai", written in 1979 for the TRS-80 and followed by two add-ons; "" (1980), which gave rise to the well-known "Ultima" series; "Wizardry" (1981), and "Sword of Fargoal" (1982). Games of this era were also influenced by text adventures such as "Colossal Cave Adventure" (1976) and "Zork" (1976); early MUDs, tabletop wargames such as "Chainmail" (1971), and sports games such as "Strat-O-Matic".