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Arcade
Don Bluth delivered the hit Laserdisc fantasy arcade game Dragon's Lair this year to massive success. Delays would push his second arcade game to next year, but the success of Dragon's Lair was more than enough to hold over his studio. Bluth was not the only one to bring a cinematic experience to the arcade this year, as Atari was given the rights to create an arcade game based on the Star Wars films. The game is a vector-based simulation of Luke Skywalker's attack on the Death Star, and was incredibly successful.
Other notable titles this year include Tapper, a game about serving drinks at a tavern, and Nintendo's Mario Bros., notable for being the first game to feature Mario's brother Luigi.

Atari VCS
The VCS was, simply put, on its way out. Atari was quick to move to the SuperSystem, where they focused on quality control and more technologically advanced games. As a result, the few games released this year were mostly arcade ports, with the most glaring exception being the SwordQuest series. The concept behind the series was a spiritual successor to the 1979 VCS game Adventure, but also serving as a contest split into four games representing earth, fire, water, and air. Each game came with a comic strip that explained the plot to the game and contained clues that would be crucial to solving a major puzzle in the game. If the player puts an item in the correct room, the game reveals where the clues are found in the comic. Those who submitted the right words from the comic to Atari first for each game were dubbed the winners of each game, and would move on to the second phase of the contest. As of 1983, only the contests for Earthworld and Fireworld have been held.

Intellivision
Mattel had received flak for the Intellivision II model released last year. The name implied it to be a successor to the first Intellivision, but in reality it was just a cosmetic redesign. Just like the VCS, the Intellivision series was kept afloat by a plenty of arcade ports.

RCA Studio II
1983 would see the release of the fourth Master Strategy game, Space Monster Invasion. The premise involves one player controlling Earth's defense force while the other player controls a large army of creatures from an unknown planet. Conflicts between the two factions are settled through events on both the board game and the home arcade. Critics say that while it might not hold up to the first three in quality, it was an enjoyable game in its own right. It was a commercial success, but RCA was slowly losing its stronghold on the home arcade industry thanks to stiff competition.