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1981 Nominees
Arcade/Shooter
 | Tombstone City: Twenty First Century -- Texas Instruments, © 1981 |
 | Castle Wolfenstien -- Muse, © 1981 |
 | Caverns of Mars -- Atari, © 1981 |
 | COMMBAT -- Adventure International, © 1981 |
Action-Based Sports
 | Olympic Decathlon -- Microsoft, ©1981 |
Strategy-Based Sports
 | Computer Baseball - SSI, © 1981 |
RPG
 | Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord -- Sir-Tech, © 1981 |
Adventure
 | Empire of the Over-Mind -- Avalon Hill, © 1981 |
Strategy
 | Robot War -- Muse, © 1981 |
 | President Elect -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | The Warp Factor -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Cartels and Cutthroats -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Crush, Crumble and Chomp -- Epyx © 1981 |
Wargame
 | Guadalcanal Campaign -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Eastern Front - 1941 -- Atari Program Exchange (run by Atari, Inc.), ©
1981 (Chris Crawford) |
 | Southern Command -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Bomb Alley -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Tigers in the Snow -- SSI, © 1981 |
 | Tanktics -- Avalon Hill, © 1981 |
 | Battle For Normandy -- SSI, © 1981 |

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