Video Game History - The First Video Game Ever Made?

 Video Game History - The First Video Game Ever Made?

By Ian Blake 

As an avid retro player, I have long been particularly interested in the history of video games. To be more precise, my favorite title is "What is the first video game ever made?"

The question was: What was the first video game ever made?

Answer: However, like most things in life, there is no easy answer to that question. It depends on your definition of the word "video game". Example: When you talk about "first video game", do you mean the first video game for sale, or the first concert game, or maybe the first digital game? Because of this, I made a list of 4-to 5 video games in one way or another that were beginners in the video gaming industry. You will notice that the first video games were not created with the intention of making a profit from them (back in those decades were not Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other nearby video game company). In fact, the idea of ​​a single "video game" or electronic device designed exclusively for "playing games and entertainment" was beyond the imagination of over 99% of people back then. But thanks to this small group of intellectuals who have gone through the first steps of getting into the video game revolution, we are able to enjoy many hours of fun and entertainment today (excluding the creation of millions of jobs over the last forty or 5 years). Without further ado, here I present the "first video game nominees":

The 1940s: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

This is considered (by the official documents) as the first electronic game device ever made. Created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game was compiled in the 1940s and filed in the US Patent in January 1947. The patent was granted in December 1948, making it the first electronic game device to obtain a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As described in the copyright, it was an analog circuit device with a series of knots used to move a dot from a cathode ray tube display. The game was inspired by the way the arrows appeared on the WWII radar, and the purpose of the game was to control the "arrow" to hit the target. In the 1940s it was very difficult (not to say impossible) to display graphics on a Cathode Ray Tube display. Because of this, only a real "arrow" appeared on the screen. Targets and any other images displayed on screen overlays are automatically placed on the display screen. It has been said by many that the famous Atari video game "Missile Command" was created behind this gaming device.

1951: NIMROD

              

NIMROD was the name of a digital computer from the 50s. The creators of this computer were engineers of a UK-based company under the name Ferranti, who had the idea of ​​showcasing the device at the British Festival of 1951 (and later shown again in Berlin).

NIM is a two-player number strategy game, believed to have originated in ancient China. The NIM rules are simple: There are a certain number of groups (or "clusters"), and each group contains a certain number of items (NIM's standard startup list is 3 clusters containing 3, 4, and 5 items respectively). Each player takes turns removing items from the pile, but all the extracts must come from one pile and at least one item must be removed. The player who will take the last item in the last pile loses, however, there is a variation of the game where the player who takes the last item in the last pile wins.

NIMROD used the light panel as a display and was designed and developed for the unique purpose of playing the NIM game, making it the first digital computer device specifically designed to play a game (however the main idea was to show how digital computers work, rather than fun and entertaining). Because it does not have "raster video equipment" as a display (TV set, monitor, etc.) it is not considered by most people as a real "video game" (an electronic game, yes ... video game, no ...). But again, it really depends on your point of view when you talk about "video games".

1952: OXO ("Noughts and Crosses")

This was a digital version of "Tic-Tac-Toe", computer-generated for EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator). It was designed by Alexander S. Douglas of the University of Cambridge, and for a time and was never intended for entertainment, was part of his Ph.D. Thesis "Interaction between man and computer".

The rules of the game are those of the standard Tic-Tac-Toe, a computer-resistant player (no two-player option available). The input method was rotating dialing (such as those found on older phones). The output is shown on a 35x16-pixel cathode-ray tube display. The game was never very popular because the EDSAC computer was only available at the University of Cambridge, so there was no way to install it and play it elsewhere (until many years later when the EDSAC emulator was developed, and at that time many began to succeed. Some good video games where it is also found ...).

1958: Two Tennis

"Two Tennis" was created by William Higinbotham, a physicist who works at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The game was created as a way to have fun, so the laboratory guests had something funny to do while waiting for "visitors' day" (finally! ... a video game created for "just fun" ...). The game was very well designed for its season: the ball behavior was adjusted by a few factors such as gravity, wind speed, location, contact angle, etc .; you should avoid the net-like real tennis and many other things. The video game computer hardware consisted of "joysticks" (two controls with a rotating knot and a push-button) connected to an analog console, and an oscilloscope as a display.

"Two Tennis" is considered by many to be the first video game ever created. But also, many others differ from the idea that "it was a computer game, not a video game" or "the outgoing show was an oscilloscope, not a" raster "of video presentation ... so it is not suitable as an oscilloscope video game". However, you can't please everyone ...

There are also rumors that "Two Tennis" was the inspiration for Atari's hit song "Pong", but these rumors have been strongly denied ... for obvious reasons.

1961: Space warfare!

"Spacewar!" the video game was created by Stephen Russell, with the help of J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Wirtanen, and Dan Edwards of MIT. In the 1960s, MIT was "the right decision" if you wanted to do computer research and development. So these 12-year-old boys used a brand new computer and were expected to arrive on campus soon (DEC PDP-1) and began to think about what kind of hardware testing programs would be offered. When they found out that "Precision CRT Display" would be installed on the system, they immediately decided that "some kind of visual/interactive game" would be the PDP-1 option display software. And after some discussion, it was immediately decided whether it would be a space war game or something similar. After this decision, all other ideas came out very quickly: like the rules of the game, design ideas, planning ideas, and so on.

So after about 200 hours of work, the first version of the game was finally ready for testing. The game consisted of two spacecraft (successfully named players "pencil" and "wedge") arrows shooting at each other with a star in the middle of the display ("pulling" both spacecraft because of its gravitational force). A set of control switches were used to control each spacecraft (rotation, speed, arrows, and "hyperspace"). Each spaceship has a limited amount of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a "panic button", in case there was no other way out (it could "save or break you").

The computer game became an instant success among MIT students and programmers, and they soon began making their own changes to the game system (such as real-time background charts, star / non-star option, background disable option, angular dynamic option, among others). Game code was transferred to many other computer platforms (as the game required a video display, an option hard to find in 1960s programs, it was widely exported to new/cheap DEC programs like PDP-10 and PDP-11).

Spacewar! is not only regarded by many as the first “real” video game (as this game has a video presentation) but also proven as a true precursor to the real arcade games, as well as being the inspiration for many. other video games, consoles, and video game companies (can you say "Atari"? ...). But that’s another story, in-store games and video games were written on a separate page of video game history (so stay tuned for upcoming articles on these topics).

So here are the nominees for the "First Video Game". Who do you think was the first video game to ever be made? Instead of looking at which video game was the first, most importantly created, time. As the creator of "Spacewar!", Stephen Rusell, once said: "If I had not done it, someone would have done something equally exciting or better in the next six months. I just got there first".