As an avid retro-gamer, I’ve always been particularly interested in the history of video games. Even more specifically, a subject that I am very passionate about is “Which was the first video game ever made?”... So, I started a deep investigation on this subject (and making this article, the first in a series of articles that will cover in detail all video gaming history).
The question was: Which was the first video game ever made?
The answer: Well, as a lot of things in life, there is no easy answer to that question. It depends on how do you define of the phrase “video game”. For example: When you talk about “the first video game”, do you mean the first commercial video game, or the first console game, or maybe the first digitally programmed game? Because of this, I made a list of 4-5 video games that in one way or another were the beginners of the video gaming industry. Note that the first video games were not created with the idea of making them profitable (back in those decades there was no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other video game company in existence). Actually, just the idea of a “video game” or an electronic device which only purpose was “playing games and having fun” was above the imagination of more than 99% of the population back in those days. But thanks to this small group of innovators who walked the first steps into the video gaming revolution, we are able to enjoy many hours of fun and entertainment today (keeping aside the creation of millions of jobs during the past 4 or 5 decades). Without further ado, here are the “first video game nominees”:
1940s: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
This is considered (and has been documented) as the first electronic game device ever created. It was designed by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game was assembled in the 40s decade and submitted for an US Patent in January 1947. The patent was approved December 1948, which means that it is also the first electronic game system to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As mentioned in the patent, it was an analog circuit device which used various knobs to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube display. This game was created after how missiles appeared in WWII radars, and the idea of the game was just controlling a “missile” in order to hit a target. In the 1940s it was virtually impossible to show graphics in a CRT display. Because of this, just the actual “missile” appeared on the display. The target and any other graphics appeared on screen overlays manually placed over the display screen. It’s been said by many that this game was the inspiration of Atari’s hit video game “Missile Command”.
1951: NIMROD
NIMROD was the name of a digital computer device from the 1950s. It was created by the engineers of an UK-based company under the name Ferranti, with the purpose of displaying the computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain (and later it was also displayed in Berlin).
NIM is a two-player numerical game of strategy, which could be originated in the ancient China. NIM game rules are easy: There are a certain number of “heaps” (groups of objects), and each group contains a certain number of objects (a usual starting array of NIM is 3 heaps containing 3, 4, and 5 objects respectively). Each player take turns removing objects from the heaps, as long as all removed objects in a turn are from a single heap and at least one object is removed. The player to take the last object from the last heap is the loser, but there is a different version of the game where the player to take the last object of the last heap wins.
NIMROD used a lights panel as a display and was designed and made with the unique purpose of playing a game called NIM, so it is the first digital computer device to be designed exclusively for playing a game (although the main idea was showing and illustrating how a digital computer works, rather than to entertain and have fun with it). Because it doesn’t have “raster video equipment” as a display (a TV set, monitor, etc.) it is not considered by many people as a real “video game” (an electronic game, yes… a video game, no…). But once again, it really depends on the definition given to a “video game”.
1952: OXO (“Noughts and Crosses”)
This was a digital version of “Tic-Tac-Toe”, created for an EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) computer. It was invented by Alexander S. Douglas from the University of Cambridge, and one more time it was not made for entertainment, it was part of his PhD Thesis on “Interactions between human and computer”.
The game was played under the rules of a common Tic-Tac-Toe game, player against the computer (no 2-player option was available). The input method was a rotary dial (similar to the ones in old telephones). The output was showed in a 35x16-pixel CRT display. This game was never very famous because the EDSAC computer was only available at the University of Cambridge, so there was no way to install it and play it in other places (until a long time later when an EDSAC emulator was created and distributed, and by then many other great games where available also…).
1958: Tennis for Two
“Tennis for Two” was designed by William Higinbotham, a scientist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. It was assembled as a way of entertainment, so laboratory visitors had something funny to do during their wait on “visitors day” (at last!... a video game that was created “just for fun”…) . The game was pretty well designed for its era: the ball behavior was modified by many factors like gravity, wind speed, position and angle of contact, and so on; there was a net that you had to avoid, and many other things. The video game hardware also had two “joysticks” (two controllers with a rotational knob and a push button each) connected to an analog console, and an oscilloscope for output display.
Many people consider “Tennis for Two” the first video game ever created. But as before, other people differ from that idea as they said that “it was a computer game, not a video game” or “the output display was an oscilloscope, not a “raster” video display… so it does not qualify as a video game”. But well… you can’t win them all…
It’s been said that “Tennis for Two” was the inspiration for Atari’s mega hit “Pong”, but this rumor has never been supported by Atari representatives… for obvious reasons.
1961: Spacewar!
“Spacewar!” electronic game was programmed by Stephen Russell, with the assistance of J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Witanen and Dan Edwards from MIT. By the decade of the 60s, MIT was “the place to be” if you wanted to do computer research and development. So this group of ingenious guys took advantage of a brand-new computer that would be arriving campus very soon (a DEC PDP-1) and started planning on what kind of hardware testing programs could be designed. When they discovered that a “Precision CRT Display” would be part of the hardware for the computer, they instantly decided that “some sort of visual/interactive game” would be the demo-ware of choice for the PDP-1. And after some discussion, it was quickly decided to be a spaceship fighting game or something similar. After this was decided, all other ideas started coming out pretty quick: like game rules, designing concepts, creative ideas, etc..
So after about 200 man/hours of work, the initial version of the game was finally finished. The game showed two spaceships (affectively named by players “pencil” and “wedge”) shooting missiles at each other with a sun at the center of the display (which keeps “pulling” both spaceships because of its gravitational force). A set of control switches was used to control each spaceship (for rotation, speed, missiles, and “hyperspace”). Each spaceship have a limited amount of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a “panic button”, in case everything else fails (it could either “save you or break you”).
The computer game was an instant success between MIT students and programmers, and soon they started programming their own changes to the game program (like real star charts for background, center star “on/off” option, angular momentum option, disable background, etc.). The game program was emulated to several other computer platforms (since the game required a video display, a hard to find option in 1960s systems, it was mostly emulated to newer/cheaper DEC computers like the PDP-10 and PDP-11).
Spacewar! is not only considered by many as the first “real” video game (since this game does have a video display), but it also have been proved to be the true predecessor of the first arcade game, as well as serving as inspiration of several other video games, consoles, and even video gaming companies (can you say “Atari”?...). But that’s another story, arcade games and console video games were written in a different page of the history of video games (so come back for future articles on these subjects).
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So there they are, the “First Video Game” nominees. Which one do you think is the first video game ever made?... If you ask me, I think all previously mentioned games were revolutionary for its era, and must be credited as a whole as the starters of the video gaming revolution. More than trying to decide which one was the first video game, what should be important is that they were created, and that’s the bottom line. As the creator of “Spacewar!”, Stephen Rusell, once said: “If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first”.
*** Ian Blake is a freelance writer/blogger from the Planet Earth. You may find similar articles at The History of Video Games Blog at ---> http://www.retro-videogames.com
