The History of Video Games

A video game is a game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device. However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms are broad in range, from large computers to small handheld devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use.

The input device normally used to manipulate video games is called a game controller, which varies across platforms. For instance, a dedicated console controller might consist of only a button and a joystick, or feature a dozen buttons and one or more joysticks. Early personal computer based games historically relied on the availability of a keyboard for gameplay, or more commonly, required the user to purchase a separate joystick with at least one button to play. Many modern computer games allow the player to use a keyboard and mouse simultaneously.

Beyond the common element of visual feedback, video games have utilized other systems to provide interaction and information to the player. Chief examples of these are sound reproduction devices, such as speakers and headphones, and an array of haptic peripherals, such as vibration or force feedback.

As an avid retro-gamer, for quite a long time I've been very 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 created?"... So, I started an exhaustive investigation on this matter (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 created?

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 the phrase "video game". For example: When you talk about "the first video game", do you mean the first video game that was commercially-made, or the first console game, or maybe the first digitally programmed game? Because of this, I made a short list of video games that in some way were the pioneers of video gaming industry. You will notice that the first video games were not created with the idea of getting any profit from them (back in those days there was no Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Sega, Atari, or any other video game company in existence). In fact, the sole 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 of that era. But thanks to this small group of geniuses who took the first steps into video gaming revolution, we can 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 I present the "first video game nominees"...

This is considered (and has been documented) 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 device to ever receive a patent (US Patent 2,455,992). As described in the patent, it was an analog circuit device with an array of knobs used to move a dot that appeared in the cathode ray tube display. The video game was created after how missiles appeared in WWII radars, and the object of the game was just to control a "missile" in order to hit a target. In the 1940s it was virtually impossible to show graphics in a CRT display. So, only the actual "missile" was showed on the display. The target and any other graphics were showed on screen overlays manually placed on the display screen. It's been said by many that Atari's famous video game "Missile Command" was designed after this gaming device.

NIMROD was the name of a digital computer device from the 50s decade. The creators of this computer were the engineers of an UK-based company under the name Ferranti, with the idea of showing the computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain (and after some time it was also displayed in Berlin).

NIM is a two-player mathematical game of strategy, which could be originated in the ancient China. NIM game rules are simple: There are a certain number of "heaps" (groups of objects), and each group contains a certain number of objects (a common 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 of the last heap is the loser, however there is a different version of the game where the player to take the last object of the last heap is the winner.

NIMROD used a lights panel as a display and was planned and created with the unique purpose of playing the game of NIM, which makes it the first digital computer device to be specifically created for playing a game (although the main idea was showing and illustrating the computer performance, rather than as a way of entertainment and having fun). Since it doesn't have "raster video equipment" as a display (a TV set, monitor, etc.) it's been said that it does not qualify 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".

OXO was a computer-programmed version of "Tic-Tac-Toe", created for an EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) computer. It was designed by Alexander S. Douglas from the University of Cambridge, and one more time it was not created for entertainment, it was part of his PhD Thesis on "Human/Computer Interaction".

The rules of the game are those of a common Tic-Tac-Toe game, player against the computer (no 2-player option was available). The input method was a rotary dial (like the ones in old telephones). The output was displayed in a 35x16-pixel cathode-ray tube display. This game was never very popular since 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 many years later when an EDSAC emulator was created and distributed, but by then many other excellent video games where available as well...).

"Tennis for Two" was designed by William Higinbotham, a scientist from the Brookhaven National Laboratory. It was made as a way of entertainment, so visitors at the laboratory had something interesting to do while they were waiting on "visitors day" (at last!... a video game that was created "just for the fun of it"...). The electronic game was very well designed for its era: the ball was affected by many factors like position/angle of contact, wind speed, gravity etc.; you had to avoid the net as in real tennis, and some other features. The video game hardware also had two "joysticks" (two controllers with a rotational knob and a push button each) connected to an analog computer, and an oscilloscope for output display.

"Tennis for Two" is considered by many the first video game ever created. But once again, other people were against that idea stating 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 counts as a video game". But well... you can't win them all...

It is also rumored 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.

"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 innovative 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 would be designed. As soon as they discovered that a "Precision CRT Display" would be installed to the system, they instantly agreed that "some kind of visual/interactive game" would be the demo-ware of choice for the PDP-1. And after some debating, it was quickly decided to be a spaceship fighting game of some sort. After this was decided, all other ideas started coming out very fast: like game rules, designing concepts, creative ideas, and so on.

So after approximately 200 man/hours of design and programming, the first version of the game was finally finished. The game consisted of two spaceships (nicknamed "pencil" and "wedge") targeting missiles one against the other with a sun in the middle of the screen (which "pulls" both spaceships with its gravitational force). Each spaceship was controlled by a set of console switches (for missiles, speed, rotation, and "hyperspace"). Each spaceship have a limited supply of fuel and weapons, and the hyperspace option was like a "last resort", in case everything else fails (it could either "save you or break you").

"Spacewar!" was an instant hit between MIT students and programmers, and soon they started programming their own changes to the video game (like real star charts for background, center star "on/off" option, background disable option, angular momentum option, among others). The game program was ported to several other computer platforms (since it required a video display, a hard to find option in 1960s systems, it was usually ported to newer/cheaper DEC computers like the PDP-10 and PDP-11).

Many people consider that "Spacewar!" is not only the first "real" video game ever created (notice that this game counts with a video display), but it also have a proven trajectory of being the true predecessor of the original arcade game (called "Galaxy 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, both arcade games as well as console video games were written in another page of the history of video games (so come back for more on these subjects).

So there they are, the "First Video Game" nominees. Which one do you think is the first video game ever created?... If you ask me, I think all these games were pioneers of its era, and should be credited as a whole as the beginners of the video gaming revolution. But what really matters is what you think...

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