History of Video Games Part 1: Proto-Video Games and Arcade Games (1947-1972)

This is part 1 of the 5-part video game generation blog posts leading up to the launch of the eighth generation systems  PlayStation 4 (launching November 15, 2013) and Xbox One (launching November 22, 2013).

Proto-Video Games (1947-1966)

Video games have around since the mid Sixties, when they were arcade games. 

Cathode ray tube amusement device schematic (1947)

Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr patents a device in 1947 that would foreshadow the future development of video games, despite not being sold, the concept kick started the video games industry.

Pictured: The amusement device had it been marketed for sale.

NIMROD (1951)

No one knows what was the first video game ever made, but there has been one computer that changed history: The NIMROD computer.

On May 1, 1951, British computer company Ferranti debuted the supercomputer NIMROD at the Festival of Britain. It became a commercial breakthrough and was created exclusively to play a game called Nim. A replica of the NIMROD is currently on display in Computerspielemuseum Berlin.

OXO (1951)

Note: The text is from the Wikipedia entry "First video game"

In 1951, Alexander S. Douglas made the first computer game to use a digital graphical display. OXO, also known as Noughts and Crosses, is a version of tic-tac-toe for the EDSAC computer at the University of Cambridge. It was designed for the world's first stored-program computer, and used a rotary telephone controller for game control. There is a description of another "fun" program for EDSAC.

Tennis for Two (1958)

In 1958, scientist William Higinbotham created a game called Tennis for Two at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, which became the first tennis video game ever made.

Spacewar! (1962)

Note: Some of the text is from the Wikipedia entry "First video game"

In 1961, MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen created the game Spacewar! on a DEC PDP-1 mini-computer which also used a vector display system. Spacewar! became the first shooter game.

Russell has been quoted as saying that the aspect of the game that he was most pleased with was the number of other programmers it inspired to write their own games. This was presumed to be the first true video game. Spacewar! is now on display at Computer History Museum in California, where people can play the game.

Arcade Games (1966-1972)

Arcade games were the earliest version of the video games built for the public. The first electronic arcade games came around the mid Sixties.

Sega Periscope (1966)

Note: The text is from the Wikipedia article "arcade game"

In 1966, Sega introduced an electro-mechanical game called Periscope. It was an early submarine simulator and light gun shooter, which used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine.

It became a worldwide success in Japan, Europe, and North America, where it was the first arcade game to cost a quarter per play, which would remain the standard price for arcade games for many years to come.

Taito Crown Soccer Special (1967)

Note: The text is from the Wikipedia article "arcade game"

In 1967, Taito released an electro-mechanical arcade game of their own, Crown Soccer Special, a two-player sports game that simulated association football, using various electronic components, including electronic versions of pinball flippers.

Galaxy Game (1971)

Note: The text is from the Wikipedia article "first video game"

In 1971, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck developed the first coin-operated computer game, Galaxy Game, at Stanford University using a DEC PDP-11/20computer; only one unit was ever built (although it was later adapted to run up to eight games at once).

Computer Space (1971)

Note: The text is from the Wikipedia article "first video game"

Two months after Galaxy Game's installation, Computer Space by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney was released, which was the first coin-operated video game to be commercially sold (and the first widely available video game of any kind). Both games were variations on the vector display 1961 Spacewar!. After this, Bushnell and Dabney formed Atari.

Pong (1972)

At the same year, Bushnell appointed Allan Alcorn to develop a game that was originally intended to be a warm-up exercise. Luckily enough, that game became Atari's first successful game - the Pong. Pong became the first commercially successful video game, which then kickstarted the video game industry.