When we think of early video games, there are usually a few specific examples that come to mind. We think of PONG as the original arcade cabinet, the Atari 2600 as one of the first home video game consoles. Years after that, we have Pac Man, Donkey Kong, and the 1985 release of the NES, which sparked a period of success for the video game industry that has lasted until this day. But Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn, the creators of PONG, weren't the first people to ever create a game in digital form. In fact, they weren't even the first people to create a tennis game with an oscilloscope. Here are some examples of early video games that came way before the ones we all know and love.
1. Nimatron, 1940
The very first example of an electronic game was demonstrated at the 1940 New York World's Fair by Edward Condon. It was a machine designed to play Nim, a game in which two parties compete by taking objects (traditionally stones) from a pile and attempting to force the opposing player to take the last stone. The Nimatron would play against human opponents and, if it lost, it would present the winner with a token with the words "Nim Champ" stamped onto it.
2. Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device, 1947
Some consider this to be the first real video game, as it is the first device to offer a display for players to interact with. Created by physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, the device used a cathode ray and an oscilloscope to present the player with targets to shoot. The player would attempt to hit those targets by adjusting their "missile" trajectory with knobs.
3. Chess Programs, 1950
Humans have somewhat of a fascination with the concept of being able to beat a computer at chess. You might say that fascination began in 1950, when both Claude Shannon and Alan Turing created chess programs.
4. Hutspiel, 1955
Hutspiel was designed by the U.S. Arm as a way to train soldiers on how to defeat U.S.S.R. troops. The game was played by two people, who would have certain amounts of resources to manage, troops to command, and technologies at their disposal. The goal was simply to defeat the other player.
5. Tennis for Two, 1958
Tennis for Two is a tennis game created by Willy Higinbotham using an oscilloscope and an analog computer. Remember when I said that Pong wasn't the first of its kind? Tennis for Two was its predecessor--created 14 years prior to Pong's original release in 1972.
6. Spacewar!, 1962
Spacewar! is a bit better-known than some of the other entries on its list. It was the first game to be played on a digital screen, and was also one of the first games that was able to spread outside its original context. Because computers were available for personal use at the time, the average owner of a computer could find the code for Spacewar! and run it at home.
7. BASIC Language, 1964
John Kemeny created BASIC to be a computer language that was easy for people to understand. Because BASIC allowed more people to understand programming, its creation led to students creating huge numbers of computer games. Notable titles include HMRABI, MUGWMP, and CIVILW, all of which were published in David Ahl's 1973 book "101 BASIC Computer Games".
8. Brown Box, 1966
Ralph Baer conceptualized the idea of a video game to be played on a television, and the Brown Box was his prototype. It was the first device that could be considered a "video game console". it came with two controllers and allowed players to play eight different games on a television set. It was later licensed to Magnavox, who recreated it and distributed it two years later as "Odyssey", the first home video game system.
Pretty cool, right? It just goes to show that people have been trying to create fun since the dawn of computers.
