First Video Game?

[Xhizors]

What is the first video game ever? I've heard that the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device, developed by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann in 1947 is the first "video game" ever. I wrote video game in quotes, because it isn't really a video game. It's more of an electronic game.
So the first real video game would have to be OXO (Noughts and Crosses), which was developed by Alexander S. Douglas in 1952.
But that subject is still being discussed.

[tom]

They played games on the abacus in BC, you know

[FxMercenary]

Super Mario, Duh!!!!!! :-D

[Xhizors]

They played games on the abacus in BC, you knowI know, but those weren't video games...


Super Mario, Duh!!!!!! :-D

No, that was definately not the first game ever. But it was one of the coolest first games for the first Nintendo system. ^^

[SnowKitty]

I know, but those weren't video games...



No, that was definately not the first game ever. But it was one of the coolest first games for the first Nintendo system. ^^

yeah, everybody knows that the first game ever was battletoads

[jb143]

No No...you guys are all wrong. Those are all technically computer games. The first VIDEO game was Dragon's Lair.

[Nirvana]

Uhh...pong? I dunno.

I came into this thread thinking it was going to be a question on what was the first video game you ever played. Mine was Street Fighter II.

[iloveguns]

Dig Dug was the first video game i have known..

[Game Freak]

I always thought it was Spacewar...but there are others that have proved me wrong. The way i think of it:

First graphical computer game: OXO
First discrete analog hardware game: Tennis for Two
First digital computer game: Spacewar!
First commercially sold arcade game: Computer Space
First successful arcade game: PONG

[scooterb23]

First video game that mattered was Grand Theft Auto IV...everyone knows that

[Haoie]

Lame jokes aside, it's most likely Space War.

That's often cited, anyway.

[Ed Oscuro]

First discrete analog hardware game: Tennis for Two
Tennis for Two had digital components along with the digital ones. I suppose Spacewar! could be called the first "fully digital" game, perhaps.

[A Black Falcon]

I always thought it was Spacewar...but there are others that have proved me wrong. The way i think of it:

First graphical computer game: OXO
First discrete analog hardware game: Tennis for Two
First digital computer game: Spacewar!
First commercially sold arcade game: Computer Space
First successful arcade game: PONG

You're missing something from that list, the first videogame console, the Magnavox Odyssey... as the first home-consumer gaming system that attached to a television, it was a huge step in the development of videogames, obviously.

Also, before OXO, there were some training demos for World War II radar dishes/radar dish operators, I believe... it's not quite a "video game", but it should be under consideration for being on the list, I believe.


ThAnd there was the NIMROD computer in May 1951, which also used a panel of lights for its display. This was the first instance of a digital computer designed specifically to play a game.

But as far as the first video game (using the more acceptable/broad definition of the term), Higinbotham's Tennis for Two would be it.

Ralph Baer says that Higginbotham's shouldn't really count, and that his was actually first... but yeah, it's tough to figure out really. There are a lot of factors and no obvious, definite "first" in every regard; there's a qualification of some kind to each of the early ones.

[k8track]

But as far as the first video game (using the more acceptable/broad definition of the term), Higinbotham's Tennis for Two would be it.

Galaxy Game was the 1st coin-operated game, predating Computer Space by about 2 months.
Agree with you 100% on both counts here. I consider Willy Higinbotham's Tennis For Two to be the true beginning; OXO was more of a static display. And kudos for mentioning Galaxy Game, which everyone always seems to forget. Wasn't there only just one produced? If not, how many?

[DefaultGen]

.....

[Xhizors]

A patent for this can be found online (http://www.jmargolin.com/patents/2455992.pdf ), but... I've yet to see a picture of an actual hardware setup, or even an account of one being built.There are no photographs of the device, since it's too old.


I always consider it OXO because I'm a vintage computing bastard like that.By the way, there's a pretty cool simulator, called "EdsacPC". You can run several programs, by loading .txt files. The game "OXO" is included aswell. You just have to load the .txt file "OXO.txt", in order to play it. Have fun! ;)

[Xhizors]

The history of photography is a bit older than 1947 ;)

Yes, but for some reason the developer/s of that game never made a photography of it. :(

But you can imagine what it looks like. It wasn't that good, but pretty good for its time.

To come back to topic, I say that Spacewar! is the first real video game ever.

[Chemdawg]

mario/duck hunt, along with my first system NES when i was 5 :)

[FamicomFreak]

The Super Mario BRos, Duck Hunt, Track Meet cart with the NES set.

[The 1 2 P]

Hopscotch was the first game ever. But I really think Space War really gets the nod, although some people will argue over that with one or two other games at the time.

[Sonicwolf]

There are no photographs of the device, since it's too old

Photography has been around for over 150 years...

[alexander4488]

Super Mario World... The memories...

[rolenta]

The history of photography is a bit older than 1947 ;)
Bushnell regards Tennis for Two the first "Pong" game, and it was very influential on him when he started making his own games.


It has only been recently (i.e. the last few years) that I've heard Bushnell mention Tennis For Two. I've never heard him say it was very influential on him. Scott, can you point me to any quotes where he said that.

[stonic]

http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/404

“NB: Well, the issue really is that, if you listen to Ralph, he invented all this wonderful technology and then, one day, I sort of fell off a turnip truck, bounced twice, came in and saw the Odyssey and started a video game empire, from ending up in the Mountain View showroom.
When in reality, if you really look at the time lines, I started designing video games in the middle ’60s while I was a college student, and I have a signed and witnessed lab book to prove it, and that I’d already been in the market selling product for a year and a half before the Magnavox showing.
I saw the Magnavox project. I signed my name. There was no skullduggery, or serendipity, or under-the-counter view on the thing. I saw it, and I thought that it was a relatively crappy product. I didn’t feel like it was going to do anything. I do acknowledge that it probably reminded me of some of the designs that I’d done before. So, when I had my new engineer, I assigned him to fix that game: to make a ping-pong game that was in fact fun, which we did.

BE: You improved it.

NB: When you say I improved a game in which a ball goes back and forth, which for Ralph to claim the invention of that, he has to go back to Willy Higinbotham. Well, who did I…was Pong inspired by William Higinbotham or Odyssey? Ralph likes to claim that he invented Pong, which he didn’t. He invented Odyssey, which was a marketing failure. Pong happened to be successful, and so he wants to claim that. I just think it’s wrong.

BE: I definitely don’t consider him the inventor of Pong — obviously, it’s a different game. But personally, I think [Baer] feels a little bad because you were influenced by his ping-pong game, and you’ve never given him credit for that influence.

NB: I have [given him credit] in various things. I’ve said that I saw the game and it reminded me, but he knows full well that I had a similar game designed in my lab book. In the patent lawsuit, I presented my lab book in evidence. He also likes to make a lot of talk about the fact that Atari licensed his patents. We got a paid-up license for less than 0.6% of our sales. I mean, it was $100,000 a year for five years. He thinks it was seven [years], but I think it was five, but I don’t remember exactly. But it was $100,000. That was less than it cost us to — in those days, it cost about a quarter of a million to $300,000 to fight a lawsuit, a patent thing. And so, to get a paid-up license for less than my attorney’s fees, that was just a good business decision.”

[k8track]

My definition is more emcompassing. Any game back then that used a tube for its display was a video game; games that didn't (like OXO and NIMROD) were electronic games (much like those early LED handhelds).
Yes, yes! That's exactly how I regard them as well, you nailed it. And again, it's nice to see someone remembering Galaxy Game, which usually seems to be omitted from most historical discussions. And those photos, wow! Gorgeous cabinet.

I just hope I never have to answer this question on Jeopardy! or in another trivia contest; it's not that I don't know the history backwards and forwards, but it would be more about guessing which answer the question-writer had in mind.