Misplaced Pages

First video game: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 19:58, 8 January 2015 editClueBot NG (talk | contribs)Bots, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers6,438,297 editsm Reverting possible vandalism by 162.127.144.252 to version by Donner60. False positive? Report it. Thanks, ClueBot NG. (2083040) (Bot)← Previous edit Revision as of 19:58, 8 January 2015 edit undo162.127.144.252 (talk) →HistoryNext edit →
Line 4: Line 4:


Historians have also sought to bypass the issue by instead using the more specific "digital games" descriptive.<ref name="Game Innovation Database"></ref> This term leaves out the earlier ] games. Historians have also sought to bypass the issue by instead using the more specific "digital games" descriptive.<ref name="Game Innovation Database"></ref> This term leaves out the earlier ] games.

==History==
The history of video games is filled with events and earlier technology that paved the way for the advent of video games. It also includes games that represent direct steps in the evolution of computerized gaming, and lastly the development and release of video games themselves.

===Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device (1947)===
{{main|Cathode ray tube amusement device}}
]
The earliest known interactive electronic game was by ] and Estle Ray Mann on a ].<ref name="CRT game patent">{{Citation | inventor-last= Goldsmith Jr.| inventor-first= Thomas T.| inventor2-last= Mann| inventor2-first= Estle Ray| publication-date= 25 January 1947| issue-date= 14 December 1948| title=Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device| country-code= US |patent-number=2455992| |url= http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=02455992&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D2455992,.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F2455992,%2526RS%3DPN%2F2455992,&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page }}</ref> The patent was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14, 1948.<ref name="CRT game patent"/> The game was a ] inspired by radar displays from World War II. It used analog circuitry, not digital, to control the CRT beam and position a dot on the screen. Screen overlays were used for targets since graphics could not be drawn at the time.<ref name="Pong Story: Main Page">{{cite web |title= PONG-Story |first= David |last= Winter |date= December 2013 |url= http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm }}</ref>

===Chess (1947–1958)===

], a British mathematician, developed a theoretical computer chess program as an example of machine intelligence. In 1947, Turing wrote the theory for a program to play chess. His colleague Dietrich Prinz<ref>http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/34368825/ferranti%20mark%20i%20computer.pdf</ref> later wrote the first limited program of chess for ]'s ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/Computer-Chess.htm |title=History of Computer Chess and Programmer Dietrich Prinz |publisher=Inventors.about.com |date=1903-03-29 |accessdate=2013-04-04}}</ref> The program was only capable of computing ] and was not powerful enough to play a full game.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/chess/main.php?sec=thm-42b86c2029762&sel=thm-42b86c4252f72 |title=Computer History Museum - Opening Moves: Origins of Computer Chess - First Tests |publisher=Computerhistory.org |date= |accessdate=2013-04-04}}</ref> Input and output were offline, there was no "video" involved.

===Bertie the Brain (1950)===
{{main|Bertie the Brain}}
A specially-built machine for playing Tic-Tac-Toe, Bertie the Brain was created over the summer of 1950 by ]. Showcasing ] with customizable difficulty levels, it was put on display by ] at the 1950 ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://spacing.ca/toronto/2014/08/13/meet-bertie-brain-worlds-first-arcade-game-built-toronto/ |title=Meet Bertie the Brain, the world’s first arcade game, built in Toronto |last1=Bateman |first1=Chris |date= August 13, 2014 |website= Spacing Magazine|accessdate=November 16, 2014}}</ref> Moves were entered on a keypad and displayed overhead.

===Nim (1951)===

] computer.]]

On May 5, 1951, the ] computer, created by Ferranti, was presented at the ]. Using a panel of lights for its display, it was designed exclusively to play the game of '']''; this was the first instance of a digital computer designed specifically to play a game.<ref name="Nimrod">{{cite web|url=http://www.goodeveca.net/nimrod/|title=NIMROD|work=goodeveca.net}}</ref> This machine was based on an original design built by ] in 1941, after having acquired a patent in 1940. The machine weighed over a ton, and a duplicate was displayed at the New York World's Fair.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi=10.2307/2304959|jstor=2304959 |title=A Machine for Playing the Game Nim|author=Raymond Redheffer|journal=The American Mathematical Monthly|volume=55| issue = 6 (Jun. - Jul., 1948)|pages=343–349}}</ref> NIMROD could play either the traditional or "reverse" form of the game.

===Strachey's Draughts Program (1951)===

{{main|Christopher Strachey}}

] developed a simulation of the game ] for the ] that ran for the first time on 30 July 1951 at ].

===OXO / Noughts and Crosses (1952)===
{{main|OXO}}
In 1952, ] made the first computer game to use an electronic graphical display. ''OXO'', also known as ''Noughts and Crosses'', is a version of ] for the ] computer at the ]. It was designed for the world's first ], and used a rotary telephone controller for game control.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pong-story.com/1952.htm |title=A.S.Douglas' 1952 Noughts and Crosses game |publisher=Pong-Story |date= |accessdate=2013-04-04}}</ref> There is a description of another "fun" program for EDSAC.<ref>Maurice V. Wilkes ''Memoir of a Computer Pioneer'' p. 208 (Chapt. 19)</ref>

===Tennis for Two (1958)===

In 1958, ] made an interactive computer game named '']'' for the ] annual visitor's day. This display, funded by the ], was meant to promote ] power, and used an ] and the ] system of an ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp|title=BNL - Our History|work=bnl.gov}}</ref><ref name="Introduction to Game Development">Rabin, Steve. ''Introduction to Game Development''. Massachusetts: Charles River Media, 2005.</ref>

===Mouse in the Maze, Tic-Tac-Toe (1959)===

In 1957–1961, a collection of interactive graphical programs were created on the ] experimental computer at MIT. These included ''Mouse in the Maze''<ref name=TCMR-V08>, archived by bitsavers.org</ref> and ''Tic-Tac-Toe''.<ref name=cc>, '']'' magazine, August, 1981, J. M. Graetz, archived by wheels.org, retrieved 2010-2-17</ref> ''Mouse in the Maze'' allowed users to use a ] to place maze walls, dots that represented bits of cheese, and (in some versions) glasses of martini. A virtual mouse represented by a dot was then released and would traverse the maze to find the objects. ''Tic-Tac-Toe'' used the light pen as well to play a simple game of noughts and crosses against the computer.<ref name=cc />

===Spacewar! (1961) ===

In 1961, ] students Martin Graetz, ], and Wayne Wiitanen created the game '']'' on a ] ] mini-computer which also used a vector display system.<ref name="Pong Story: Main Page"/><ref name="Introduction to Game Development" /> The game, generally considered the first ],{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} spread to several of the early mini-computer installations, and reportedly was used as a ] by DEC technicians on new PDP-1 systems before shipping, since it was the only available program that exercised every aspect of the hardware.<ref name="Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution">Levy, Steven. '']'', Massachusetts:Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1984.</ref> 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.<ref name="A Long Time Ago, in a Lab Far Away . . .">, ''The New York Times'', 28 February 2002</ref>

] released in 1972]]

===Odyssey (1966)===

In 1966, ] resumed work on an initial idea he had in 1951 to make an interactive game on a television set. In May 1967, Baer and an associate created the first game to use a raster-scan video display, or television set, directly displayed via modification of a video signal; it was also the first video gaming device to be displayed in a television commercial.<ref name="Videogames Turn 40"></ref> The "Brown Box", the last prototype of seven, was released in May 1972 by ] under the name ]. It was the first home ].<ref name="Pong Story: Main Page"/>

Baer was involved in court battles over patents that spanned the 1970s and 1980s. These trials defined a video game as an apparatus that displays games by manipulating the video display signal of the ] equipment, such as a television set. Games prior to ''Odyssey'' did not use a video display, so did not qualify as such in the courts.<ref name="Pong Story: Main Page"/>

===Galaxy Game (1971)===

In 1971, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck developed the first coin-operated computer game, '']'', at ] using a DEC ] computer with vector displays; only one unit was ever built (although it was later adapted to run up to eight games at once).<ref name="stanford">{{cite web|url=http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures/display/5-GG-machine.htm |title=Galaxy-Game machine |publisher=Infolab.stanford.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-04-04}}</ref>

===Computer Space (1971)===

Two months after ''Galaxy Game'''s installation, '']'' by ] and ] 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!''

===Pong (1972)===

'']'', also by Bushnell and Dabney, used the same television set design as ''Computer Space'', and was not released until 1972 – a year after ''Computer Space''. It was the first successful arcade video game and led to the popularization of the medium.


==See also== ==See also==

Revision as of 19:58, 8 January 2015

There are numerous debates over which game should be considered the first video game, with the answer depending largely on how video games are defined. The evolution of video games represents a tangled web of several different industries, including scientific, computer, arcade, and consumer electronics.

The "video" in "video game" traditionally refers to a raster display device. With the popular catch phrase use of the term "video game", the term later came to imply all display types, formats, and platforms.

Historians have also sought to bypass the issue by instead using the more specific "digital games" descriptive. This term leaves out the earlier analog-based computer games.

See also

Notes and references

  1. Cite error: The named reference Pong Story: Main Page was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. The Game Innovation Database

External links

Research
Game emulation
Categories: