Video games sometimes seem like they’ve been around forever. Still, their origins reach much closer to our time than many might expect. This knowledge leads us to one fundamental question – who created video games?
It turns out that finding a definitive answer to this question depends on what we mean by the “video game.” While its definition may seem obvious today, it wasn’t so simple back when the first games came to life. The reality of what came first seemed fuzzier – but our little trip down memory lane can help us discover the industry’s true pioneers.
Early Years
It’s the 1940s and 1950s, and computers are so big and expensive that they are only available at top institutions, including universities. That’s when computer scientists started to take a greater interest in what these massive machines were capable of, designing simple games like tic-tac-toe or William Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two in 1958[1].
The latter developed the game for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s public exhibition. Since it was available to play on an oscilloscope, players lined up to try it or at least watch a piece of someone else’s gameplay. Tennis for Two didn’t introduce any technological innovations compared to earlier programs – but it’s considered the first video game created for entertainment[1].
Spacewar! Era
This invention was followed by another – MIT students’ Spacewar! When Steve Russell and his friends got access to a brand new PDP-1 computer, they began to design a demo program that would show the machine’s potential, be interactive, and remain engaging even after several playthroughs[2].
Russell told Rolling Stone in 1972: “It was the first minicomputer, ridiculously inexpensive for its time. And it was just sitting there. It had a console typewriter that worked right, which was rare, and a paper tape reader and a cathode ray tube display. Somebody had built some little pattern-generating programs which made interesting patterns like a kaleidoscope. Not a very good demonstration. Here was this display that could do all sorts of good things! So we started talking about it, figuring what would be interesting displays. We decided that probably you could make a two-Dimensional maneuvering sort of thing, and decided that naturally the obvious thing to do was spaceships.”[3]
It was a real milestone in gaming history, as the game gathered a large fan base at many universities. However, it was never released to the public, as computers were unavailable for personal use. William Higinbotham and Steve Russell went down in history as industry pioneers. However, Ralph Baer truly changed its course.
How did it all start?
Baer wanted to see if displaying and playing interactive video games using television technologies is possible. As an engineer, he helped develop the first TV sets, which gained immense popularity in the 60s. While working for Sanders Associates, Inc., Baer (in collaboration with Bob Tremblay) began designing the first video game test units, which displayed a simple, player-controlled dot on a television screen[4].
Further tests impressed Sanders, and Baer was tasked with creating the first commercial home console. It’s when the Brown Box, the first multiplayer, multiprogram video game system, came to life. Licensed to Magnovox, the Brown Box gained popularity in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey[5].
The console included only a few games: ping pong, handball, volleyball, target shooting, soccer, checkers, and golf. According to Ralph Baer: “We should have stopped after we developed ping pong, because that is all people really wanted to play. We stretched the project out for another year and added new games, but ping pong was always the game people demanded.“[4]
The lawsuit against Atari by Magnavox and the further tech development initiated the rapid evolution of gaming as a worldwide cultural phenomenon. The following years marked the release of increasingly better gaming systems, and digital entertainment united with the mainstream as its integral part. In 2004, Baer received the National Medal of Technology for “groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development and commercialization of interactive video games, which spawned related uses, applications, and mega-industries in both the entertainment and education realms.“[6] But who invented video games?
Conclusion
Although Baer is known as the Father of Video Games for creating the first commercial home console, he isn’t responsible for inventing video games in general. That honor goes to William Higinbotham, who invented Tennis for Two[1]. It’s true the title didn’t gain much popularity by being available to play only at the National Laboratory’s public exhibition. However, it’s the true forerunner of video games as we know them today.
Video Game History Timeline
The timeline below visualizes key moments in early video game development, from the first prototype to major turning points in the industry’s growth.