The first video games in history: how this global phenomenon began

Have you ever wondered what the first video game in history was? Pac-Man, Pong, or even Super Mario might be the first thing that comes to mind. However, the real story of the video games It's much older and deeper than it seems. In this article, we take you on a journey through the early decades of video games, from laboratory experiments to the first commercial titles that gave rise to an industry that now moves billions.

Many of these primitive video games emerged as hobbies among scientists or university students., before they became a global cultural, economic, and social phenomenon. Let's delve into the origins of digital entertainment, reviewing the technological advances, key names, pioneering devices, and anecdotes that marked the beginning of video games as we know them today.

The technological background that made it possible

Before talking about video games as such, we must go back to the technological developments that made them possible. World War II and the subsequent Cold War greatly boosted advances in computing., Artificial Intelligence and human-machine interaction.

Alan Turing and Claude Shannon They were two of the pioneers in thinking about computers capable of running logical models, algorithms and, later, simulations. Turing even designed a chess program in 1948 which, although it could not be executed due to the lack of hardware suitable, already anticipated the programming playful.

Claude Shannon, for his part, proposed in 1949 a system for a machine to play chess using evaluation rules and decision trees, concepts that are still maintained today in modern engines such as Stockfish.

In the following years, The idea of ​​using computers to simulate games became a powerful hardware and software demonstration toolIt wasn't just about entertainment, but also about testing how far the new digital machines could go.

1947-1952: The first interactive prototypes

El Cathode ray tube entertainment device, created by Thomas Goldsmith and Estle Mann In 1947, it is considered one of the earliest devices that came close to the concept of a video game. It was a missile simulator that allowed the user to control the projectile's trajectory on a semicircular screen. Although it used analog circuits and physical overlays on the screen, Its purpose was already playful and interactive.

Another fundamental milestone was the computer Nimrod, exhibited in 1951 by the British company Ferranti. This gigantic machine was designed to play Him, a mathematical strategy game. Although it didn't have graphics, it did display information through lights on a front panel, making it one of the first machines specifically built to simulate gaming.

In 1952, the researcher Alexander S Douglas development OXO (also known as Noughts and Crosses) for the EDSAC, a computer installed at Cambridge University. This was basically a digital version of tic-tac-toe against the computer. OXO was the first video game with digital graphics on screen and control via a dial, which makes it for many the true starting point for video games.

1958: Tennis for Two and analog computing in the game

The nuclear physicist William higinbotham In 1958, he created one of the most iconic video games due to its interactive nature and its impact on visitors to the Brookhaven laboratory in New York: Tennis for Two.

Higinbotham developed this game using an oscilloscope to display a side-by-side representation of a tennis court on which two players faced each other by controlling the direction and force of a small dot that simulated the ball.

Although it was designed to entertain open house attendees, Tennis for Two became a sensation among scientists and engineersIts value lies in the fact that it was the first video game displayed in real time on a screen, and that it allowed simultaneous interaction between two players.

Curiously, the device was dismantled shortly afterward, and the code was never preserved. However, it has been replicated dozens of times since then and is considered a gem in the history of experimental video games.

1962: Spacewar! and the birth of the computer video game

In the early sixties, at the prestigious MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), a group of students from the Tech Model Railroad Club were testing the capabilities of a new PDP-1 computer. It was then that Steve Russell, along with Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen, they devised Spacewar!, considered one of the first fully functional computer video games.

In Spacewar!, two spaceships faced off in space with a gravitational star at the center. Players had to avoid collisions and shoot each other, using controls mapped to physical buttons. Its code was distributed over the ARPAnet (the predecessor of the Internet) and spread to become a standard demonstration for the PDP-1 computer.

In addition to innovating in gameplay and real-time visualization, Spacewar! introduced a new paradigm: the computer as an interactive entertainment platform.Its influence was so great that it inspired the first commercial video game developers in the following decade.

From modest beginnings with oscilloscope experiments to becoming one of the most powerful industries in global entertainment, The history of early video games reflects the evolution of technology, culture, and human creativity.That initial spark that moved scientists, engineers, and students to program rudimentary games is still present in today's developers, who continue to push the boundaries of interaction. Who would have imagined that a simple tennis match on a green screen would eventually generate 4K virtual worlds for millions of people online around the globe?