I figured with the popularity of gaming at public libraries increasing all the time, I would like to find out how computer games started and who invented them. I nostalgically remember my first encounter with a computer game: Jawbreaker. It was similar to Pac Man but with a mouth full of teeth eating something like little pieces of candy. Then the mouth would get brushed by a toothbrush every so often. It was played on an Apple with a small, small screen in the 80s. The next game (on a computer) I remember was several years later when my brother was playing Solitaire on his first laptop. In the meantime we had Atari and Nintendo and I still have a little Super Nintendo. Online computer games are also very popular. For two of my brothers, it is poker, for me it is Catan. Well enough about my experience with games…
The first graphical computer game was a version of Tic Tac Toe created in 1952 by A.S. Douglas. This game was played on a vaccuum-tube computer. Later on in 1958 William Higinbotham created the first video game called Tennis for Two. In 1962 Steve Russell invented SpaceWar! which was the first game intended for computer use. It took about 200 man-hours to write the first version. Apparently Russell never profited from SpaceWar!
Ralph Bear wrote the first video game for a television set in 1967. It was called Chase. The first arcade game was created in 1971 which was based on SpaceWar! Pong was created in 1972 and re-released as an Atari home video game in 1975. In 1972 the first commercial video game console made for home use was released. It was called the Odyssey. It was programmed with twelve games.
In 1976 the first programmable home game console was released called the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (later called Channel F). It used the then newly invented microchip. Finally in the 80s Atari’s Asteroids and Lunar Landing were the first to be registered in the copyright office. I will assume that you are all familiar with Game Boy, Xbox, PlayStation, etc.
Anyway, the evoltuion of gaming has come full circle. The Wii is so interactive. I don’t have one, but I think it is really neat that your Avatars show up in the games! Now you can talk to other players online and play with people in another country. Who would have thunk it? I wonder what will be next? Technology is so exciting. Have fun.
This post was written with information derived from the two following websites:
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa090198.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm
jessica Said:
on March 15, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Thanks for the video game history, that is pretty neat. -I had no idea that they date back to 1952! I believed that they appeared with the Atari. When you were talking about your own video game experiences it made me think of Oregon Trail. I never had a pc but I remember many afternoons at school devoted to that game. Ahh, Oregon Trail…
jsnchicago Said:
on March 19, 2008 at 2:38 am
We have come a long way. Thanks for this interesting information. I remember liking the game E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial on Atari. I found a Wikipedia entry about this game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial_(Atari_2600)
Oh my…look at those graphics! Nice to reminisce…
mstephens7 Said:
on March 25, 2008 at 12:27 am
Fascinating stuff. Where do you think games fit with library services?
Elsie Said:
on March 29, 2008 at 3:06 am
I was never in tune with electronic games, neither owned any but I do remember that I tried playing Pac Man. Recently my library acquired some gaming equipment and the new Wii, so we’ll be entering this new trend and we are planning a staff gaming party so we all can have an intense gaming training session. Exciting!