The result of technology during World War II using early CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) (Illustrated), based in American missile defence systems developed in the late 1940s, saw the fledgling birth of the video game industry. Some of these programs were adapted into other simple games during the 1950s. By the late 1950s, more computer video games were developed by defence contractor workers, while gradually increasing in their sophistication and complexity.
The earliest known instance of an interactive electronic game was in 1947 and known as the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, which in reality was the first missile simulation game, and inspired by the radar displays from World War II.The game used analog circuitry to control the CRT beam and also position a dot on the screen. Screen "overlays" were used for the missile targets.The gaming device was never marketed nor sold to the public.Gameplay
The player turns a control knob to position the CRT beam on the screen; to the player, the beam appears as a dot, which represents a reticule or scope. The player has a restricted amount of time in which to manoeuvre the dot so that it overlaps an aeroplane, and then to fire at the aeroplane by pressing a button. If the beam's gun falls within the predefined mechanical coordinates of a target when the user presses the button, then the CRT beam de-focuses, simulating an explosion.
In 1950 the Bouncing Ball video game program was developed for MIT's new Whirlwind Computer, the first computer to display "real-time" video signals, which was first demonstrated in April 1951 after being developed in the late 1940's. This was the very first computer capable of displaying both real time text and graphics on a video terminal, which at this time was a large oscilloscope screen. It was also the first computer to use core memory, which permanently stores binary data on magnets within a wire grid. While the Bouncing Ball game was not interactive, it was the precursor of video games to come in future years.
In February 1951, Christopher
Strachey, a British computer scientist, and one of the founders of
denotational semantics, as well as a early pioneer in programming languages,
designed a Checkers (Draughts) computer game program to run on the
Pilot ACE computer, which was one of the first computers built in the UK
at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
The rotary phone dial shown at centre of the picture was actually used to
make game moves.
In May, 1951, the NIMROD computer, created by the major UK electrical engineering and equipment firm Ferranti International was presented at the Festival of Britain. Using a panel of lights for its display, it was designed exclusively to play the game of NIM; this was the very first instance of a digital computer designed specifically to play a game in recorded history.
Gameplay
NIM is based on an ancient game dating back to at least the 16th Century,a two-player mathematical game of strategy, in which players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. NIMROD could play either the traditional or "reverse" form of the game. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap. This is a simple game, where you start with a number of piles of tokens. Each player in turn takes one or more tokens from any one pile, and the game continues until the last token is taken from the last pile.
In 1952 OXO, a computer program for Tic-Tac-Toe
(also known as Noughts and Crosses) was created by Alexander S.
Douglas for his PhD.D. thesis on "human-computer
interaction" for the University of Cambridge. OXO was the
first digital graphical simulation game, and ran on the EDSAC
Computer at Cambridge,which used a cathode ray tube as a visual display
for programs, in one of the world's first 'stored-program" computers.
OXO is often cited as the first true computer game in which the
player played against the computer. It did not obtain widespread
popularity because the EDSAC was a computer unique to Cambridge.
In
1958, a video game called Tennis for Two
was developed at the Brookhaven
National Labs (BNL) by American physicist
William A. Higinbotham on an analog computer, which simulated a game of tennis
or ping pong on an oscilloscope. It is important in the history of video games
as being one of the first electronic games to use a graphical display. Tennis
for Two is widely regarded as the predecessor of PONG the first and
one of the most recognised video arcade games of all time, though there was
never any direct connection between these games In this first historic video
game, a "tennis ball", or blip of light, bounces off a horizontal line at the
bottom of a tiny five-inch diameter oscilloscope screen, with a vertical line in
the centre of the screen representing a tennis net. Players controlled the game
with a small handheld metal box equipped with a dial and a push button (the
first game controllers). Gameplay
Players interacted with the "ball" using one of the two analog aluminium game controllers to click a button to hit the ball and use a knob to control the angle. Hitting the ball also emitted a sound. The controller device was designed in about two hours and was assembled within three weeks.
Excluding the oscilloscope assembly, all of the game's circuitry took up approximately the space of modern microwave oven.
In 1959, a collection of interactive
graphical programs were created on the TX-0 experimental computer at MIT. These included
Mouse in the Maze and Tic-Tac-Toe. Mouse in the Maze allowed
users to use a light pen 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 checkers and
crosses against the computer.
