I think it isn’t entirely unreasonable that the first videogame ever was Pong. We all love and appreciate Pong. Pong is often cited as one of the first widely released games for Atari, so it gets a lot of limelight.
The first real video game wasn’t invented by the talented team at Atari headed by Nolan Bushnell. No, that honor belongs to William Higinbotham.
In the 1950s, Higinbotham created Tennis for Two. Higinbotham created this game as a fun diversion, to show the power of technology.
Like many in history, he didn’t fully grasp the significance of his for a foray into video gaming.
What followed was ‘Spacewar!’ a game developed by Steve Russell in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT). This was a two-player game in which both players faced off in an intense dogfight, each player controlling either the ‘wedge’ or the ‘needle’. The game included gravity effects and faster than light travel.
Today we have a great slew of options for video gaming fun. We all know Xbox and PS4, but what about the very first console?
That honor belongs to the Magnavox Odyssey, invented by Ralph Baer. Being able to play video games in one’s home; the idea was revolutionary. I believe that we may take it for granted today, but people used to have to journey to the local arcade, pizza parlor, or bowling alley to play their favorite games.
Leave the comfort of my own bed?
No thanks!
Speaking of arcade games, the late 1970s and early 1980s experienced an impressive boom in popularity, bringing in serious commercial success.
Specifically, the release of Space Invaders for arcade systems in 1978 marked a new dawn for games. If you don’t know Space Invaders, what rock have you been living under?
This simple, yet addictive game features the player as a lone gunner ship occupying the bottom of the screen. The top half has the titular space invaders encroaching on the player, increasing in speed as their numbers dwindle. This frantic speed was surprisingly unintended, as the game developer had trouble programming them to remain a consistent speed. He kept it in the game and the rest is history.
Can you imagine if the alien invaders just kept their normal, slow pace the entire time? Not only would Space Invaders be super easy, but there would be no stakes to play for. It would be a boring exercise in merely shooting enemies. Instead, we have an adrenaline-filled defense of the earth.
Arcades were filling up with players, and some serious money was coming in. After the millions in quarters earned by Space Invaders, it wouldn’t be long until a successor in the most-played arcade game mantle was once again taken up by a new contender.
This was in the form of the beloved Pac-Man.
As revolutionary as those arcade games were, the gaming industry was facing a crisis: the market was being saturated, making sales and development suffer. The rise of PC gaming also made arcade games less interesting to many consumers.
Was this to be the end of video games as we know them? It sure seemed like it.
From 1983 to 1985, the sheer volume of gaming options seemed to be muscling out arcade games, which experienced over 1500 closures, not to mention seriously suffering economic setbacks.
There is that famous rumor that Atari had all of their remaining copies of the abysmal E.T. the Extraterrestrial buried in a New Mexico landfill. It became an urban legend, often being repeated as a humorous, but a cautionary tale. Turns out that it was partially true; a Canadian film crew traveled to the landfill, excavated and found copies of E.T., as well as other discarded Atari cartridges.
Serious analysts and economists were pessimistic when evaluating gaming’s future.
Was it to be a one-time fad?
You must be logged in to post a comment.