As analysing the historical evolution of video games could be a very long journey, we are going to focus on three specific moments: the first video games in history (1950s and 1960s), their development as an industry with arcade machines (1970s) and the massive arrival of video games in homes (1980s).
First video game in history
What was the first video game in history? A question that does not have a simple answer.
In a way, Nimrod (1951) or Oxo (1952) are considered to be the first electronic games, although, depending on the definition of video game that we make, they cannot be strictly considered as such, with Tennis for two (1958) or Spacewar! (1962) being considered as such.
Being prototypes or having an experimental character, they share the trait that they were not even marketed, since they were only prepared for machines or devices that worked exclusively in research institutes or university institutions.
Let’s take a look at the details and characteristics of these four games.
1951: Nimrod
Built for a specific event, the Festival of Britain, Nimrod was manufactured by the Ferranti company to show the potential of computers by recreating the mathematical game of Nim in a device that pitted the player against the machine.
With a futuristic appearance and a panel with lights, it was programmed with the algorithm for solving the game.
The fact that Nimrod used coloured light bulbs instead of screens with graphics means that this game does not meet some of the specifications of a video game and therefore there is no unanimity as to whether it is one or not.
1952: Oxo
Also in the UK, Oxo, a game of noughts and crosses – an electronic version of tic-tac-toe – using a computer in a cathode ray tube, appeared in 1952.
The origin of this video game lies with Cambridge University student Alexander S. Douglas, who proposed its creation as part of his doctoral thesis as an example of coding a game that would allow a human to play against a machine. As a curiosity, Douglas was awarded a PhD for this work.
The fact that it was a graphical video game that ran on a computer, specifically for the EDSAC – one of the first computers – does generate a greater consensus that, unlike Nimrod, Oxo is the first video game in history.
1958: Tennis for two
Developed by William Higginbotham (Manhattan Project physicist in charge of the Atomic Bomb), the game, translated as Tennis for Two, consisted of an oscilloscope acting as a screen.
This table tennis simulator was born as an element of entertainment for visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory exhibition.
Tennis for two is the first video game to allow two players to play using a controller with a button to hit the ball and a wheel to control the direction in which the ball goes out.
The fact that this video game used an oscilloscope and not a cathode ray tube monitor has also led to voices that do not consider it strictly a video game.
1962: Spacewar!
Created by Steve Russell in 1962 at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Spacewar! is a space combat simulator for two simultaneous players.
Specifically, two spacecraft known as the ajuga and the wedge, each controlled by one player, try to shoot at each other while manoeuvring in a two-dimensional plane around the gravity well of a star.
Using vector graphics and running on a PDP-1 computer, this was the first video game to achieve some success, especially at the university level. As we will see below, this game also plays a role in the origin of eSports.
The 1970s: the arrival of the arcade machines
Now that we have seen the first video games in history, let’s move on to the 1970s, a decade in which the use of arcade machines and the generalisation of their use among the general public took off. A time that can be taken as the moment when video games took off as an industry linked to leisure.
Although we could talk about many names, due to their relevance we are going to focus on three video games from this period: Computer Space and Pong, linked to two of those we have mentioned as original video games, and Pac-Man.
Over time, the fact that these types of video games became known as arcade machines has led to these types of games themselves being known as arcade games.
1971: Computer Space, the first coin-operated video game
Computer Space is a recreational evolution of Spacewar! launched in November 1971, with the milestone of being the first video game that worked by inserting coins, a turning point for the development of this type of leisure as an industry in itself.
In 1979, another equally popular version of Spacewar! arrived: Asteroids.
1972: Pong
Also released in November, but in 1972, Pong is also an evolution of one of the original video games mentioned at the beginning of this article, Tennis for two.
Although Computer Space was the first to be marketed with coins, Pong – with a table tennis paddle on each side of the screen with which the ball was thrown at the opponent – enjoyed a level of success that led to the popularisation and take-off of the industry.
That same year, 1972, Atari, the company responsible for this video game, was born.
1980, Pac-Man or Pac-Man: a Guinness World Record
In 1980, another arcade game, in this case of Japanese origin, Pac-Man, arrived to make history. Moreover, Pac-Man, also known as Pac-Man, represented a change in the type of games that had been successful up to that time.
With 255 playable levels, this yellow circle that has to eat the dots while running away from four ghosts even achieved the Guinness World Record for the best-selling arcade machine of all time between 1981 and 1987 with almost 300,000 units.
1980s: video game consoles and handheld consoles
The arrival of video games in the home (and even on the street) marked a new breakthrough in the development of the industry. Let’s look at the main features of these devices.
Video game consoles
Although video game consoles became popular in the 1980s, they originated in the 1970s. What was the first video game console in history? Well, the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972 – although the idea had been around since 1968 – a machine that, due to its hardware limitations, had neither sound nor the ability to count players’ scores.
Three years later, in 1975, came the Atari Pong, based on the arcade video game of the same name in what was the second video game console in history.
From those first two video game consoles to the present day, continuous technological advances have led to enormous advances in these devices, which are classified into nine different generations, with the third and fourth (known as the 8-bit and 16-bit) being the ones that led to their popularisation.
The arrival in the 1980s of the Mega Drive and SEGA’s Master System or Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), from which came Super Mario Bros, or the Super Nintendo were some of the first video game consoles to enter thousands of homes.
The 1990s brought the fifth generation of game consoles (such as the Nintendo 64 or the PlayStation), while the sixth generation involved a change in the format of video games: from traditional cartridges to larger storage devices such as DVDs.
The seventh generation came with wireless controllers, among other things, while the eighth generation moved to the Internet as the backbone of communications between game consoles. The current ninth generation has many technological advances such as 4K or even 8K resolution.
Pocket consoles
At the same time, many companies were also developing pocket video game consoles, the first video game to appear on the market with its own LCD screen being the Mattel Auto Race in 1976.
Three years later, in 1979, the Milton Bradley Microvision became the first handheld game console with interchangeable games, a format that would be popularised worldwide by Nintendo with the Game Boy just 10 years later, in 1989.
These pocket-sized game consoles are characterised by having the screen, controls, batteries and speakers integrated into a single, small device to make it easy to carry and play games on the go.
History of eSports
Parallel to the evolution and history of video games runs the history of eSports, electronic sports that even have professionals who are dedicated to it through organised leagues or worldwide events that bring together millions of followers.
Before learning more about the origin and history of eSports, it should be clarified that for a video game to be considered an eSport, it must meet some requirements such as having rules for participation, having an organised league or reaching a high number of players to arouse interest.
Origin of eSports
Going back to the origin of these competitions, we find that the first one took place in 1972 with the curiosity that the renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz was in charge of immortalising the event, the ‘Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics’ developed at Stanford University, with one of the pioneering video games as we have seen above.
Eight years later, in 1980, New York City hosted a competition that brought together 10,000 players in what was the first major official and recorded tournament in the history of video games, with Space Invaders as its flagship.
The development of home video game consoles and the continuous improvements in network connectivity have meant that the popularity of this type of competition has continued unstoppably, reaching, for example, the figure of more than 70 million streaming viewers for the 2022 League of Legends final.
