The history of video games is very interesting, starting back in the 1950s, at first used only for training and research programs. But as time passed, and this technology progressed, it became more common and its uses varied.
It was the Canadians and the British, the first to build computers capable of playing computer games. From the Canadians, Bertie the Brain was born, and it could play tic-tac-toe. The British gave us Nimrod, a computer capable of playing the game of Nim.
Today, the world wouldn’t be the same without video games, for a gamer knowing where it all begun is a must. The early history of this industry is long, but we can summarize it by learning about the most prominent games of that time. I’ve put together a list with the top 25 computer games from the beginning of video game history.
Tennis for Two
Released as a tech demo in 1958 by William Higinbotham Tennis for Two is arguably the first computer game ever created simply for entertainment. The game recreated a tennis match seeing from the side, where two players would compete against each other. The game was played by an aluminum controllers that had a button that hit the ball and a knob that adjusted the angle of the ball.
Spacewar!
Developed in the MIT in 1962, Spacewar! is one of the precursors of all video games. In this game two ships (the Needle and the Wedge) face each other trying to shoot each other down while sorting the dangers of fighting to close to a star.
Star Trek
Taking advantage of the popularity of the TV series with the same name, the game Star Trek was released in 1971. This is a text-based strategy game where you control the Enterprise and your goal is to hunt Klingon warships. Your game will end if you destroy all Klingon warships, your ship gets destroyed, or the time limit runs out. The game is written in BASIC programming language.
Pong
Pong was released in 1972 by Atari and by many this is considered the first game ever. While technically that’s not true since there were many games before Pong, this game was definitely the first commercially successful computer game in history. Pong is essentially a digital version of table tennis.
Maze War
Developed between 1972 and 1973, Maze War is considered along with Spasim as the ancestors of the first-person shooter genre. Maze War is also considered the first multi-player game played between peer-to-peer computers. This means that in a sense this game could be the ancestor of modern online gaming. The goal of the game is to find and shoot other players.
