From: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu (have clue, will travel)
Subject: Re: The first video game (Was: First side-scrolling game.)
Originator: jecoleb@c00026-118dan.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu
Organization: The Ghost Of Christmas Past Society
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 21:08:53 GMT


rls@ihlpb.att.com writes:
>jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov writes:
>>jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu writes:
>> > As for the first video arcade game -- Pong lives on. ;)
>> 
>> Pong was NOT the first video game.  The first video game was Spaceship or
>> Starship or something like that (I forget the name).  It was an asteroids-ish
>> space battle game (without the asteroids, but two player, I think) that had
>> controls which were "confusing".  I remember when I was really small seeing
>> one of the these machines.  As I recall, I found it hard to play.  Because
>> of it's failure (due to the confusing controls) the next video game
>> created was pong, it's primary feature was that it had one and only one
>> control -- it was simple.  It was a smash success and the rest, as they
>> say, was all down hill, no, I mean, history!  :-)  (or is it :-( ???)
>> 
>> Steve

>I think you are referring to Space Wars which was first implemented
>on some big main frames before released as a commercial game.  As far
>as the first real commercially released game, according to "The Video
>Invaders", recently loaned to me by David Hanes, (thanks) the first
>one was Computer Space released in 1970 and it didn't even have a
>computer in it.  I remember the game as it had a molded metal-flake
>fiberglass body.  Charleton Heston's girl friend in the movie Solent
>Green played it a bit.  The game didn't do so well but was out way
>before the others.

  Spacewar was created by Steve "Slug" Russell at M.I.T. in the '60s, which
led to Computer Space some time later in the early '70s.  (Killer List gives
commercial release date as '72, but I won't fight it.  JONATHAN...)
  Space WARS came out in the late eighties, from Cinematronics, and was mostly
the original PDP-11 Spacewar recompiled for a smaller machine along with all
of its best-loved options.  Don't know MUCH about Computer Space, but Space
Wars DID have some slightly confusing options.  (Hey, this was the early
seventies. Pocket calculators were confusing to a lot of people then.)
  As both Computer Space and Pong are listed as '72 and I was two years old
at the time, I think I'll leave the chicken-and-the-egg debate for those more
wizened than myself. (Ah, but Mortal Street Kombat Fighting pales beside a
Lunar Lander, or a Tank, or a Sea Wolf, or a Quadrapong, or a Death Race 2000,
or an Indy 500, or a Breakout...  *memories...*)

Let's go this far:
First game *with commercial impact* : Pong, Atari '72.
First game with MAJOR commercial impact : Space Invaders, Taito/Midway '78.
First game I played so much that I walked away from
the machine with actual physical ailments : Blaster, Williams. ;) 


-- 
----------jeff the wonder llama, jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu

------"I am a penis. Worship me."--lead singer of rock band Bicycle Face,
     vainly attempting to gain attention of the crowd at the Cat's Cradle 
     in Chapel Hill, while opening for Mojo Nixon & The Toad Liquors
Xref: sparky rec.games.video.arcade:7870 alt.games.sf2:3178