page_title: History of video games
section_title: Birth of the video game industry (1971−1974)
hierarchical_section_title: History of video games / 1970s / Birth of the video game industry (1971−1974)
caption_attribution_description: English: Screenshot of PONG from the Atari Arcade Hits #1 software title released Hasbro Interactive - a conversion of the original 1972 Atari Pong
context_page_description: The history of video games goes as far back as the early 1950s, when academic computer scientists began designing simple games and simulations as part of their research or just for recreation. At M.I.T. in the 1960s, professors and students played games such as 3D tic-tac-toe and Moon Landing. These games were played on computers such as the IBM 1560, and moves were made by means of punch cards. Video gaming did not reach mainstream popularity until the 1970s and 1980s, when video arcade games and gaming consoles using joysticks, buttons, and other controllers, along with graphics on computer screens and home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since the 1980s, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern popular culture in most parts of the world.
  One of the early games was Spacewar!, which was developed by computer scientists. Early arcade video games developed from 1972 to 1978. During the 1970s, the first generation of home consoles emerged, including the popular game Pong and various "clones". The 1970s was also the era of mainframe computer games. The golden age of arcade video games was from 1978 to 1982.
context_section_description: In 1966, while working at Sanders Associates, Ralph Baer came up with an idea for an entertainment device that could be hooked up to a television monitor. Presenting this to his superiors at Sanders and getting their approval, he along with William Harrison and William Rasch refined Baer's concept into the "Brown Box" prototype of a home video game console that could play a simple table tennis game. The three patented the technology, and Sanders, not in the business of commercialization, sold licenses to the patents to Magnavox to commercialize. With Baer's help, Magnavox developed the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home console, in 1972.
  While Baer was developing the Brown Box, Nolan Bushnell had the opportunity to see Spacewar! being run on Stanford University's system around 1969. He told this to his coworker Ted Dabney and suggested they could build a coin-operated version of the game using a new low-cost small form-factor computer that had just been released commercially. By 1971, the two had developed Computer Space, the first recognized arcade game, which was produced by Nutting Associates.
  In 1972, Bushnell and Dabney decided to strike out on their own from Nutting and incorporated their preexisting partnership as Atari.  After seeing a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey ahead of its release, Bushnell charged new hire Allan Alcorn to create a version of that system's table tennis game as a practice project to familiarize himself with video game design.  Alcorn's version ended up being so fun that Atari decided to release it as Pong.  Available in limited quantities in late 1972, Pong began reaching the market in quantity in March 1973, after which it ignited a new craze for ball-and-paddle video games in the coin-operated amusement industry.  The success of Pong did not result in the displacement of traditional arcade amusements like pinball, but did lay the foundation for a successful video arcade game industry.  Roughly 70,000 video games, mostly ball-and-paddle variants, were sold in 1973 by a combination of recent startups like Atari, Ramtek, and Allied Leisure and established Chicago firms like Williams, Chicago Coin, and the Midway subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing.
  The video arcade game market remained in a state of flux for the remainder of the decade.  The ball-and-paddle market collapsed in 1974 due to market saturation, which led to a significant drop in video game sales.  Smaller manufacturers attempted to compensate by creating "cocktail table" cabinets for sale to non-traditional venues like higher class restaurants and lounges, but this market failed to fully develop.  Larger companies like Atari and Midway turned to new genres to remain successful, especially racing games, one-on-one dueling games, and target shooting games.  Early hits in these genres included Gran Trak 10 (1974) and Tank (1974) from Atari, and Wheels (1975), Gun Fight, (1975) and Sea Wolf (1976) from Midway.  Wheels and Gun Fight were licensed versions of Speed Race and Western Gun developed by the Taito Trading Company of Japan, marking the start of Japanese video game penetration into the United States.  Gun Fight was also one of the first arcade games to incorporate a microprocessor, starting a shift away from video arcade games engineered using dedicated TTL hardware to video games programmed in software.
  The video game was one of several concepts that helped to reform the image of the arcade as a seedy hangout for delinquents.  This in turn aided the growth of arcades in suburban shopping malls.  The principle pioneer of the shopping mall arcade was Jules Millman, who established an arcade in a shopping mall in Harvey, Illinois, in 1969.  By banning eating, drinking, and smoking, and maintaining a full staff at all times to keep an eye on the facilities, Millman created a safe environment where parents could feel safe leaving their older children while browsing other stores in the mall.  Millman founded American Amusements to establish more shopping mall arcades, which was purchased by Bally in 1974 and renamed A
caption: Pong was the first arcade game to ever receive universal acclaim.
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