Electronic Games

There are two broad classes of electronic games: video games, which are designed for specific video-game systems, handheld devices, and coin-operated arcade consoles; and computer games, which are played on personal computers.

Electronic games are a popular pastime for both children and adults. Categories include strategy games, sports games, adventure and exploration games, card and board games, puzzle games, fast-action arcade games, and flying simulations. Software programs that employ game-play elements to teach reading, writing, problem solving, and other basic skills combine fun with education and are sometimes called edutainment.

From their crude origins in the late 1950s and 1960s, electronic games have become a multi-billion dollar industry that uses the latest computer technology to produce ever-more realistic game experiences. Electronic game sales (hardware and software) were estimated at $9.4 billion in the United States in 2001, eclipsing the U.S. motion-picture industry’s $8.35 billion in box-office receipts. In the same year, several studies noted that the majority of video-game players were aged 18 or older.

EARLY EFFORTS

In 1958 Willy Higginbotham, an engineer at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, used an oscilloscope (an instrument for visually representing electrical current) to build what is considered the first electronic game. In this game—which he called Tennis for Two—players used knobs to control rectangular paddles as they batted a “ball” back and forth over a vertical line representing a net. Higginbotham never made any attempt to market or patent his game.

Steven Russell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created the first computer game—Spacewar!—on a Digital Equipment PDP-1 computer in 1961. The PDP-1 was unusual for the time because it featured a screen, unlike most computers that still had only printed readouts. In Spacewar! two players dueled using tiny ships that flew around a screen representing a star field. The game attempted to mimic the actual physics of space flight. Like Higginbotham, Russell did not patent or market his game; one use was to test computers during installations.

While attending the University of Utah in the mid-1960s, an engineering student named Nolan Bushnell became familiar with Spacewar! In 1968 Bushnell moved to California and experimented with reproducing Russell’s game without using a computer, which at the time were too large and expensive for a commercial game. Eventually, he created a version of Spacewar! that used a black-and-white television set and dedicated circuits (electronic hardware created to run a single program). He persuaded a company called Nutting Associates to manufacture the game, and in 1971 the company began marketing the first video arcade game: Computer Space.

VIDEO GAMES

The term video game generally refers to interactive entertainment programs that are projected onto television-type screens, either by coin-operated arcade games or dedicated game-playing computers called video-game consoles. Some video-game systems feature built-in screens, such as Game Boy, a popular handheld system manufactured by Nintendo, and Vectrex, a tabletop console made by General Consumer Electronics in the early 1980s.

In 1966 a small team of engineers at a military contractor called Sanders Associates produced a device for projecting rudimentary interactive games onto a television screen. The team created several shooting and sports games, including a table-tennis simulation similar to Tennis for Two. Rather than market the game itself, Sanders licensed the technology to Magnavox, a company that manufactured televisions and other home electronics. Magnavox packaged the invention as Odyssey, the first home video-game console, and released it in 1972.

The Atari Era

After seeing a demonstration of Odyssey, Nolan Bushnell founded Atari Corporation in mid-1972. His first product was a coin-operated tennis game called Pong, a close imitation of the Magnavox game. Pong became the first commercially successful video game. Pong and video-game technology brought new life to the amusement games industry. Prior to Pong, devices such as pinball and electromechanical games were found mostly in bowling alleys, bars, and pool halls. As video games became increasingly popular, especially among children, dedicated amusement arcades would become widespread.

In 1975 Atari released a home version of Pong, which became one of the best-selling products of the December holiday season. Several other companies decided to enter the market the following year, including Fairchild Camera and Instrument, which released the first console to use interchangeable cartridges rather than built-in games.

In 1977 Atari released its first cartridge console, the Video Computer System (also known as the 2600). Although not an immediate success, the 2600 eventually became an international phenomenon, and more than 20 million of the machines sold worldwide. Atari made games for the system but also allowed other companies to produce games under licensing agreements. In 1978 Bushnell left Atari to open Pizza Time Theaters, a chain of restaurants that featured the Chuck E. Cheese character and a vast selection of video games.