The first computer game is generally considered to be Spacewar! , developed in 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Steve Russell and others. Spacewar! was a two-player space combat simulator running on the PDP-1 minicomputer, featuring vector graphics and a starfield background
. However, earlier electronic games existed that are sometimes cited as the first video games depending on the definition:
- Tennis for Two (1958), created by William Higinbotham, was a tennis simulation displayed on an oscilloscope and is often called the first video game designed purely for entertainment
- Oxo (1952), a tic-tac-toe game developed by Alexander S. Douglas on the EDSAC computer, is considered by some to be the first graphical video game running on a computer
- Even earlier, Nimrod (1951) was an electromechanical computer built to play the game of Nim, but it used lights rather than a video screen
In summary:
- The first widely recognized computer video game is Spacewar! (1962).
- The first video game for entertainment is often credited as Tennis for Two (1958).
- The first graphical computer game is sometimes considered Oxo (1952).
Among these, Spacewar! is the earliest computer game with graphical display and interactive gameplay on a programmable computer, making it the landmark first computer game
