In the 1950s, simple games began to be developed. However, the first device created which a simple game could be played on was the Cathode- Ray Tube Amusement Device, which was in 1948. It simulated a missile firing at a target. It was really basic, as graphics could not be drawn electronically, small targets were placed on the screen using overlays. The missile could be controlled with knobs that adjusted the curve and speed of the missile. Between 1949 and 1950, the bouncing ball program was developed for the Whirlwind computer. In 1951 a draughts program was written, but the computer it was designed for did not have enough memory to run it. It was also in this year that an inventor, Ralph Baer, who was working in developing television technologies, had the idea that audiences should be able to manipulate the images that were shown on their tv screens. However, when he suggested this to the supervisor, the company was too behind schedule to take this idea further. If they had been able, they may have advanced the development of games onto our television screens a lot faster. In 1958, a game was created with an oscilloscope and en analog computer. It was called 'Tennis for two', and involved hitting a ball over a net. This was made available for visitors to play in the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
It was in the 1960s where games began to progress from experiments into publically accessible. most games created up to this point were made as hobbies, including 'Spacewar!' (1961). This was a program created by students at MIT for the new DEC PDP-1 computer. It involved two players controlling spaceships. They had to fire missile at each other and avoid the star at the centre of the screen. This was distributed to other DEC PDP-1 computers and was a major landmark. It was later, in 1961, that Ralph Baer came back to previous idea for a machine that could play games. He joined with a co-worker and created the first game that could be displayed on a t-v screen, called chase. This was a major milestone in videogame history. He and his colleague, Bill Harrison, and Bill Rusch continued to develop some more simple games , and by 1969 they were able to show their finished product to Sanders' R&D department, the place that they were working at the time.
Although there was a lot of advancement in the technical development of games, it was only really in the 1970s that games became available to the public. Arcade games started to be made as computer technology became more sophisticated and widespread. The first coin operated video game was the 'Galaxy Game', which was installed at Stanford University in 1971. It was based on 'SpaceWar!', as was another game made that year called 'Computer Space'. This game was brought by Nutting Associates who manufactured 1,500 machines. The game was a flop, but was the first mass produced video game. The creators, Bushnell and Dabney went and founded Atari in 1972 and released their next game 'Pong' which was very successful. They went on to release 'Asteroids' in 1979. Other successful arcade games of the time included games like 'Space Invaders' by Taito.
This is also the decade that the first generation of consoles were released, allowing the public to play games in their own homes. The first console released was Ralph Baers, which Magnavox brought and released it as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. It used cartridges, and came with different overlays to add colour by placing them over the tv screen. Other concoles released in the 70s where the Magnavox Odyssey 200 (1975), Atari/ Sears Telegames Pong (1975), Coleco Telstar (1976) and the Nintendo Colour TV Game (1977)
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