The earliest computer games emerged in the 1950s, not the 1970s
The first computer games were not Pong or Space Invaders. They were text-based and graphical experiments created by computer scientists in the 1950s on machines that filled entire rooms. OXO (also called Noughts and Crosses), built by Alexander S. Douglas in 1952 on the EDSAC computer at Cambridge University, is often cited as the first graphical game—a tic-tac-toe program that let a human player compete against the machine.
Before that, Tennis for Two, created by physicist William Higinbotham in 1958 on an oscilloscope at Brookhaven National Laboratory, showed a side-view tennis court where two players could hit a ball back and forth using controllers. It ran on a computer built for nuclear physics calculations and was displayed on a small screen, but it proved that games could be engaging enough to draw crowds at a laboratory open house.
These early games were not sold or distributed widely. They existed on single machines in universities and research labs, played by the scientists who built them and their colleagues. The technology was too expensive and specialized for home use, and the idea of games as entertainment had not yet occurred to most computer engineers.
Key Takeaways
- OXO (1952) and Tennis for Two (1958) predate Pong by more than a decade and are recognized as the first computer games, though they ran on room-sized machines in laboratories.
- Early computer games were created by physicists and engineers as experiments, not as commercial products, and were played on oscilloscopes and specialized displays.
- Spacewar!, released in 1962, was the first game to spread beyond a single institution, copied onto computers at other universities through the early computer network.
- Pong (1972) and the Atari 2600 (1977) brought games to arcades and homes, but they arrived more than 20 years after the first playable games were built.
Spacewar! was the first game to spread between computers
Spacewar!, created by MIT student Dan Edwards and others at MIT in 1962, was the first computer game to move beyond a single machine. It ran on the PDP-1, an early minicomputer that cost around $120,000. The game showed two spaceships firing at each other against a starfield, and players steered with control panels.
Because MIT shared its computers and software with other universities through ARPANET (the early version of the internet), Spacewar! was copied and modified at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other institutions. Students at each location tinkered with the code, adding new features and variations. This made Spacewar! the first game to have a distributed player base, even though that base was limited to computer science departments.
Spacewar! remained the most widely played computer game through the 1960s, but it was still confined to universities and research centers. The general public had no way to play it. Arcade games and home consoles did not exist yet.
Why Pong became famous when earlier games did not
Pong arrived in 1972, created by Atari and designed by Al Alcorn. It was not the first game, but it was the first game built specifically for commercial arcades—coin-operated machines placed in bars, restaurants, and amusement halls where anyone could pay to play. The game was straightforward: two paddles, a ball, and a score. It required no instructions and no computer knowledge.
Pong succeeded because of distribution and accessibility, not innovation. Tennis for Two had shown the same concept 14 years earlier, but it existed on a single oscilloscope in a laboratory. Pong existed in thousands of arcade cabinets. A teenager in any city could walk into an arcade and play it for a quarter.
The Atari 2600 home console, released in 1977, brought games into living rooms for the first time at a price ordinary families could afford. This is often called the beginning of the video game era, but it was really the beginning of the commercial era. The games themselves had been invented decades before.
Why the 1950s games are hard to remember
OXO, Tennis for Two, and Spacewar! are rarely mentioned in popular histories of gaming because they left no physical artifacts. They ran on computers that no longer exist or have been scrapped. No arcade cabinets survive. No cartridges were sold. The only evidence is photographs, written descriptions, and the memories of people who were there.
Pong and the Atari 2600, by contrast, are objects. Original arcade cabinets still exist in museums and private collections. Cartridges can be found at flea markets. The games were documented in magazines, advertisements, and television coverage. They are straightforward to point to and say, "This is where it started."
Computer historians have worked to recover the earlier games through interviews, archived code, and reconstructions. Some universities have rebuilt Tennis for Two and Spacewar! to show how they worked. But for most people, the history of video games begins with Pong because that is the first game they can actually see and play.
The difference between "first" and "most famous"
When people ask when the first computer game was created, they are usually asking one of two questions without realizing it. They might mean: When was the first game-like program written? (Answer: 1952, with OXO.) Or they might mean: When did games become something ordinary people could play? (Answer: 1972, with Pong in arcades, or 1977, with home consoles.)
Both answers are correct, depending on what you are measuring. If you care about the history of computing and how programmers thought about interactive software, the 1950s games matter. If you care about the history of entertainment and when games became a consumer product, the 1970s are the turning point.
How to learn more about early computer games
The Smithsonian Institution has documented early computer games and maintains information about their history. The Video Game History Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has interviewed many of the original creators and preserved their accounts. Several universities, including MIT and Stanford, have archives related to Spacewar! and other early games.
If you want to play reconstructions of these early games, emulators and recreations are available online. Some are faithful reproductions of the original code; others are modern interpretations based on descriptions and photographs. Playing them gives a sense of how straightforward and abstract the first games were compared to what came later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Pong really the first computer game?
No. Pong (1972) was the first commercially successful arcade game, but OXO (1952) and Tennis for Two (1958) were playable games on computers years earlier. Pong became famous because it was distributed widely in arcades, not because it was the first.
Could you play Tennis for Two at home?
No. Tennis for Two ran on a single oscilloscope at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958. It was displayed at a laboratory open house where visitors could play it, but there was only one copy and it was never sold or distributed. Home gaming did not exist until the Atari 2600 in 1977.
Why did Spacewar! spread to other universities?
MIT shared its computers and software with other universities through ARPANET, the early computer network. Students at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other institutions received copies of the code and modified it. This made Spacewar! the first game with players at multiple locations, though all were still in computer science departments.
Did the creators of early games make money?
No. OXO, Tennis for Two, and Spacewar! were created by scientists and students as experiments or demonstrations. They were not sold. Only when Atari created Pong as a commercial arcade game in 1972 did video games become a business.
What computer was used to create the first game?
OXO was created on the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) at Cambridge University in 1952. Tennis for Two ran on an analog computer at Brookhaven. Spacewar! used the PDP-1 minicomputer at MIT. All three were specialized machines that cost tens of thousands of dollars.