The first video game

[Techno]

Found this really neat documentary on YouTube about the origins of video games. What do you think about it?

 

[Kane99]

14 minutes ago, Techno said:

Found this really neat documentary on YouTube about the origins of video games. What do you think about it?

 

Thanks for sharing. I'll put this on my watch later on YouTube. I'd watch it now, but I can't pay attention to something else. 

I thought the first video game was made back in the early 70s, but in reality the first video game was closer back to the 1940s, at least according to this article below: 

https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/what-was-the-first-video-game/

The article talks about world fairs where some a game was showed off, one being in the 1940s and another in the 1950s. The same article goes on how to discuss how things were started even further back in the late 1800s, when they mention computers, and a game TIT-TAT-TO. 

It's not close to what we have today, but it's pretty interesting to see how far we've come. 

[Empire]

Considering that both of the people that came to the same conclusion about the first videogame are an university professor close to Strachey and the co-founder of Lucas Film computer division, you ought to be proud of your research Stuart. I awfully regret not watching this video the day it came out, absolute masterpiece. very educational. very insightful. historic, even for the development of man kind. Tennis for Two is so elegant, it almost deserves the first in my view. It has movement, very natural and yet unique motion. Gr8 piece.

[Justin11]

I know Atari is probably the first ever video game console and this documentary Just made it a lot more clearer.

The pong game looks simple but the idea was way ahead of its time and that has led us to the current advancement in the world of video games.

[Crazycrab]

2 hours ago, Justin11 said:

I know Atari is probably the first ever video game console and this documentary Just made it a lot more clearer.

The pong game looks simple but the idea was way ahead of its time and that has led us to the current advancement in the world of video games.

 

What are you talking about? There were multiple home computers, Pong machines and the Magnavox Odyssey the predate the (presumed) Atari 2600 and that's just the seventies.  If you had actually watched even the first 10 minutes of the documentary you would know that there are several games and related hardware that pre-date Pong and Atari by several decades.  "The pong game looks simple but the idea was way ahead of its time", except that the very similar Tennis for Two was presented over a decade earlier.

 

On topic, A very interesting documentary.  I knew that there were games on old computers and oscilloscope type displays but never really learned any of the details.  Thanks for posting @Techno. 

[Justin11]

1 hour ago, Crazycrab said:

 

What are you talking about? There were multiple home computers, Pong machines and the Magnavox Odyssey the predate the (presumed) Atari 2600 and that's just the seventies.  If you had actually watched even the first 10 minutes of the documentary you would know that there are several games and related hardware that pre-date Pong and Atari by several decades.  "The pong game looks simple but the idea was way ahead of its time", except that the very similar Tennis for Two was presented over a decade earlier.

 

On topic, A very interesting documentary.  I knew that there were games on old computers and oscilloscope type displays but never really learned any of the details.  Thanks for posting @Techno. 

I wasn't even referring to the first ever video game but I was actually talking about table top Consoles like Atari, Xbox and PlayStation.

Or are you suggesting that they have been other table top Consoles available before the Atari 2600.

[Crazycrab]

56 minutes ago, Justin11 said:

I wasn't even referring to the first ever video game but I was actually talking about table top Consoles like Atari, Xbox and PlayStation.

Or are you suggesting that they have been other table top Consoles available before the Atari 2600.

 

No that's not what I'm suggesting, I'm stating it as an undeniable fact.  The Atari 2600 was the system that popularised the use of interchangeable cartridges and peripherals which revolutionised the market, but it wasn't the first.  As I mentioned there were several home Pong consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey (which evolved form the "Brown Box" mentioned in the video), the Commodore TV Game, probably more.

[Justin11]

15 minutes ago, Crazycrab said:

 

No that's not what I'm suggesting, I'm stating it as an undeniable fact.  The Atari 2600 was the system that popularised the use of interchangeable cartridges and peripherals which revolutionised the market, but it wasn't the first.  As I mentioned there were several home Pong consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey (which evolved form the "Brown Box" mentioned in the video), the Commodore TV Game, probably more.

Okay, now I get the difference but it was undeniably one of it's kind when it was released.

[Shagger]

@Justin11

 

Before you get tempted to keep arguing with @Crazycrab, might I suggest you do what you should have to being with, but clearly didn't do and that's watch the video in @Techno's OP and/or do a little research. All that you are inputting to this thread is load of assumptions without putting in effort into actually figuring out if they are correct. As a result, it's not exactly suppressing that every single one of those assumptions, from the Atari 2600 ( BTW, as @Crazycrab pointed out, there have been serval different Atari consoles, so you're going to have to start being more specific.) being the first home console to pong being "ahead of it's time" when games like Tennis for Two and the very similar tennis game on the Brown Box both existed before. Again, things you would know if had bothered to watch the video or do your own research. I know the video is an hour long, but if you can't be bothered to watch it or do your own research you have no business commenting this thread. The bare minimum respect you are expected to show the OP of a topic (In this case, that being @Techno) is to observe all the content in the post by reading it in full and watching whatever video clips are included. If you can't be bother to do that, don't reply. Nobody creates topics on this forum to give you a new blank space to help you add your tally.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Shagger

[Shagger]

Now that have finished watching the video, I must say thanks for sharing @Techno, great documentary. And of course hats off the Stuart Brown for creating it. Not only was it interesting, detailed and brilliantly researched, it was also great in it's presentation. Showing all the displayed information in the style of a microfilm projector was inspired, a brilliant idea.

[Smokey]

For me, my first video game was Sonic the Hedgehog in 1992. I was 2 years old, or about to turn 2. Been playing ever since. 🙂  I'm 32 now. Time flies when you're gaming!