Who Invented Video Games

Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device

Imagine if the person who invented video games called video games a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device". Can you conceive of saying that to your friends? Well, that's what Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Estle Ray Mann titled their patent in 1947. While no actual physical device occurred, the patent told of a game that would allow a player to aim missiles at targets. The navy radars used in WWII were the inspiration for the game.

Tennis for Two

The very first video game was called Tennis for Two, a Pong-like game that was created in 1958. William Higinbotham developed the game on the oscilloscope, which measures voltage. He made the game to entertain visitors for visitors' day at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. If you want to be extremely technical, you can consider Higinbotham the first person who invented video games in arcade machine form.

Who Invented Video Games for the Computer

Three years after Tennis for Two popped up, Steve Russell, with the help of the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT, made the first computer game, Spacewar!. The game ran on a DEC Digital PDP-1 mainframe computer and was also the first game to gain extreme popularity rather quickly.

Ralph H. Baer

If you really want to know who invented video games, then look no further than Ralph H. Baer. He is considered "The Father of Video Games" and in 2006 George W. Bush gave Baer the National Medal of Technology for inventing the home gaming console and pretty much spearheading the video game industry.

In 1966, Baer began development of the "Brown Box" which would later be known as the Magnavox Odyssey when it reached the public in 1972. He also made the very first light gun, which was able to detect light on the television screen. The light gun came with Shooting Gallery and was the first add-on for a console.

Ralph H. Baer also invented the game Simon, which is still being addictively played today.

The First Commerical Arcade Game

Nutting Associates released and distributed the first commercial coin-operated arcade game in an official arcade cabinet. Computer Space was programmed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. While Computer Space" was the first video game to be played for money, the Odyssey home console became more popular faster. Around 1500 machines were sold to bars in the United States, but it was moderately popular because most players found the game too hard to pick up. People wanted to just learn the game in a few minutes.

Marketing and mass production drove what success Computer Space had. Two months before the official release, another coin-operated video game, Galaxy Game was built and placed at Stanford University. Programmed by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck, only one machine was built, but soon other units were built and placed around the campus so that players could play against each other. Galaxy Game can be considered the first online game.

Also, Galaxy Game can be considered the first game to have a next generation counterpart. In 1972, the game was improved so the computer chips could handle more than one console and cost less.

True Old School Gaming

When you say "old school gaming", most modern gamers probably think back to the early 1980s with Nintendo's release of the NES. Nintendo was not the company who invented video games. To be a true old school gamer, you had to have been around in the 60s and 70s to experience the first console, the first arcade machine, and the first online game. Sure you can get some older consoles on eBay and other classified sites, there just something about saying you were there to plunk down 10 cents on Spacewar!