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The Birth of PC Gaming

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the hunt-that-wumpus dept.

jayintune writes "2old2play has an article up talking about the birth of PC gaming and how computers turned into entertainment. From the article, 'It's difficult to pin down what the first true PC game was. Broadly defined, early computer games date back to primitive missile simulators (circa 1947) and Tic-Tac-Toe games on very early computers with analog electronics. These computers were essentially glorified calculators with a bit of storage (in some cases, "storage" meant the position of a physical relay as big as your fist, or the on/off condition of a vacuum tube).'"

2 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. Digital vs Analog Computers by technoextreme · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bleh... First of all the article is talking about digital computers and not analog. Technically speaking if you include analog computers then MIT wasn't the first. Brookhaven National Laboratory actually built a game called Tennis for Two using an analog computer. Essentially, it was Pong.
    http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/videogame.html

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    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
    1. Re:Digital vs Analog Computers by grumbel · · Score: 4, Informative

      ### Brookhaven National Laboratory actually built a game called Tennis for Two using an analog computer. Essentially, it was Pong.

      You are correct that Tennis for Two was probally the very first video game, however it was basically nothing like Pong, sure, both 'simulated' tennis, but thats where the similarities stop. Tennis for Two has a sideview, simulates gravity and allows the player to control the angle at which he reflects the ball, while Pong is top down and has a panel that you can move up and down. Tennis for Two looks really looks quite a bit more impressive and while Pong has been cloned thousands of times, I havn't yet seen a Tennis for Two clone.