Video games - Computer and video games

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	Video games - Computer and video games

:For the list, see list of computer and video games.

A computer game is a computer-controlled game. A video game is a computer game where a video display such as a monitor or television is the primary feedback device. The term "computer game" also includes games which display only text (and which can therefore theoretically be played on a teletypewriter) or which use other methods, such as sound or vibration, as their primary feedback device, but there are very few new games in the latter category and almost all of the games in the former category are of mainly historical interest. There must also be some sort of input device, usually in the form of button/joystick combinations (on arcade games), a keyboard & mouse/trackball combination (PC games), or a controller (console games), or a combination of any of the above. Also, more esoteric devices have been used for input (also see Game controller). Usually there are rules and goals, but in more open-ended games the player may be free to do whatever they like within the confines of the virtual universe.

The phrase interactive entertainment is the formal reference to computer and video games. To avoid ambiguity, this game software is referred to as "computer and video games" throughout this article, which explores properties common to both types of game.

In common usage, "computer game" or "PC game" refers specifically to games played on a personal computer, "console game" refers to games played on specifically-designed set top box, that play through a TV and "video game" (or "videogame") refers to any game played on a device that plays through your TV but also includes PC, Console, Mobile Phone or PDA or other handheld device.

For specific information regarding "computer games", see personal computer game.

For specific information regarding "console games", see console game.

History

The Beginnings

The first primitive computer and video games were developed in the 1950s and 60's and ran on platforms such as oscilloscopes, university mainframes and EDSAC computers. The first video game was a version of tic-tac-toe named Noughts and Crosses, created in 1952 by A. S. Douglas, as part of his doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University. The game ran on a large university computer called the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator.

In 1958, William Higginbotham - who previously helped build the first atomic bomb - created Tennis for Two at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York to entertain visitors at the lab's annual open house. In 1962 MIT's Steven Russell created Spacewar!. The game ran on a massive PDP-1 computer. The game spread quickly to universities and research facilities around the country. In 1968 Ralph Baer, who would later be known as the "Father of Video Games", applied for a patent for an early version of a video game console named the "Television Gaming and Training Apparatus." In 1970, Baer created a ping-pong like game for the console that resembled Tennis for Two (and the future 1972 arcade game Pong). He worked with Magnavox to create and release the first console, named the Magnavox Odyssey, in 1972.
The Golden Age
Arcade games were developed in the 1970s and led to the so-called "Golden Age of Arcade Games
". The first coin-operated arcade game was Computer Space, created in 1971 by Nolan Bushnell. In these pre arcade days, the game was placed in bars and taverns. The game required players to read a set of instructions before playing, and never became a hit in the bar scene. In the spring of 1972, Bushnell attended a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey system in Burlingame, California, and played Baer's ping-pong game for the first time. Soon afterwards Bushnell and a friend formed a new company, Atari. Nolan envisioned creating a driving game for arcades. He hired an electronic engineer named Al Alcorn and directed him to build a ping-pong game. The game Alcorn created was so fun that Nolan decided to go ahead and market it. Since the name Ping-Pong was already trademarked, they settled on simply calling it PONG. The intuitive interface led the game to be wildly successful in the bar scene and ushered in the era of arcades.
Consoles and Beyond
The 1970s saw the release of the first home video game consoles. The patent for Ralph Baer's Magnavox Odyssey was granted in 1972, and paved the way for the next wave of home consoles. The late 1970s to early 1980s brought about the improvement of home consoles and the release of the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Colecovision. The video game crash of 1983, however, produced a dark age in the market that was not filled until the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) reached North America in 1985. This presented Americans with games such as Mario Bros.
and many others of today's popular Nintendo genre.
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