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It was a very simple tennis game, similar to the classic 1970s video game Pong, and it was quite a hit at a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house.
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Spacewar, the first interactive computer game. It runs on a Digital PDP-1 mainframe computer, and the graphics are made up of ASCII text characters.
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Ralph Baer, an engineer at Sanders Associates, receives support from his company (a military electronics consulting firm in NH) to explore his idea of creating interactive games using a television.
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Baer and team are successful in creating two interactive TV games—a chase game and a tennis game. They are also able to manipulate a toy gun so that it detects spots of light on the TV screen.
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Computer Space becomes first video arcade game ever released. 1500 games are distributed. Public consensus is that it is too difficult to play.
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A U.S. patent is issued to Ralph Baer for "A Television Gaming Apparatus and Method"
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Magnavox's Odyssey, the first home video game system, is showcased at a convention in Burlingame, CA, and is released to the public later that year. Bushnell and Dabney found Atari. "Atari" is equivalent to "check" in a chess game. Al Alcorn is hired by Atari to program video games. The first game created by Atari is Pong. Ping-Pong, the original name, is already copyrighted, so the makers name it Pong after the sound of a ball hitting the paddle.
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Atari's Pong is released with help from Sears Roebuck, which finances the production of 150,000 units. It becomes the hottest selling Christmas present. Sears sells the product exclusively, with the Sears Tele-Games logo.
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Gunfight, the first "computer" game is released. It is the first game to use a microprocessor instead of hardwired solid-state circuits.
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Coleco releases its first home video-game console called Telstar.
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Atari introduces its first cartridge-based home video system called the Video Computer System which later becomes known as the Atari 2600. It retails for $249.95.
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Midway introduces Space Invaders into arcades. It is the first arcade game that tracks and displays high scores.
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The trackball makes its entrance into the video-game industry as the controller in Atari's new arcade game Football.
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Atari develops a handheld console that displays holograms. Named "Cosmos," this product was never released.
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Asteroids is the first game to allow high scorers to enter three character initials to be stored in the machine.
