History of video games/1960-1969

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  Spacewar! running on a PDP-1.
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  Ralph Baer with his "Brown Box" prototype. This device was a forerunner to the first commercial game console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

A small market

During the 1960's the Video Game Industry was a rather small market, and were more often than not used as a novelty attraction or the hobby project of an academic than a serious product category. In spite of that this decade would not only host some key developments in foundational technologies, some rather significant developments would be made in video gaming directly.

The PLATO Educational computer terminal system is launched after being developed from 1959 through 1960, later giving rise to a number of early multiplayer games in the 1970's once adoption picked up.

Adaptations of the game of Nim were quite popular during the this decade. In 1962 the mainframe game Marienbad is developed in Poland as a Nim adaptation. Dr. Nim is a dedicated mechanical digital computer game that used marbles instead of a screen launched at some point during the 1960's.

For more information about some early mainframe games, please read the chapter on early games.

Computer Technology Improves

A transparent compact cassette, showing the magnetic tape.

As Computing technology was spurred on by demand from Cold War era policies and business needs, several developments were made that would go on to impact gaming technology as well.

Reed-Solomon Code is invented in 1960, allowing for more reliable telecommunication and optical media, which would later be used by gaming systems. It is also used by more obscure game media, such as Nintendo E-Reader cards.

Project Xanadu begins in 1960 and becomes a significant early attempt at implementing hypertext, as well as an early prominent example of vaporware. This is a key development in the realization of hypertext, and eventually it's more popular competitor, the World Wide Web, plays host to a number of web games.

An early computer animation is rendered in Sweden 1960 and broadcast in 1961. Eventually computer generated imagery, or CGI for short, becomes a common way of generating rich visuals for games.

In October 1962 the first red LED is invented. This paves the way for cheap indicator lights in consoles and computers, as well as the red LED arrays that made consoles like the Entex Adventure Vision and the Virtual Boy possible.

In 1963 the Dutch company Phillips brings the compact cassette to market. Cassette tapes would later be used as a popular medium for computer games during the late 1970's and 1980's. The Cassette's popularity among gamers in Europe was particularly notable. By the 1980's the cassette proved popular among computer gamers in the Netherlands, as game software was distributed on radio broadcasts, where they could easily be recorded in standard players then loaded into computers.

In 1968 Digi Grotesk is created, one of the first known digital typefaces. Digital typography would become a key component of visual design in any video game which used text, and designers would quickly leverage type itself as a way they could further immerse the player in their games, improve visual clarity of game elements, and further their own artistic goals.

Doug Englebart

A mouse prototype which began development in 1964 by Doug Engelbart and Bill English.

Doug Englebart invents the mouse in 1964. Following years of development, on December 9th, 1968 Doug Englebart hosts the "Mother of All Demos" where he demonstrates a number of concepts, such as a computer mouse, digital maps, hyperlinks, real time collaboration in the same environment, and video chat. The concepts demonstrated by Doug Englebart in the Mother of All Demos would eventually be deployed in the gaming industry, either in games themselves or by video game developrs.

Space Race

The space race spawned a number space age technologies and a media frenzy. From these developments, the space race spurred several key developments in the gaming industry, either through direct technological development, or by inspiring space themed games.

A PDP-1 computer with Spacewar! creator Steve Russell.

Spacewar! for the PDP-1 computer was among the first digital video games, and featured two players fighting around a gravity pulling star. It's open source nature also soon leads to some of the first video game mods.

In March 1969 Bell Labs changed focus, spurring programmer Ken Thompson to port his video game Space Travel from the expensive to run GE-645 computer to a cheaper PDP-7 he had access to, eventually resulting in the creation of the Unix operating system. Unix derived and compatible operating systems would go on to directly power a number of gaming devices, such as the PlayStation 4. Unix and compatible operating systems would also go onto power a number of gaming adjacent devices, such as game servers, or mobile phones.

During the space race NASA created demand for then emerging technologies spurring their development, like microchips. This helped to promote the miniaturization of consumer electronics.

On July 20th, 1969 humans lands on the Moon for the first time, with the historic moment televised across the globe. This moment defines a generation, and many are deeply moved by this momentous occasion. Among those captivated by the Apollo 11 moon landing is Hideo Kojima, who would later develop games inspired by space travel, such as Policenauts.

Influence of Literature

The literature of the late 1950's and 1960's had a large influence on the plots of many video games in later years. One of the most notable examples Bioshock (2007) took inspiration from Atlas Shrugged (1957) 50 years later to explore the society advocated by the novel, and would also offer a deconstruction by illustrating the pitfalls of such a society. A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) would go on to inspire the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout (1997), with both using a theme of a religious order safeguarding old world relics in a post-nuclear landscape. Dune (1965) was a major work of science fiction literature which would go on to influence a number of foundational science fictin games, shaping genres in a media which barely yet existed. The 1959 novel Starship Troopers is commonly credited with popularizing the concept of "Power Armor", a concept later found in other science fiction media, including many video games.

1960's Gaming History Gallery

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  Gameplay of Spacewar! - Graphical games of the era were simplistic, yet conveyed a message with their meager resources.
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  Screenshot of the 1969 game Space Travel. Mainframe games were often similar to simulations.
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  The Apollo 11 put Humans on the Moon for the first time, inspiring a people across the planet. This monumental event would influence a number of creators, including many pioneering figures of the gaming industry.
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  The Manchestrer Atlas computer in January 1963. Most of the powerful computers of the 1960's took up a whole room, and cost significant amounts of money to operate by the hour. This often precluded their use in home or arcade environments.
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  Wonderland Arcade located in Kansas City, Missouri in 1968. These businesses used mechanical games that predated arcade video games, but would quickly adopt electronic games in the decades to follow.