The video game industry, about fifty years old, is today a thriving industry. In value, this market surpasses that of cinema, comics, and music combined. It has become an essential pillar of entertainment worldwide.
Although destined for many evolutions (virtual reality, cloud gaming, holographic games…), it has managed to create its own artistic, technical, and economic rules. Let’s look back at the key milestones of this pioneering period.
📅 Timeline: key dates (1948–1972)
- 1948: First concepts of interactive games in laboratories
- 1962: Space War, the first video game on screen
- 1967: Console prototype by Ralph Baer
- 1971: Invention of the microprocessor by Intel
- 1972: Launch of Pong, first commercial success
1962: the genesis of video games
In 1962, Steve Russell, a student at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), created the first video game using a cathode ray tube as a display.
Space War: the pioneer
Space War allows players to pilot a spaceship through an asteroid field. The game runs on a computer designed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC).
Notable fact: this game was never commercialized. Its creator never intended it for such a purpose. However, it was distributed for free in universities along with computers, becoming the first “open source” video game in history.
1967: the first TV console
Conceived by Ralph Baer for the company Sanders Associates, the first prototype of a gaming console designed for television appeared in 1967.
Ball and Paddle: the ancestor of Pong
The following year, a hockey simulation game called Ball and Paddle was programmed for this console. The concept:
- Two vertical bars placed at the edges of the screen (the paddles)
- A square changing direction when it hits a paddle (the ball)
⚠️ Problem: for economic reasons, electronic components were too expensive at the time. The project was not developed and the process was sold to Magnavox, which released the Odyssey in 1972.
1971: the microprocessor revolution
The computing sector experienced a major technological breakthrough: in 1971, an engineer at the young company Intel, Ted Hoff, invented the first microprocessor.
This innovation would enable the miniaturization and democratization of video games.
1972: Pong, the first commercial success
Nolan Bushnell, head of the company Atari (formerly Syzygy), was the first to successfully exploit the microprocessor in the gaming field.
Computer Space: the first arcade game
Computer Space, the first video game commercialized in arcades, was born in 1971. But it was deemed too complex and only 1,500 units were sold.
Pong: the beginning of the commercial era
After this unsuccessful attempt, Nolan Bushnell created Pong in 1972, which truly marked the beginning of the commercial video game history.
Characteristics of Pong:
- 📺 Designed for arcades
- 🎮 Compact wooden cabinet approximately 1.8 m tall
- 🕹️ Buttons for moving the paddles
- 👥 2-player mode only (no AI at the time)
The concept was simple: insert a coin to play. This model would become the standard for arcades for the next two decades.
Commercial success
- 1973: 10,000 units sold
- 1974: 90,000 additional units under license for other manufacturers
🎯 Pong became the first video game to achieve true commercial success and launched the video game industry as we know it today.
The legacy of this pioneering period
These founding years (1948–1972) laid the groundwork for what would become a multi-billion dollar industry:
- ✅ The concept of interactive gaming on screen
- ✅ Arcades as the first market
- ✅ Home consoles connected to the TV
- ✅ The coin-operated machine business model
📚 To go further
Interested in the history of video games? Discover the rest of our series:
- 🕹️ The 1970s: the explosion of consoles and the crash of 1983
- 🎮 The 1980s: Nintendo and the 8-bit era
- 👾 The 1990s: the 3D revolution and PlayStation
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Continue the series
Next article: The history of video games: the 1970s
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