The Villages - November 2020 - 31

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"Spacewar!" photo by Joi Ito | CC BY 2.0.
"Pong home concsole" photo by Evan-Amos | CC BY-SA 3.0

LOVE AT FIRST BYTE

It may be human nature that as soon as we
create something useful, we immediately have
to see how we can use it for fun.
Such was the case as digital computers
became commonplace in the 1950s and 60s.
In 1954, programmers at Los Alamos National
Laboratory - the home of the Manhattan
Project and the birthplace of the atomic bomb
- developed the first blackjack game on a
computer. A couple of years later in 1956,
artificial intelligence pioneer Arthur Samuel
"taught" a computer how to play checkers, and
eventually the program was able to defeat a
checkers master.
Where other early games were confined
to a single computer, Spacewar! became the
first shareable game in 1962. Featuring two
spaceships flying around a star, Spacewar!
gave early gamers the ability to shoot torpedoes
at each other while avoiding the star and
other obstacles. Steve Russell developed the
game while attending MIT, and Spacewar!
was shared and expanded upon by other
programmers and anyone who asked for a
copy of the game's code. Despite the game's
legendary status as the first digital computer
game, Russell and the other developers never
made any money from the game.

SPACEWAR!, 1962

TWO PONGS MAKE A RIGHT

In 1971, fledgling video game company Atari was looking
to create the next hit game. Founder Nolan Bushnell hired
programmer Allan Alcorn - who had no prior experience
in video games - and tasked him with creating a simple
game as a warm-up project. The result was Pong, made from
a $75 TV from a local store, a wooden cabinet and a coin
mechanism from a laundromat.
The pair made a deal with a local tavern to place the
prototype there alongside its pinball machines and jukebox,
and Pong was a hit. In fact, it was so popular, the owner of
the tavern contacted Alcorn a few days later to complain of
technical issues with the prototype machine - when they
inspected the game, they discovered it had overflowed with
quarters, which were spilling inside the cabinet.
Pong went on to be a huge influence on the video
game industry - it was one of the first home
video games and it helped make video game
arcades a part of '70s and '80s pop culture.

PONG HOME CONSOLE, 1975

MAGAZINE

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The Villages - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - November 2020
