PC Gaming: A New Dawn
The PC, in terms of gaming, is sometimes referred to as the “Master Race” when it comes to the debate of what system games should be played on. This is likely due to the power and ability to customize a gaming PC. While which system is truly best can definitely be debated and argued from different angles, this isn’t my goal here. In this post, we will instead discuss the point at which PCs, or personal computers, entered into the gaming scene.
It turns out that answering this question can be somewhat tricky. This time it’s not because of the need to define anything in order to make a “fair comparison” or even make sense. The difficulty here is that there is seemingly no unanimous answer to the question. Using this, however, we’ll just loosen up the question and answer what the possibilities for the first PC game are.
Starting with the earliest “first” PC game, we have Tennis for Two. According to APS Physics, this game was created by Physicist William Higinbotham, in order to exhibit the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s instrumentation division’s work. Higinbotham thought that most of the exhibits were rather dull and wanted to create an interactive exhibit. Using tennis as an inspiration, like Pong, but before Pong, Higinbotham created Tennis for Two in October of 1958.
“Players could turn a knob to adjust the angle of the ball, and push a button to hit the ball towards the other player. As long as they pressed the button when the ball was in their court, players couldn’t actually miss the ball, but if they hit it at the wrong time or hit it at the wrong angle, the ball wouldn’t make it over the net. Balls that hit the ground would bounce like a real tennis ball. When the ball went off the court or into the net, players hit a reset button to start the next round.”
–APS Physics
Moving on to the next “first” PC game, we have Spacewar! Using jesperjuul, we find that “The first computer game is generally assumed to be the game Spacewar!, developed in 1962 at MIT.” While we may not know what to believe about the first computer/PC game, we’ll keep on rolling.
“Spacewar originally ran on a PDP-1 computer the size of a large car.”
–jesperjuul
As jesperjuul explains, the game consisted of two space ships, each controlled by a player, circling a planet. Players were able to turn their ships, accelerate, and shoot. The goal was simple: Shoot before being shot.
These two, Tennis for Two, and Spacewar!, may have been simple games when compared to games released today, but they ushered in an era of PC gaming that would last for years and bring many people hours of entertainment.
Fun Fact: Spacewar! released 10 years before Pong, which some people may consider to have been the first game. This thought may just be an error due to not knowing about the games before it, or the fact that Pong became exceptionally popular and eclipsed those that came before it.
Internet Cafe image from: kppc.com.au
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