• Question: Who made the first ever video game?

    Asked by danielius to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      I would be really interested to know this, too, I can’t wait to hear what Mike, the computer games expert, has to say about this!

    • Photo: Michael Cook

      Michael Cook answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Ah, great question!

      Around the late 1940s and early 1950s, most computers were in science laboratories. They were absolutely huge, very complicated, broke easily and were massively expensive – if we spent today’s lab budget in 1952, we would end up with a computer less powerful than the calculator you use in class!

      Scientists used computers to analyse all sorts of data and display useful information, but (as you might have guessed by talking to us) they also like to play around with things too! In 1952 a PhD student wrote a computer program to display a game of noughts and crosses. It was called OXO, and it’s probably the first ever game that runs on a computer and uses graphics. It was also made in the UK! The games industry started here!

      What’s the oldest videogame you’ve heard of?

    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      I remember my grandfather had a very old version of a computer game called ‘Pong’ which I think was developed in the 70s (so 20 years after OXO that Mike was talking about). It’s basically a game of tennis where you have control of one of the bats and move from side to side to hit the ball back to the other player/computer. If you miss the ball you lose points/lose.

      It actually seemed quite boring compared to the videogames we have now!

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