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showing 20 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	description	platform
1620 Blackjack Demonstration	IBM	1962	Source: https://www.blackjackreview.com/wp/2021/10/20/harvey-dubner-the-development-of-the-hi-lo-strategy/*[media=youtube]A35p3R-52Kk[/media]*In the IBM 1620 Blackjack Demonstration the computer is the dealer as the two players play blackjack. The players can choose to hit or fold and the computer will make these choices automatically for itself. Each card drawn is printed by the teletype printer. It is not possible to split hands.	custom
3D Tic-Tac-Toe	IBM	1962	Source https://www.mobygames.com/game/89751/3d-tic-tac-toe/*[media=youtube]Xft-4d96WdU[/media]This 3D Tic-Tac-Toe conversion ran on the IBM 1620 and has a 3x4x4 grid and allows the player to play against the computer. Various versions of the game exist both written in FORTRAN and Assembly. The game was later reverse engineered and appeared on various other computer systems.**Most likely based on Parker Brothers 1953 board game, Qubic	custom
Atlas	Author	1962	Source: https://www.chessprogramming.org/Alex_Bell*[media=youtube]imypm3nPRs8[/media]*Atlas is a chess program, originally written on and for the Atlas supercomputer. The program was later ported to ALGOL. During most of its existence it was the only chess playing programming in the UK.	custom
BBC Vik: The Baseball Demonstrator	IBM	1961	Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burgeson https://www.arcade-history.com/?n=bbc-vik-the-baseball-demonstrator&page=detail&id=266029 https://archives.museumofplay.org/repositories/3/archival_objects/10552*[media=youtube]p8Rxf_nWoWA[/media]BBC Vik: The Baseball Demonstrator allows the player to "play" baseball against the computer and was created to demonstrate the IBM 1620 computer. Both the player and the computer pick players from a database to form a team and those teams will play against each other. The results of the matches are based on random numbers and batting averages from the database. Each event during the match is printed by the computer, letting the player know who hit the ball, when a base is stolen, a ball is caught, the pitcher hit the batter, etc. The only commands available to the player are cheats to force a hit or miss, or to request a postion of all the runners. A game lasted around 7 to 11 minutes.**Designed for the IBM 1620 but required a 20K memory card upgrade.	custom
Bertie the Brain	Rogers Majestic Corporation	1950	Bertie the Brain was an early computer game, and one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. The four meter (13 foot) tall computer allowed exhibition attendees to play a game of tic-tac-toe against an artificial intelligence. The player entered a move on a lit keypad in the form of a three-by-three grid, and the game played out on a grid of lights overhead. The machine had an adjustable difficulty level. After two weeks on display by Rogers Majestic, the machine was disassembled at the end of the exhibition and largely forgotten as a curiosity. Kates built the game to showcase his additron tube, a miniature version of the vacuum tube, though the transistor overtook it in computer development shortly thereafter. Patent issues prevented the additron tube from being used in computers besides Bertie before it was no longer useful. Bertie the Brain is a candidate for the first video game, as it was potentially the first computer game to have any sort of visual display of the game. It appeared only three years after the 1947 invention of the cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game to use an electronic display. Bertie's use of light bulbs rather than a screen with real-time visual graphics, however, much less moving graphics, does not meet some definitions of a video game.*[media=youtube]qIOXPabKdNc[/media]*Bertie the Brain played Tic-Tac-Toe against one human at a time at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. Bertie was created to demonstrate the additron tube. The additron tube was a 1-bit full adder combined with a electron tube. This was a far superior option than vacuum tube logic (one additron tube replaced many vacuum tubes). It greatly reduced size, power consumption, and complexity of computing. It was only about 2 inches long and 3/4 inches in diameter. An additron CPU that could fit in only one room was a real possibility. However, transistor technology had been advancing rapidly since 1947 and some patent issues hindered additron tube production. By 1954, transistors where in the hands of consumers and the additron was still confined to labs and legal issues. The additron tube was not ready for market until 1957.	custom
Blackjack Game	IBM (Fairchild Camera and Instrument)	1962	Source: https://www.mobygames.com/game/90828/blackjack-game/ https://theaceswild.com/the-history-of-blackjack/*[media=youtube]6mF8_5s4STE[/media]Blackjack Game is a game created for demonstrative purposes of the IBM 1620 Data Processing System. It allows the player to play a game of blackjack. The main purpose of the game was to show off the randomization method.**Designed to demonstrate computerized randomization.	custom
Checker Demonstration Program	IBM	1961	Sources: https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/188339 http://www.digra.org/cfp-panel-on-early-videogames/ http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/pgmCatalog/C20-8090_Catalog_of_Programs_for_IBM_Data_Processing_Systems_KWIC_Index_Apr62.pdf*[media=youtube]BDBVohST6N0[/media]*The Checker Demonstration Program allows players to play Checkers against the computer. All the normal checker rules apply, moves are printed for both the player and computer. The computer can made to punch out a card of the current game state which can be loaded up at a later time to continue play.	custom
Chess	Los Alamos Atomic Energy Laboratory	1956	Los Alamos chess (or anti-clerical chess[1]) is a chess variant played on a 6×6 board without bishops. This was the first chess-like game played by a computer program. This program was written at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory by Paul Stein and Mark Wells for the MANIAC I computer[2] in 1956. The reduction of the board size and the number of pieces from standard chess was due to the very limited capacity of computers at the time.***PDP-1, was created in 1959, not 1956. It was played in "MANIAC I" It wasn't technically a video game. https://losalamosreporter.com/2022/04/12/lanl-70-years-of-electronic-computing/	custom
Game of Draughts	University of Manchester	1951	I accompany two different sources https://historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=3731 https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-computer-game*[media=youtube]fiELVJ2_89s[/media][media=youtube]eOV7OtpoWfU[/media]**In February 1951 British computer scientist Christopher StracheyOffsite Link finished a program for the game of draughts, or checkers. The game ran for the first time on the Pilot ACE at the National Physical LaboratoryOffsite Link, Teddington, on July 30, 1951, but completely exhausted the machine's memory. "When Strachey heard about the Manchester Mark 1Offsite Link, which had a much bigger memory, he asked his former fellow-student Alan Turing for the manual and transcribed his program into the operation codes of that machine by around October 1951. The program could 'play a complete game of draughts at a reasonable speed' " (Wikipedia article on Christopher Strachey, accessed 09-12-2012).	custom
Hutspiel	Operations Research Office	1955	Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutspiel Game Playing with Computers, Donald D. Spencer (1968) Page 12***Hutspiel is a military training simulation for the Goodyear Electronic Differential Analyzer (GEDA) that simulates at a theatre level. Its intention was to study the use of tactical nuclear weapons and conventional air support in Western Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion. The game pits two players against each other with one controlling NATO forces in France, Belgium and West Germany, and the other in control of a Soviet invasion force trying to penetrate a 150 mile frontage. Players could allocate forces across sectors of the map and set targets (such as airfields, enemy troops, supply depots and transportation facilities) for planes and nukes. Early versions of the game would have the computer continue the simulation until it was paused for further input. In later versions the game used turns of fixed time increments. The game modeled troop reinforcement, resupply and movement by rail. It did not account for terrain or weather.	custom
ITEP Chess Program	Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics	1963	Source https://www.chessprogramming.org/ITEP_Chess_Program***The ITEP Chess Program is a Soviet Chess simulator run on M-2 and M-20 computers. It uses a Shannon Type A algorithm to determine its moves. In 1966 it won against the American Kotok-McCarthy-Program with a 3-1 score in a match that lasted 9 months.	custom
Mouse in the Maze	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Author)	1959	Source: https://www.mobygames.com/game/89585/mouse-in-the-maze/ https://ultimatehistoryvideogames.jimdofree.com/mouse-in-the-maze/ https://time.graphics/event/1893972*[media=youtube]U_-Npom1im8[/media]*Created by MIT students, this game calls for players to draw a maze with a light pen. A mouse goes through the maze, to find cheese. "Mouse", AKA "Mouse in the Maze", by John E. Ward, 1959, for the TX-0 (MIT). A simulator-simulator, simulating Claude Shannon’s relay-based maze solving simulator "Theseus" (1950). (Note: Despite the caption of the video below, I wouldn’t regard "Mouse" as an actual video game as it still lacks the realtime interaction part. Interactions are restricted to the setup of the maze and starting the simulation.)	custom
NIM	Ferranti International	1951	[media=youtube]xGNkb66Fuw8[/media]*The Nimrod, built in the United Kingdom by Ferranti for the 1951 Festival of Britain, was an early computer custom-built to play Nim, inspired by the earlier Nimatron. The twelve-by-nine-by-five-foot (3.7-by-2.7-by-1.5-meter) computer, designed by John Makepeace Bennett and built by engineer Raymond Stuart-Williams, allowed exhibition attendees to play a game of Nim against an artificial intelligence. The player pressed buttons on a raised panel corresponding with lights on the machine to select their moves, and the Nimrod moved afterward, with its calculations represented by more lights. The speed of the Nimrod's calculations could be reduced to allow the presenter to demonstrate exactly what the computer was doing, with more lights showing the state of the calculations. The Nimrod was intended to demonstrate Ferranti's computer design and programming skills rather than to entertain, though Festival attendees were more interested in playing the game than the logic behind it. After its initial exhibition in May, the Nimrod was shown for three weeks in October 1951 at the Berlin Industrial Show before being dismantled. The game of Nim running on the Nimrod is a candidate for one of the first video games, as it was one of the first computer games to have any sort of visual display of the game. It appeared only four years after the 1947 invention of the cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game to use an electronic display, and one year after Bertie the Brain, a computer similar to the Nimrod which played tic-tac-toe at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. The Nimrod's use of light bulbs rather than a screen with real-time visual graphics, however, much less moving graphics, does not meet some definitions of a video game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod_(computer)*[media=youtube]yJZlozoQ4jI[/media]	custom
Pool	University of Michigan (Author)	1954	[media=youtube]I-Ra43Oz6dw[/media]***1) Programmed by William Brown and Ted Lewis specifically for a demonstration of the University of Michigan-they developed MIDSAC computer at the University of Michigan in 1954. The game, developed over six months by the pair, featured a pool stick controlled by a joystick and a knob, and a full rack of 15 balls on a table seen in an overhead view.The computer calculated the very impressive 25,000 calculations a second to determine the trajectory of the balls as they ricocheted around the table and collided with one another, disappearing when they reached a pocket, and updated the graphics continuously, forty times a second,to show real-time motion. The reporter who saw the game being played noted that the balls moved so quickly that they seemed to be in continuous motion – making MIDSAC's Pool the first game to feature graphics that moved and updated in real time,rather than only when the player made a move (like OXO). 2) According to a deposition given by a research associate at the lab named William Brown, he and a colleague named Ted Lewis were approached by DeTurk to create a demonstration program for the forthcoming event in early 1954 and suggested a pool game because they were both avid players and felt this form of game would be particularly interesting for the audience. 3) Displayed on a 13-inch round CRT "fluorescent screen". 4) Due to limited processing power, the sides of the table and the pockets were not actually displayed on the CRT, but instead were drawn in grease pencil on a transparent overlay.(watch screenshot) 5) Despite its pioneering features, however, this game has yet to appear in any monograph of video game history. https://ultimatehistoryvideogames.jimdofree.com/pool/	EDSAC
Relay Moe	Berkeley Enterprises	1956	Source http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%20Dec%201956%20Relay%20Moe%20Plays%20Tic-tac-toe.pdf*[media=youtube]0NPp7DBZbD8[/media]*Relay Moe is a dedicated computer that can play Tic-Tac-Toe. The game doesn't require a TV as it has its own display. Each square of the three by three grid has a button for the player to select a square. Squares will light up green or red based on being selected by the player or computer. A green white or red light at the top of the display shows which player has won at the end of the game. The computer will alternate his difficulty to ensure the player can win about half of the matches. http://vintagecomputer.net/cisc367/Radio%20Electronics%20Dec%201956%20Relay%20Moe%20Plays%20Tic-tac-toe.pdf	custom
Robot Chess	Author	1951	[media=youtube]RsAJeYcFW8A[/media]***Robot Chess is an early chess game in which the user can play against an AI. The AI is only powerful enough to compute "mate-in-two" problems and thus the game didn't represent a full game of chess. Players would enter moves of the Ferranti Mark 1 and the computer would print out the response move. The simulation ignores some chess rules such as en passant, promotion and castling. https://www.chessprogramming.org/Mate-in-two	custom
Stratspiel I	Operations Research Office	1958	Sources: https://history.army.mil/html/books/hist_op_research/CMH_70-102-1.pdf https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD0686108.pdf***Stratspiel I is a computer assisted wargame used by the US Air Defense that allowed the army to build a strategy in case of a Soviet strategic nuclear attack. The game played both during and after the attack and included air defense. The purpose of the STRATSPIEL Group in the Strate- gic Division was to develop wargaming at the strategic level and integrate the gaming materials produced by the other divisions into a comprehensive theater-level game.333 The STRATSPIEL Group first attempted to adapt the RAND Corporation’s strategic game, SAWSPIEL, to ORO require- ments by placing more emphasis on the ground war and by introducing sociological considerations.334 Th e group then passed on to the development of STRATSPIEL I, a strategic generalization of the air defense game ZIGSPIEL, which ex- plored the Army role, including air defense measures, during and after a strategic nuclear attack. https://history.army.mil/html/books/hist_op_research/CMH_70-102-1.pdf	custom
The Samuel Checkers-playing Program	IBM (Author)	1952	Source to investigate http://incompleteideas.net/book/ebook/node109.html*[media=youtube]tzoQ7qJPYNI[/media]*The Samuel Checkers-playing Program allows a player to play checkers against the computer. Later iterations on the game allowed the program to learn from past games and improve its game. It was a landmark program in the early development of artificial intelligence. The game was updated until the mid 70s and ran on various computers including the IBM 701, IBM 704 and IBM 7094.	custom
Three Dimensional Tick-Tack-Toe	IBM	1962	It allows the player to play Qubic against the IBM 650 computer. Plays are made in turn by entering coordinates in a 4 by 4 cube with the objective of getting four in a row.	custom
Tic-Tac-Toe	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	1959	Sources (English and Spanish) https://videogamesadvance.blogspot.com/2013/08/1959-mouse-in-maze-tic-tac-toe.html*[media=youtube]h34lKGEgJ4k[/media][media=youtube]n2WZk7K1_q0[/media]**Between 1959 and 1961, a collection of interactive graphics programs were created for the TX-0 experimental computer at MIT. These included the Mouse in the Maze (Mouse in the labyrinth) and the Tic-Tac-Toe (Three in a row). Mouse in the Maze allowed users to use a stylus to place walls in the maze, dots that represented bits of cheese, and (in some versions) martini glasses. A virtual mouse represented by a dot was then released and moved through the maze to find the objects. Tic-Tac-Toe used the stylus to play a simple game of noughts and crosses against the computer.	custom

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