Computer Space and beyond: 50 years of gaming

[Still Waters]

What is now a multi-billion pound industry started out as a humble arcade machine created by a group of college students in 1971.

Before then, playing video games had been a geeky pastime for small groups on university tech campuses, but in 1971, Nolan Bushnell, a student at the University of Utah, joined up with Jim Stein, a Stanford University researcher, to make a game.

They were both players of a game called Spacewar!, which was being run in a university lab. From Nolan's experience of working at amusement parks, the pair saw potential in making an arcade version of a video game.

After working on it for several years, they joined forces with Nutting Associates, an arcade company. Their game, Computer Space, was released for the first time for a physical test run in August 1971.

Built in a fibreglass cabinet, the simplistic space shooter game was hailed a success. The first arcade video game had been made.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-58281812

[LV-426]

I read this article a couple of weeks back.

I have to say, it comes across as a bit flimsy. For example, no mention at all of the influence of home computers, such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and later Amiga, Atari ST, etc.