Start at the start

Well, lacking any real direction, and with my list of games nowhere near complete, I thought i'd throw myself into it, and take a look at the first video game ever made.

But this raises one hell of a question. Which one was the first?

Well, doing a bit of research online, everyone has their own opinions, some writing entire thesis's on the subject, some with just a couple of words to say, some saying pong was, some saying pacman, some (less informed than others) suggest mario on the NES. but it really just boils down to this, no one has a fucking clue. So I'm going on what I've learned, heard and believed.

So now I present to you the first videogame ever:

Space War.













Here is a java applet with the original coding for the game, it was a two player space shooter, where you had two ships ("needle" and "wedge") floating about a very simple looking star shooting at eachother, with both the ships being affected by the gravitational pull of the star in the middle (omigosh physics engine!) it's very simplistic (no kidding, first video game and all) with deaths not scoring points but simply starting the game again.

Now i'm sure plenty of gamers that know shit about their history will have this thought of space war being the first game for want of a better description light a fire under their arse but I assure you I put a lot of thought into the choice. There was tennis for two, but that wasnt a videogame in the sense i'm talking about because it didnt use code, didnt have any character models and didnt have a clear objective. They also put noughts and crosses on a screen even before that, but that hardly counts, primarily because it was first a board game and it didnt really have a screen for it to play with, rather flashing lights, and secondarily it was quite simply shit boring.










Produced in 1962, it was run on the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) which was one of the first processing computers and was the size of a family car (and the family, if including the monitor)

The game had plenty of features, the aformentioned gravity, optional star background, two player mode (well, no one player mode but hey its a feature) but most of all, it's really heartening to see that despite it's age, if you have a friend around, its still a bit of bloody good fun, like any game should be. Also, not having anyone about to enjoy this memory lane better with, I enlisted the gaming services of my dad, who had played the game and others like it back in the prehistoric days where midi keyboards ran free and each article of clothing was more multicoloured and offensive than the next, and he beat the crap out of me. That man eats D-Pad and shits gamer, I kid you not.


Well now that we've started this blast from the past shenanigan, I feel a bit better now. until next time, stop wasting time working and play a game.

Dismeeir.

PS: We now have an RSS feed for all those tech savvy lazy bastards who cant bother opening up a website to see if it's updated (so, me.)