By Paul Robert Scott
In 1972 Pong was released upon the world. To many this simple, yet addictive game represents the primordial ooze that all succeeding computer games stem from. But while Pong may have brought this new form of media to the attention of the public and helped spawn everything from Mario to Master Chief, it is not the beginning of the story for gaming.
In 1972 Pong was released upon the world. To many this simple, yet addictive game represents the primordial ooze that all succeeding computer games stem from. But while Pong may have brought this new form of media to the attention of the public and helped spawn everything from Mario to Master Chief, it is not the beginning of the story for gaming.
In fact, to discover its true origins, one must go all the way back to the birth of the digital computer age.
Scientific Curiosities
Colossus The earliest programmable digital computers were created in World War Two to assist in the decryption of German military codes. Designed by British engineer Tommy Flowers, these Colossus series machines operated out of the "Ultra-Secret" Bletchley Park estate, where some of the best minds in the country worked to beat cyphers that carried orders to the Nazi war machine. While Colossus was busy assisting the code breakers with the Lorenz cypher and Tommy Flowers was building more Colossi for the war effort, in another part of the estate others were working feverishly on the Enigma code; among them a genius mathematician called Alan Turing.
Stephen Kettle's statue of Turing at Bletchley Park. Turing can be considered one of the fathers of computer science. During the war he had already designed his own computer for code breaking, albeit mechanical not digital, and had already done a great deal of work in the field of theoretical computer science prior to 1939. Winston Churchill even said that Turing's work at Bletchley was the single greatest contribution to victory in the war effort.
After the war was over he began work on his own design for a digital computer, using his theoretical knowledge and his experience with Flowers' Colossus as a base. At the same time, in 1947 he began writing a stored computer program for Chess. He considered Chess to be an ideal game with which to test a computer's artificial intelligence, with the knowledge that to beat an expert human opponent a computer must demonstrate the ability to reason, anticipate and react to the vast number of possible moves in the game. However, despite finishing his algorithm Turing was unable to test the program, finding that no machine of the day could successfully run it efficiently. Instead he chose to test it in 1952 by acting as a computer as he read from his algorithm and calculated each move against a colleague. Each turn took half an hour to calculate, and even by the end Turning discovered that his program won one match but lost another.
Clearly, at the time Turing had a long way to go, but scientists stand by his use of Chess to test a Computer's ability to think rationally. Even today, developers are keen to create Chess programs that can beat Grand Masters and prove their superior analytical skills. Back in the 1950's, while chess still seemed out of reach, others turned to more simplistic games to demonstrate their machine's computing power...
After the war was over he began work on his own design for a digital computer, using his theoretical knowledge and his experience with Flowers' Colossus as a base. At the same time, in 1947 he began writing a stored computer program for Chess. He considered Chess to be an ideal game with which to test a computer's artificial intelligence, with the knowledge that to beat an expert human opponent a computer must demonstrate the ability to reason, anticipate and react to the vast number of possible moves in the game. However, despite finishing his algorithm Turing was unable to test the program, finding that no machine of the day could successfully run it efficiently. Instead he chose to test it in 1952 by acting as a computer as he read from his algorithm and calculated each move against a colleague. Each turn took half an hour to calculate, and even by the end Turning discovered that his program won one match but lost another.
Clearly, at the time Turing had a long way to go, but scientists stand by his use of Chess to test a Computer's ability to think rationally. Even today, developers are keen to create Chess programs that can beat Grand Masters and prove their superior analytical skills. Back in the 1950's, while chess still seemed out of reach, others turned to more simplistic games to demonstrate their machine's computing power...
Testing Technical Wizardry
Ferranti's Nimrod For the 1951 'Festival of Britain' the Ferranti company constructed Nimrod, a computer that allowed members of the public to test their wits against the machine at the popular parlor game Nim. To some, this is considered the first ever gaming computer.
The crowds were suitably wowed, however while Ferranti's intention was to demonstrate the computer's skill at maths with a game that used mathematical principals, they found that the many people who played against the machine were far less interested in the science than they were the game itself. The effect was similar a year later when the machine was taken to Berlin. Yet again the crowds were delighted at the computer that was "faster than thought" but only due to the fun game it played and the series of lights it displayed to represent the game's pieces. To some, this is considered the first ever gaming computer.
Despite this early indication that computers may one day become the entertainment machines they can be today, they were still seen as mathematical calculators and and games that were programmed into them were seen purely as research tools. Yet almost at the same time researchers where testing their machines in very similar ways.
The crowds were suitably wowed, however while Ferranti's intention was to demonstrate the computer's skill at maths with a game that used mathematical principals, they found that the many people who played against the machine were far less interested in the science than they were the game itself. The effect was similar a year later when the machine was taken to Berlin. Yet again the crowds were delighted at the computer that was "faster than thought" but only due to the fun game it played and the series of lights it displayed to represent the game's pieces. To some, this is considered the first ever gaming computer.
Despite this early indication that computers may one day become the entertainment machines they can be today, they were still seen as mathematical calculators and and games that were programmed into them were seen purely as research tools. Yet almost at the same time researchers where testing their machines in very similar ways.
EDSAC's display monitor As Nimrod merely produced a light show for its human opponents, the University of Cambridge had inadvertently created their own landmark in gaming history.
The literally named Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, or EDSAC, was designed as the first ever computer to have Random Access Memory (more commonly known as RAM today). This also proved to be perhaps the first machine to play a game that could display visuals on a monitor, in the form of Tic-Tac-Toe. This however was never intended for public consumption.
More simply, it was used to test a thesis written by the young academic, Sandy Douglas, as he studied to achieve his PHD.
The literally named Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, or EDSAC, was designed as the first ever computer to have Random Access Memory (more commonly known as RAM today). This also proved to be perhaps the first machine to play a game that could display visuals on a monitor, in the form of Tic-Tac-Toe. This however was never intended for public consumption.
More simply, it was used to test a thesis written by the young academic, Sandy Douglas, as he studied to achieve his PHD.
Samuels with an IBM 701 Computer Checkers was the next game to get digitised. In 1952, with the release of IBM's first ever, commercially available, scientific computer, scientist Arthur Samuel developed a game that could test artificial intelligence in a similar method to Turing's chess program. With Checkers requiring a level of strategy to play, the IBM 701 can simultaneously be considered the first machine that could demonstrate a level of artificial intelligence to emulate thought, rather than just conduct simple mathematical calculations. Samuels would continue to develop his Checkers program over the next two decades, and in many ways succeeded where Turing initially failed with Chess. By 1955 he had refined the program to begin learning from it's mistakes and in 1961 it was able to beat a US champion at the game.
First Steps...
By today's standards these achievements seem almost laughably simple, but for the time these represent giant leap forwards in computing. Computer programming of the day started out as holes in punched cards. Modern keyboards and mice would have proved useless to these behemoths. And in the world of gaming these scientific experiments would prove crucial to the necessities required for our favourite games to come to life in our living rooms. However, while these initial steps were promising, it would not be until the Swinging Sixties that the first game would be a created with an entirely original concept. In the end, it would take a small group of rebellious and free-thinking university students to create something purely for their own enjoyment...
The Long Road Ahead...
For now it's time we got back to the future!
Stay tuned for the 1960's as we uncover more of the early history of our favourite past-time!
If you're interested please let us know in the comments below!
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