So, what does this mean?
It means the first video game is Christopher Strachey's Draughts, first implemented circa
1951, but confirmed working (complete with evidence) by no later than July, 1952.
Also, video games are a British invention.
In any case - we have an answer!
There are, of course, a couple of caveats: Firstly, to be clear - Strachey's draughts
is the first video game for which we have evidence.
It remains possible that there was undocumented work prior - but we can only draw conclusions
from the evidence we have.
Secondly - our assertion only holds true as long as you subscribe to the definition we
laid out. A looser take might include the 1947 device - or maybe something even earlier.
That said, I think our definition is robust.
One thing is clear: the 1947 device has had zero lasting impact on video games, long forgotten
until it was dredged up during the Magnavox lawsuits.
Christopher Strachey, on the other hand, was a bit of a pioneer. His 1952 presentation
at the University of Toronto inspired Arthur Samuel's later work on machine learning. Strachey
developed the CPL programming language, an important ancestor of C.
His influence is broad, and it permeates computer science.
In regards to the first video game, I was equal parts pleased and dismayed to discover
that I wasn't the first to arrive at this conclusion. There are two others.
One is Jack Copeland: Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch,
New Zealand and an authority on the life and work of Alan Turing.
As a product of his detailed research into early computing history, and Turing's correspondence
with Strachey - he describes the operation of Strachey's Draughts program and calls it
'the world's first computer game'.
(It's not the first computer game, but we can assume he means the first computer game
with a video display).
The second to draw this conclusion is Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of Lucasfilms' Computer
Division and Pixar.
His 2015 article, 'The Dawn of Digital Light' is a detailed examination of the origins of
computer generated digital images that makes some rather bold statements:
The first digital picture; The first computer animations; The first video game.
He ranks Strachey first: Gill's Sheep and Gates second; and Douglas' Noughts and Crosses
third.
I'm inclined to agree.
In broader coverage, Strachey's draughts is sometimes included in the early history of
video games, but is seldom upheld as the champion. It's a difficult call to make, given the lack
of a universal definition of 'video game' - and the rather ragged margin at its furthest
extent.
But I feel as though we have our answer.
The mid 20th century was a real frontier for electronics: by 1950, transistors were in
their infancy - and integrated circuits were a decade away. The only place video games
could have started prior to the age of Pong was in the computer lab.
Here, there was high technology with no concern for 'commercial viability' - and vast budgets
were approved, ostensibly for more serious computations - but the games slipped through
the cracks.
But here's the thing: nobody called these early computer experiments 'video games',
at least not at the time.
It's a retroactive label, given only once video games had pierced popular culture, and
the term 'video game' dates to later than you might think.
So, one final question:
When did video games become 'video games'?
A search on Google Book's Ngram viewer gives us an idea of the timeframe: the term emerged
at some point between 1970 and 1975, coinciding with Pong's early success.
This is borne out with a search through the popular gaming press, scarce as it was in
the 1970s - the February 1976 issue of BYTE Magazine uses the term 'Pong style video game'
in a familiar way.
A broader search of literature on Google Books doesn't turn up anything prior to 1975 - however,
Google Newspapers does have a 1974 feature on 'Space Age Pinball Machines' that details
the rise of 'the new coin-operated video games', which means the term must have started to
gain traction by this point.
There's a 1973 article in Business Week that must have been written just after Pong had
found early commercial success: it describes 'A red-hot market for video games', in what
might be the earliest instance of the term in a major publication.
There are also a couple of false positives that crop up - a 1974 issue of 'New Scientist'
uses the term to mean 'video business', as in 'the video game': it was around this time
that the first video playback devices were hitting the domestic market.
Earlier still, there are some surprising mentions of 'video game' in the 1950s - but it turns
out this is an older term for televised sports games, back when such a thing wasn't universal.
It's increasingly clear that Pong is close to the origin, so let's skip straight to the
source - here's the promotional flyer for the 1972 Atari arcade game.
'The Newest 2 Player Video Skill Game': 'From Atari Corporation, Syzygy Engineered - The
Team That Pioneered Video Technology'
So in 1972 Pong was described as a 'Video Skill Game', which is almost - but not quite
- what we're looking for. There is a definite emphasis on the term 'video'.
Atari's next game: 'Space Race', released July 1973, does use the term 'video game'
within its flyer text;
And later that year in September the flyer for Pong Doubles featured it prominently,
at the very top: 'Atari's New Video Game'.
So 1973 was the year that the term 'video game' shot to prominence and was fixed within
the arcade lexicon - but where's the first use?
In researching this I found a particularly good post from The Golden Age Arcade Historian
- titled "The etymology of "video game"
It confirms our suspicion - Atari and Pong are very much at the centre of the term, tracking
the first use in the trade press to March 1973.
Interestingly, there is also a letter from Nolan Bushnell to John Britz at Bally dated
July 10th, 1972 - in which Nolan uses the term.
This might be the first documented use. It seems 'video game' was the term used by Atari
to describe their new product to potential purchasers - venue owners, rather than players.
So, two things: the term 'video game' dates to around 1972, reaching wider popularity
by 73-74;
and it seems it was devised for the benefit of the arcade amusement industry, as a marketing
term to distinguish this new class of machine.
So while Nolan Bushnell can't take credit for many original ideas - it seems he is the
man that named the industry, and the one that kickstarted its commercial success.
There's an argument to be made that the first video game was the game first described as
such, and it seems the answer to that is Pong.
Pong was the catalyst, and Atari's games are likely the main reason we use the label 'video
game' to cover all kinds of interactive entertainment.
If Pong had failed and it was the 8-bit microcomputers that found the earliest success, then 'computer
games' might have been the definitive term - in fact, in certain regions at certain times
this has been true.
But the Americans settled on 'video game' - and their influence means most of the world
has adopted the term as the standard.
It's far divorced from its original meaning - a term meant to distinguish early arcade
games from their electromechanical counterparts - but it seems it's stuck, and has since been
applied to all sorts of things:
Computer games;
Arcade amusements;
Television games;
Handheld electronic games;
Mobile games;
And virtual reality.
What we know as video games don't have a single origin -
they're a constellation.
So if anybody asks you, 'What was the first ever video game?'
You could tell them it was Strachey's drafts, 1952 - but it might be easier to say 'it was
probably Pong, or something'.
Because, well, it's trickier than they think.