History of Video Games : 1947 - 1979

[@seanwilkinson3975]

This list runs a little fast, but it's totally comprehensive. I can finally put names to a number of vague memories of games. I'd say it's one of the best YT videos of all time and definitely a must-see reference for any fan of videogaming history.

[@pigknickers2975]

It's nailed a few for me too. Much appreciated this vid!

[@wowalamoiz9489]

Best YT videos of all time? On a website with billions if not trillions of videos, that's a bit of a tall order, no?

[@furyxt758]

Listening to these songs make me very sad because these games remind me old times, when life was fun back then ah miss those good old games.

[@pietrotino]

5:33 Really advanced for it's time.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Especially when looking at what immediately follows it.

[@AudieHolland]

I think it's an arcade game and the display is hollow. The problem with this list of games is that he mixes both home video games with arcade games.

[@yorgle11]

Fun video, my only criticism is that many of the 1970s arcade games aren't accurately represented. Games of that era had most of their graphics and coloration created using overlays or other optical effects in the cabinet. At the time this was more practical than rendering everything from the computer. The computer only generates a small portion of the overall image, so when games like that are emulated in MAME, it gives a very incorrect impression of how they actually look. One example is 1976 Datsun 280Zzzap - the real cabinet version looks much better than the simple monochrome lines that you are left with in MAME. Most youtube videos of that game are just showing MAME, but somebody did upload a video of the real cab. Games of that era look completely different when all their overlays/mirrors/etc are intact.

[@pigknickers2975]

Agreed. The Boot Hill game for instance had a neon lit cowboy background with cacti and a trail and the cemetery and everything. It made the game come alive and transcend it's ordinary graphics. Same goes for Space Invaders - fantastic cabinet for that - I'm sure that was half the reason for its success. Good video though

[@ZiggyCashmere]

Theres an option in mame to solve this. Theres all kinds of artwork and other things you can download for mame.

[@ThunderFist1978]

Night Driver is another example. I have played that one in arcade form.

[@jamierose9095]

Seawolf and Frogs are also missing their backdrops. An ocean with waves and a marshy pond, respectively. Also Seawolf was played through a periscope and that's really nothing you can recreate on MAME.

[@codeoptimizationware2803]

@@jamierose9095 : _Seawolf_ had no backdrop, although other visual-effects not on the screen were seen when using the periscope, which of course you must use to play on the original arcade cabinet. _Frogs_ DID have a backdrop, that wasn't merely decoration, but, in effect, were part of the graphics on the screen, essential to playing the game. At the very least, you gotta see the lily-pads that your frog is hopping on. They're on the backdrop and do not entirely stretch horizontally across the entire screen. If you hop too far to the left or right, you've hopped off the lily-pads into the water and died, wasting game-time in which you might've otherwise been scoring. How far? Can't see and hard to tell with no visual cue, without the original backdrop. The essential backdrop is even more essential in the case of 1979's _Warrior_ . From the backdrop is seen a curved staircase on each side, a "respawn" pad, and a square pit, symmetrical, each side inverted relative to the other, which means a narrow space in the middle between the two pits. If you walk up and down the stairs, your warrior in the graphics appears bigger or smaller in the top-down view. Don't fall in the pits...that you cannot see without the backdrop, see. Yer, you can hardly play that one at all without the backdrop! The game is seen in the above video @ 8:25 without it's backdrop. Here's what the actual coin-op game in the arcades looked like: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fomXf6ampL53btE I noticed three other games in the video missing their backdrops: _Boot Hill_ [1977] (sequel to _Gun Fight_ [1975], which had no backdrop) @ 2:40, _Desert Gun_ [1977] @ 3:03, and _Space Invaders_ [1978] @ 5:39.

[@arcadeguy781]

Fun Fact: Space War! was the first game that was installed on multiple computers. Games that were released before could only be played where they were developed the game. Also, Space War! was developed at MIT & I’m from Massachusetts, so people in my home state made the first game for personal computers (PDP-1)

[@SamuelAna4Ever]

Best thing I've watched today. Music perfectly paced to the video and great choice of song to showcase the games. Great job!

[@StephanieLoveful]

2:45 : 1977 / Car Polo. The predecessor to Rocket League?

[@Miskko]

rocket league's father

[@tremorstudio9766]

@@Miskko granfather

[@williamdaniels9483]

This is like a trip in a time machine. For a whole year I have been trying to find some with the recollection of apple trek and finally someone other than myself who does remember. Thanks for the memories.

[@assgoblin99]

thanks for this. brought back a lot of memories

[@sa3270]

I'll have to ask my dad if he remembers Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device.

[@chevaliermichel2219]

super ! it's incredible that you have been able to get all those pictures of all these games. big job ! congratulation

[@pez334]

I’m proud to be an original 1st gen gamer , this video brings back so many memories for me and I think the background music is amazing

[@ofihombre]

Gran homenaje a la gran parte de los videojuegos más antiguos de la historia.

[@djmips]

Monaco GP doesn't seem like much today but look how amazing it looks against it's contemporaries and it played very well to. A tremendously fun game and a real quarter eater for me!

[@NeilsNonsense]

My exact thoughts too.

[@ofihombre]

Great tribute to the great part of the oldest games in history

[@RazorEdge2006]

Pretty cool video covering a pretty long list of games. However, it's missing a few important games, like the 1974 Taito games Basketball (which introduced human-like sprites) and Speed Race (which introduced vertical scrolling).

[@Rlotpir1972]

1974's "Tank" was the prelude to 1977's "Combat/Tank Plus" for the Atari VCS/Sears Video Arcade.

[@RainmanCT]

great to see the early PLATO games getting recognized (spasim, dnd, moria, pedit5, avatar etc.) but...no mention of Oubliette?? That game was huge and had a lot of "firsts".

[@jeffwise8194]

Whoa! Back up. What video game existed in 1947? Pinball?

[@shrouwehkuggah7777]

what about chess (1947) and nim (1951)?

[@rickypingui3270]

What is chess 1947?

[@MostaFosko]

@@rickypingui3270 turochamp (1948)

[@rickypingui3270]

@@MostaFosko Computer Chess Game (1950) Turochamp doesnt count because it wasnt really made. It was just an idea. Kinda like the cathode ray tube amusement device.

[@JP_Wu]

7:25 that Monaco GP looks way different than the other games ò.O

[@boostermcblast2197]

Yes, Sega was ahead of its time with this game.

[@biasini75]

...and Speed Race Taito? It's the same game, after 5 years and various version of this

[@AnthonyBecker9]

Excellent! Just what I was looking for.

[@codeoptimizationware2803]

Wow, so thorough, and even in chronological (year) order, and then alphabetically! So good! Besides only a few games missing their backdrop artworks: _Night Driver_ [1976; Atari] is mistitled as "Night Drive" and missing its overlay, the front of your racing car, that goes in the bottom-center of the screen, and some kind of 1978 shuffleboard video-game labeled as "Sea Wolf II", which the game displayed just before it. Sorry, memory fails if I ever saw that game in those days, some 1978 shuffleboard video-game hehehehehe **Thumbs Up video**

[@CT7056]

Alphabetical order by year?

[@codeoptimizationware2803]

@@CT7056 Whoops! Corrected! hehehehehehe

[@mikiex]

F-1 8:38 was an electro mechanical arcade machine not a video game.

[@TheArenaUncensored]

Awesome🎉🎉🎉

[@marcoantoniodasilvabatista7203]

7:38 this game was ahead of its time because of graphics and ui style

[@rickypingui3270]

Also 5:33

[@tb3411]

Not a surprise considering Nintendo made it

[@barzenoki7004]

1:02 yeah.......no

[@RandomPerson-tj1kt]

it looks like sex machine thing..

[@chrisrj9871]

Good ol' 1970s... Seems to be like Simon for the arcades.

[@ThunderFist1978]

The game at 5:27 is not Sea Wolf II. It's Shuffleboard by Midway, and it was released in 1978, so it is in the correct portion of the video.

[@ThunderFist1978]

+Sean Wilkinson Trolling is not necessary. Good day.

[@stanley_427]

People often forget that there were a LOT of video games in the 70s.

[@MultiKamil97]

Stanley [427] So true. Yet still they say that in their childhood there were no games.

[@sergiogalindo3024]

Unless they're stupid!

[@captainantilles9094]

They were probably not widespread as they were in the 1980-90s

[@RageTVHTX]

I don't think the image from OXO is from the actual game. Look like a late 90s/early2000 remake

[@captainantilles9094]

The EDSAC used for the program has been shut down, hence why there are no video recordings of the video game being used.

[@iammrberserker6068]

what is the name of the amazing track used in this video??

[@captainantilles9094]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk Here, I did a lot of searching for this.

[@IngoPagels]

Were is the music from?! Anyone any idea?

[@captainantilles9094]

Found it, kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk did a lot of digging for this

[@IngoPagels]

oh my! good work! thank you.

[@IngoPagels]

@@captainantilles9094 man, im still happy you found that song! =) hear it right now.

[@IngoPagels]

ufff. that guy had deleted his commment x.x why??

[@superpowergamers.p.g.8558]

From *OXO* (1952) To *Super Smash Bros Ultimate* (Today 2018)

[@michaelminervini1908]

7:18 Astro Invader--- this game was so hard.

[@sergiojurado932]

I think the real video games came around the time Pong came out. The games that came before that was weird computer like stuff.

[@GodofBoris]

they should remake all these games in HD!!

[@Schnitz1]

Moria looks surprisingly advanced.

[@paulalynnbatzelferry1608]

I looked it up because I wanted to know more about it, wiki lists it as 1983 rather than 1975. Also, wiki said that it was a Rogue clone because the Moria inventor couldn't play Rogue on his computer. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moria_(video_game)

[@NeilsNonsense]

Well that was a fun trip down nostalgia alley :) Whilst this video may be unfair to certain 70s era games that used physical cab overlays/backgrounds etc, what really stands out for me too, is just how far ahead of its time Sega's Monaco GP was! OK, its one of the later games and only just qualifies as 70s by about a month but it blows my mind to think that this game was made without the use of a microprocessor/CPU! Explains why it ate so much of my pocket money on holidays back in the early 80s, and why I love it so much that I just spent quite a lot of time getting Ben Geeves' remake version running on a Raspberry Pi! (see my channel if you're curious about that)

[@Samopal.VanoZz]

Warrior and speed freak look very promising. I only played spectrum games in my early gaming ages.

[@aeris2001]

All these before Pacman as well. Cant wait to explore the games that were out before I was born.

[@jvsonic2468]

I need more info about the release and if there's another name they go by on a game called Chaos. I played it way back in 2000s cause my brother had a disk that was full of old games with it. In the Main Screen, there is a title with a list of options and black screen full of colorful spheres that's been transported through some dimension and prints on the black screen as they move. As you start the game, a triangular ship your control appears. It has boosting and can shoot against threats like the spheres that will kill. As you shoot them, they emit lines of color when exploded to smaller pieces, eventually disappearing when the smallest one gets shot, and both it your missiles or blasts stayed on the black screen like lines of paint. Power-ups, that are also transported through some dimension, print on the black screen as they move, and have the exact shape and design as your ship, floating in the black screen with emitting different colors that each has different abilities that helps or hurts you and you can try to time the color you want to capture given you remember what each colors does. The sound effects are amazing especially the power-ups, and you can customize certain things that'll make them go crazy cause when you chaining shots, the sounds go higher till the max it could go, making this experience a lot more promising than what you have expected. There's also other types of things that will be a threat like enemy ships that come after you and black hole that you need to destroy, but when your ship is destroyed it emits rainbows on the entire black screen and gives you new ship until lives you have are gone. It comes in Levels, so as you take out the last thing remaining, the next batch comes in as your next Level. It's also a game where there's no moving camera and your in a loop box meaning hitting the edges of the screen takes you on the opposite side while the area space your in is kept in the exact position, but as you go diagonal, your just gonna make things a lot worse for yourself.

[@yixinsong9768]

Is it possible that I use part of this video for my film? Thanks!

[@Slammy555]

I remember computer quiz, those were around a long time.

[@FeverDev64]

what is cathode ray amusement device???

[@nargsnargs6875]

the first 'video game' ever

[@FeverDev64]

yeah? DUH it looks like a cathode RAY tube that throws colorful rays

[@sa3270]

It looks kind of like a weapon

[@spinningsquare3061]

Like this music 🎵

[@jasonmoyer]

Atari F-1 from 1976 wasn't a video game. It was an electromechanical game that had the track/cars/etc behind the cabinet and a projector that displayed them on the screen. Also, from what I remember as a child, it was big, loud, and scary.

[@chevaliermichel2219]

music on the start is clearly inspired by Cure's "A forest", the intro

[@trailersic]

"Computer" Quiz (1968) is a film projector with some mechanical and optical stuff, it's not a video game, it doesn't even use a computer.

[@RageTVHTX]

I feel like I might have seen the Computer Whiz game when I was really little in the early 70s

[@Franknbean]

Still better than COD

[@The_Gamer_91]

Not really, but some of these games are look pretty fun.

[@haaappy]

these days kids would say: ''StIlL bEtTeR tHaN fOrTnItE11!!!!''

[@SevenDeMagnus]

So interesting. Thanks. And I thought Tennis for Two was the first ever video game. It's that Tic-Tac-Toe (what machine and who programmed it?).

[@TamasKalman]

but what is the soundtrack? :)

[@NoxElement]

Music by Andrey Avkhimovich

[@nspcrazy1122]

Yeah, but what specifically? He made literally hundreds of tracks.

[@dragonlukasmapping805]

@@NoxElement i think its not that autor because its say that song is made in 2014 and you make this video in 2013

[@captainantilles9094]

Here is the song. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk

[@chrsn]

God bless the primitive, pixelated games of yesteryear

[@Rlotpir1972]

1975's "Indy 800" was the first true color video arcade and the prelude to Atari's "Indy 500".

[@vinnytheplayer5500]

0:19 first ever franchise game

[@lika290kuk]

you forget tennis table on magnevox odyssey. And 2:45 "Rocket League" isn't first XD

[@davec3901]

Does anybody know going pretty far back were video games always a quarter? Like space war for instance.

[@louisjaugustin8673]

This is great but i really think the first real video game was tennis for two.

[@sajd0r]

co to za nuta leci od 2:50 ?

[@oldamar9994]

how is it that Monaco grand prix has the best graphics out of all these games!?

[@oldamar9994]

and undertale totally stole straight flushes hearts!

[@ТимурКаримов-ш6ж]

Who know's, what music is used?

[@TDVL]

Check at 8:33 ...

[@oldamar9994]

*see`s car polo* wow, 1970 times were weird!

[@robertobruno778]

Please: but's possible to play all these games alternatively?

[@axis4813]

what

[@LandoXV]

whats the music

[@captainantilles9094]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk

[@LandoXV]

@@captainantilles9094 2 years later and someone finally tells me the song lol, thanks :)

[@captainantilles9094]

Sorry, I too was trying to find the first song, in which I had to go through 340+ songs. Sorry for the delay, since I started the search yesterday.

[@captainantilles9094]

I informed most of the people here who were asking about the song. I did not stumble upon the Second song used, I could find it if you or anyone else is interested. Happy to help.

[@ianhilmer2493]

Why is it whey they do a history on video games, they always leave out Bertie the Brain, first computer game ever built (in Toronto)😉🇨🇦, thus making the video a Canadian invention. BTW, the cathode ray tube amusement device, although patented in 1947, was never built, that image in the beginning was a replica!😒🇺🇸

[@zachariahtuttle3543]

you're wrong. you should go watch ahoy's video on the subject. 'the first video game' .

[@CT7056]

The first video game ever was Strachey's Checkers

[@arcadeguy781]

Bertie The Brain & OXO are basically the same game. Both tic tac toe

[@RandomPerson-tj1kt]

was this video made in 1979?

[@ziusudratelcontar599]

Random Question

[@theredfolderarchives5459]

dumbasss

[@BlueFieldGamer]

Tennis for two created in 1958 isn't the first video game ever but it the first with a electrical display screen that can be interaction with a controller Before video game was grid of boxes or a bunch of button and switch's Tennis for two is the First fish out of water for video game

[@o-manhe-man1353]

4:46 I wanna play that!

[@CT7056]

That's wholesome

[@fluff3r_muff1nz008]

Song used

[@CT7056]

Yeah I agree

[@knightrdrx]

i tried the green 70s bowling game...awful. didn't realize there were that many arcade games before atari hit.

[@sunstrumsharam5388]

The first game to use a bar (life, progression,etc..) is Astro Fighter 6:20 every other game has number

[@TheMexicoBear]

7:06 Galaxian. Galaga predecessor?

[@dutch_gamer76]

Yes, Galaga is the sequel to Galaxian. Personally I prefer Galaxian over Galaga.

[@lindahamilton9592]

Why did they call the first is "video game"?

[@miguellourenco2040]

This video was reproduced in my physical education class in Brazil, lol

[@davoid7914]

Very good.

[@tdickensheets]

I play some these video games. I play Stunt Cycle.

[@hypn00s197]

Estoy estudiando programacion y me propuse como meta al menos recrear estos juegos para empezar a hacer los mios propios

[@joaoaraujo8081]

Names of songs, please!

[@captainantilles9094]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk Here you go, did a lot of digging for this.

[@ar_xiv]

too fast

[@wonkawilly1123]

5:32 wow am i on acid or wut?

[@525Lines]

The Atari 2600 games could have been left out.

[@ThePierrezx]

it is not very logical to have mixed real arcade games and atari 2600 games...

[@nathansultimatechannel9307]

How about you do games from 1980-1989 for your next video.

[@NoxElement]

Soon :)

[@cinna_to4st_waff1es]

U mean 1980-2018 (today)

[@dzienzzyciamucki1578]

You forgot magnavox odyssey games

[@littlebritain64]

Good, but, please, do correct that 1947.....

[@godofwarandpeace]

too short. want to know more

[@zioulks7865]

Cool

[@marcoslemes5643]

here's how old could games get: 1837 LOL

[@Jimmy-lm2eg]

Here is real first game: Tennis for two

[@LyingSecret]

It depends what you mean by 'first game', because it wasn't first in a number of categories.

[@CT7056]

Strachey's Checkers actually

[@KingBat]

A lot of these just look like Snake or Breakout clones.

[@Waterflow07]

I had to skip the whole 70s I was to fucking bored🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️😂😭💯❗️

[@C003]

Incorrect!

[@captainantilles9094]

Music is kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIXYqWV6hJKHhsk

[@awunaguaw9128]

What about the music at 2:42?

[@captainantilles9094]

Sorry, Late again, I’ll try to find it

[@rakka1dude184]

rather make games than be a hacker.

[@supergeten2]

I was born 1978... I´m a dino....

[@fluff3r_muff1nz008]

My mom is a 70s person :0 1979

[@classicarcadewarehouse1999]

If you are interested in owning your very own arcade game loaded with a bunch of classic old school arcade games, check out www.classicarcadewarehouse.com. We make and refurbish full size arcade machines, and even the cocktail table arcade games.

[@Defenzsz]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@vampirebluud]

U mised oxo

[@NoxElement]

0:05 -> OXO

[@BigSnipp]

This music is raping my ears.

[@vitalienglin1079]

)))