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View Full Version : CNN article: Meet the man who INVENTED video games

RobertoOrtiz
05-05-2003, 04:39 PM
Quote from the article:

"In 1951, as an engineer making television sets, Baer had the passing thought that adding a gameplay element to TV might be fun. His bosses disagreed. Instead of dismissing the idea, though, Baer buried it in his brain and let it churn. Fifteen years later, sitting at a bus terminal in New York City waiting for a co-worker, he began to scribble down notes about TV games. When he got back home, he typed those up into a four-page paper. "

And here is the link:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/01/commentary/game_over/column_gaming/index.htm

-Roberto
Rabid pitbull
05-05-2003, 07:25 PM
Great article! I actually played one of those odessy systems oh so long ago. :scream: For some reason I thought that the "pong" games were first. All so closely released hard to remember that far back.
malducin
05-05-2003, 08:21 PM
The thing is that the title is slightly misleading, it should say better, Meet the Man Who Invented Video Game Consoles.

Back in 1961 at MIT some guys created Spacewar, what is considered the first video game. Then it ran on a DEC PDP. And of course computer games as old, as Unix had many text games also for quite some time.
JA-forreal
05-05-2003, 10:43 PM
I actually played one of those odessy systems oh so long ago.

I have never even heard of odessy systems. I got my start with PackMan and Atari for consoles. Then later on with PC 3d games like Duke and Mech Warrior.

That was a good little video game history lesson. Enough talk about games. Now back to bump mapping the sidewalk. Who ever would have thought that video game technology could give you work.
mattc
05-06-2003, 03:01 PM
Rabid Pitbull,

I seem to recall that Computer Space came before Pong. There's an article on Bushnell somewhere round....

Regards
Matt
raz-0
05-06-2003, 05:08 PM
The first actual video game is tennis for two. circa 1958. Then you have spacewar from MIT in 1961. He did however invent the commercial game system.

http://www.emuunlim.com/doteaters/play1sta1.htm
Mechaman
05-07-2003, 12:56 AM
I have never even heard of odessy systems. I got my start with PackMan and Atari for consoles.

Well, I've never heard of "PackMan", nor an actual game for a console named just "Atari", so we'll call it even. :p

(My dad's family had one of the original fake-wood-paneled TV-tennis games, that my brother and I played at my grandmother's house, when we were wee tots. Friends of the family had an old Space Wars (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=S&game_id=9691) arcade machine, that my brother and I played as well, when I was around 10. ;) )
mtheory
05-07-2003, 01:52 AM
Play SpaceWar on a PDP I

http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar/
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