{"id":10327,"date":"2023-10-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=10327"},"modified":"2023-10-13T06:32:07","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T06:32:07","slug":"computer-space-launched-the-video-game-industry-then-fell-into-a-black-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/computer-space-launched-the-video-game-industry-then-fell-into-a-black-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cComputer Space\u201d launched the video game industry \u2014 then fell into a black hole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Computer Space was innovative, but how was it to play?\n Ed Fries<\/span>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nNoah Wardrip-Fruin<\/a>, University of California, Santa Cruz<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Before Pong there was Computer Space, the first commercial video game. The progenitor of today\u2019s US$188 billion industry<\/a> debuted on Oct. 15, 1971, at the Music Operators of America trade show in Chicago. Housed in a futuristic-looking cabinet, Computer Space took its place alongside the latest jukeboxes, pinball machines and other coin-operated games manufacturers were pitching to arcade and bar owners.<\/p>\n\n

Computer Space, made by the small company Nutting Associates, seemed to have everything going for it. Its scenario \u2013 flying a rocket ship through space locked in a dogfight with two flying saucers \u2013 seemed perfect for the times. The Apollo Moon missions<\/a> were in full swing. The game was a good match for people who enjoyed science-fiction movies like \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey\u201d and \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d and television shows like \u201cStar Trek\u201d and \u201cLost in Space,\u201d or those who had thrilled to the aerial combat of the movies \u201cThe Battle of Britain\u201d and \u201cTora! Tora! Tora!\u201d There was even prominent placement of a Computer Space cabinet in Charlton Heston\u2019s film \u201cSoylent Green.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

But when Computer Space was unveiled, it didn\u2019t generate a flood of orders, and no flood ever arrived. It wasn\u2019t until Computer Space\u2019s makers left the company, founded Atari and released Pong the next year that the commercial potential of video games became apparent. The company sold 8,000 Pong units<\/a> by 1974.<\/p>\n\n

Nolan Bushnell<\/a>, who led the development of both Computer Space and Pong, has recounted Computer Space\u2019s inauspicious start many times. He claimed that Computer Space failed to take off because it overestimated the public. Bushnell is widely quoted as saying the game was too complicated<\/a> for typical bar-goers, and that no one would want to read instructions<\/a> to play a video game.<\/p>\n\n

As a researcher who studies video game design and history<\/a>, I\u2019ve found that isn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n\n

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