Before Pong there was Computer Space, the first commercial video game.
Computer Space, made by the small company Nutting Associates, seemed to have everything going for it.
TheApollo Moon missionswere in full swing.
There was even prominent placement of a Computer Space cabinet in Charlton Hestons film The Omega Man.
The companysold 8,000 Pong unitsby 1974.
He claimed that Computer Space failed to take off because it overestimated the public.
In single-player mode, the arcade video game Computer Space pitted the player controlling a rocket ship against two flying saucers controlled by the game.
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As a researcher whostudies video game design and history, Ive found that isnt the case.
Failure to launch
Computer Space was an attempt to commercialize the first popular video game.
The initial design was two ships against a star-field background, shooting at each other.
Key evidence that complexity was not the issue comes in the form ofSpace Wars, another take on Spacewar!
That, instead, the common story of the genesis of the commercial game industry is wrong.
The answer is that Computer Space lacked a critical ingredient that the other two possessed: gravity.
Why didnt Computer Space have gravity?
Because the first commercial video games weremade using television technologyrather than general-purpose computers.
This technology couldnt do the gravity calculations.
The makers of Space Wars eventually got around this problem by adding a custom computer processor to its cabinets.
Without gravity, Computer Space was using a design that the creators of Spacewar!
already knew didnt work.
