Editing History of video games (section)

==Early history (1948–1970)==
{{Main|Early history of video games|Early mainframe games}}
[[File:Spacewar!-PDP-1-20070512.jpg|upright|thumb|''[[Spacewar!]]'' is credited as the first widely available and influential computer game.]]
As early as 1950, computer scientists were using electronic machines to construct relatively simple game systems, such as ''[[Bertie the Brain]]'' in 1950 to play [[tic tac toe]], or [[Nimrod (computer)|Nimrod]] in 1951 for playing [[Nim]]. These systems used either electronic light displays and mainly as demonstration systems at large exhibitions to showcase the power of computers at the time.<ref name="Spacing">{{cite web|url=http://spacing.ca/toronto/2014/08/13/meet-bertie-brain-worlds-first-arcade-game-built-toronto |title=Meet Bertie the Brain, the world's first arcade game, built in Toronto |last=Bateman |first=Chris |date=August 13, 2014 |website=Spacing Toronto |access-date=December 17, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222164300/http://spacing.ca/toronto/2014/08/13/meet-bertie-brain-worlds-first-arcade-game-built-toronto/ |archive-date=December 22, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="Donovan">{{cite book|last=Donovan|first=Tristan|title=[[Replay: The History of Video Games]]|publisher=Yellow Ant|location=East Sussex|year=2010|isbn=978-0956507204}}</ref> Another early demonstration was ''[[Tennis for Two]]'', a game created by [[William Higinbotham]] at [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] in 1958 for three-day exhibition, using an [[analog computer]] and an [[oscilloscope]] for a display.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/nyregion/long-island/09videoli.html?_r=2 |title=Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game |last=Lambert |first=Bruce |date=2008-11-07 |page=LI1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2009-03-23}}</ref>

''[[Spacewar!]]'' is considered one of the first recognized video games that enjoyed wider distribution behind a single exhibition system. Developed in 1961 for the [[PDP-1]] mainframe computer at MIT, it allowed two players to simulate a space combat fight on the PDP-1's point-plotting display. The game's [[source code]] was shared with other institutions with a PDP-1 across the country as the MIT students themselves moved about, allowing the game to gain popularity.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The origin of Spacewar |magazine=[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing]] |url=http://www.wheels.org/spacewar/creative/SpacewarOrigin.html |date=August 1981 |first=Martin |last=Graetz |volume=6 |issue=8 |pages=56–67 |issn=0097-8140}}</ref>