The Hidden Story of Who Created the First Video Game

By Trivia Daily, Staff Writer — Published October 30, 2026

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• The Hidden Story Behind Tennis for Two
• Why Spacewar! Changed Everything
• Comparing the Early Pioneers
• The Debate Over “First” Video Game
• From Laboratory Curiosity to Cultural Phenomenon
• Frequently Asked Questions

Ask most people who invented the first video game, and you’ll likely hear about Pong or maybe Space Invaders. The truth is far more surprising. The hidden story of who created the first video game takes us back decades before arcades filled with flashing lights and beeping sounds, to a physics laboratory where a scientist built an interactive tennis simulation on an oscilloscope screen. This forgotten chapter in gaming history reveals how innovation often happens in unexpected places, driven by curiosity rather than commercial ambition.

The journey to discover the true origins of video gaming uncovers fascinating facts about Cold War-era technology, scientific creativity, and how easily history forgets its pioneers. What makes this story particularly interesting is that the earliest video games weren’t designed to make money or entertain the masses—they were experiments, demonstrations, and playful explorations of emerging technology.

Key Takeaways

• William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two in 1958 at Brookhaven National Laboratory, widely considered one of the first video games
• The game ran on an analog computer and displayed on an oscilloscope, predating commercial gaming by over a decade
• Spacewar!, developed at MIT in 1962, became the first widely distributed video game among computer programmers
• These early games were never patented or commercialized by their creators, who viewed them as scientific demonstrations
• The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, became the first commercial home video game console
• Multiple inventors contributed to video game history, making the question of “first” depend on how you define a video game

The Hidden Story Behind Tennis for Two

In October 1958, physicist William Higinbotham worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, where he helped develop nuclear weapons technology during World War II. For the lab’s annual public visitor days, Higinbotham wanted to create something more engaging than static exhibits. Using an analog computer and an oscilloscope—a device that displays electrical signals as graphs—he programmed a simple tennis game.

Tennis for Two displayed a side view of a tennis court with a net in the middle. Players used aluminum controllers with buttons and knobs to hit a ball back and forth. The game even simulated gravity and ball trajectories. Hundreds of visitors lined up to play it during the open house events in 1958 and 1959. Then Higinbotham dismantled it. He never patented the invention, never imagined its commercial potential, and moved on to other work. The game existed for just two years before disappearing into history.

Higinbotham spent much of his later career advocating for nuclear nonproliferation. He considered his work on arms control far more important than his brief foray into entertainment technology. Only decades later did historians recognize Tennis for Two as a landmark achievement in interactive electronic entertainment.

Why Spacewar! Changed Everything

Four years after Tennis for Two vanished, another groundbreaking game appeared at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1962, Steve Russell and fellow programmers at MIT created Spacewar! on a DEC PDP-1 computer. This game featured two spaceships battling around a star’s gravitational field. Players could fire missiles, use thrust, and even enter hyperspace to escape danger.

Unlike Higinbotham’s demonstration, Spacewar! spread throughout the computer science community. The game’s code was freely shared, and programmers at universities and research labs across America installed it on their mainframe computers. It became a standard test program for new computer systems. This distribution meant Spacewar! influenced an entire generation of programmers who would later create the commercial video game industry.

The game also introduced concepts that remain central to gaming today: real-time action, player versus player competition, physics-based movement, and strategic resource management (players had limited fuel and missiles). These innovations laid groundwork for countless games that followed.

Comparing the Early Pioneers

The Debate Over “First” Video Game

Defining the first video game depends entirely on your criteria. Some historians point to earlier electronic games like Bertie the Brain, a tic-tac-toe playing computer displayed at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. Others mention the Nimrod computer from 1951, which played the mathematical strategy game Nim. These devices certainly featured interactive electronic gameplay.

The distinction often comes down to whether you require graphics displayed on a screen. Tennis for Two and Spacewar! both featured visual representations of game elements on electronic displays, making them stronger candidates for “first video game” in the modern sense. They allowed real-time player control and displayed dynamic, interactive graphics—key characteristics of what we now call video games.

What’s truly amazing is how little recognition these pioneers received during their lifetimes. Higinbotham’s contribution went largely unnoticed until the 1980s, when lawyers researching video game patents discovered his work. By then, the video game industry had become a multi-billion dollar enterprise, built on foundations these scientists laid without compensation or fame.

From Laboratory Curiosity to Cultural Phenomenon

The path from oscilloscope tennis to modern gaming reveals how technological innovation rarely follows a straight line. The scientists who created the first video games worked at research institutions with access to expensive, cutting-edge computers. They built games as demonstrations or diversions, not products. Commercial success came later, when entrepreneurs recognized the entertainment potential of interactive electronic graphics.

Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari and launched Pong, had played Spacewar! as a university student. That experience directly inspired his commercial ventures. The Magnavox Odyssey, designed by Ralph Baer and released in 1972, became the first home video game console marketed to consumers. Baer had been developing his concept since the mid-1960s, filing patents that would later make him wealthy through licensing fees.

These commercial pioneers built upon the experimental work of Higinbotham, Russell, and others who never sought profit from their innovations. The hidden story of video games’ creation shows how scientific curiosity, academic collaboration, and entrepreneurial vision all contributed to an entertainment revolution that has shaped global culture for generations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the very first video game ever made?

Tennis for Two, created by William Higinbotham in 1958, is widely considered one of the first video games. However, earlier electronic games existed, making the answer dependent on how strictly you define “video game.”

Why didn’t William Higinbotham patent Tennis for Two?

Higinbotham viewed it as a simple demonstration for public visitors to Brookhaven National Laboratory, not a commercial invention. He considered his work on nuclear nonproliferation far more significant than the tennis game.

Was Pong really the first video game?

No. Pong, released by Atari in 1972, was the first commercially successful video game, but it came more than a decade after Tennis for Two and Spacewar! pioneered interactive electronic gaming.

How did Spacewar! influence the gaming industry?

Spacewar! was freely distributed among computer programmers at universities and research centers, exposing an entire generation of future game developers to interactive electronic entertainment and inspiring commercial arcade games like Computer Space.

The forgotten scientists who built games on oscilloscopes and mainframe computers couldn’t have imagined their experiments would spawn a global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Their story reminds us that the most transformative innovations often begin as playful curiosity, not grand commercial ambition. Every time you pick up a controller, you’re participating in a legacy that started with a physicist who just wanted to make his lab’s open house more interesting.