Games in the lab

The history of video game consoles begins decades before the first commercially available machine. Computers are in the period after the Second World War mainly in public hands and there mostly reserved for technical universities. Also, it is only conditionally possible to speak of computers in today’s sense, because in terms of appearance, operation and performance, they have little to do with our present idea of a computer – rather they remind us of complex experimental arrangements.

These machines did not appear tied to a single purpose, so researchers naturally explored alternative uses. Testing and demonstrating the technology remained the main aim, but this playful experimentation produced the first video games. The experimental phase ended in 1971 with Computer Space, the first commercially mass-produced video game.