5 Oldest Video Games in the World

Do you remember how our childhood days were nothing without playing video games? It is one of the most popular pastimes around the world. Yeah, nostalgic days! According to the statistics, video games make up $100 billion in global industry revenue today. Nearly two-thirds of American homes play video games regularly. 

So, it’s no wonder that video games have evolved for decades and are a billion-dollar business. Millions of video games are available, and new ones are launching daily. There are some interesting old video games in the world. Yeah, most of them paved the way for the present multi-million-dollar gaming industry. 

Excited to know about those oldest video games? Then, here you go. 

Must Read: The 5 Underrated Indie Games of All Time

5 Oldest Video Games in the World

Here’s a list of some of the oldest video games. Get to know them. 

1. Spacewar 

We all know that Space Invaders was an early space video game, but Spacewar was released more than a decade earlier. It was the very first video game to be played on multiple computers, created by Steve Russell in 1962 on the DEC PDP-1 platform. In this game, the players have to control two spaceships and fight with each other inside a gravity wall. It was originally made for a computer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Other students and employees worked on the game after its creation and made it live to the public.

2. Tennis for Two

Tennis For Two was the first sports and entertaining video game in the world. It is a multiplayer sports game created by William Higginbotham on October 18, 1958, in the USA. Rather than academic research, its main purpose was to help the military or to demonstrate the power of technology. 

William Higginbotham’s Tennis is an American physicist and acclaimed as the first video game developer in the world. He was also the head of the instrumentation division at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. These video games were shown during the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s public exhibition. 

Also Read: Can You Guess These Old School Video Games?

3. Star Raiders

Star Raiders was the first-person combat game by Atari in 1979. This mode of gaming is both single-player and multiplayer. The company’s main motive is to make the game more tactical and advanced, where players transform into starship pilots who are responsible for protecting space from alien invasion. This game was immersive and has become a source of inspiration for other combat games such as Wing Commander and Elite. 

4. Magnavox Odyssey Games

The Magnavox Odyssey was the first mass-market home video game console ever released. The concept was developed by Ralph H. Baer, who later produced a prototype with Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch. It was released in September 1972, featuring single and multi-player modes. They presented the prototype to many manufacturers before Magnavox conceded to produce the console in 1971.

The video game ‘Odyssey’ debuted, with the U.S. version launching 12 games in 1972.

Later, the U.S. adaptation came with 12 games. Many games comprised of Odyssey are Simon Says, Ski, Table Tennis, Analogic, Football, Hockey, Cat and Mouse, Haunted House, Submarine, Roulette, and States. Furthermore, Magnavox sold the first video game light gun, known as the Peripheral Controller.

5. Pac-Man

Pac-Man was a popular childhood game for many people all over the world. It was originally called Puck Man in Japan. It was a maze action video game developed and released in 1980 by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. It sold more than 1 million copies for the Atari, a video game console. It is another adaptation of the hit Japanese arcade game and is considered the best-selling Atari 2600 game of all time. 

So, those mentioned above are some of the oldest video games in the world. Still, there are more video games. When you find time, get to know those games as well. 

Thanks for spending your valuable time to read this article!