Not technically the first video game ever made (that honour goes to Tennis For Two, played on a computer nobody had with controls that make GTA 4's driving look smooth), but the first you'd actually wanna play, this two-player shoot 'em up from 1962 was produced by geniuses at MIT with a lot of spare time on their hands. This was where video games started.
19. Pong Brings Them To The Masses
Still, it took a while until computer games were something played by people other than brainboxes at prestigious universities with the technical know-how to make them work. Then, in 1972, Atari brought Pong - their none-more-rudimentary tennis simulator which probably owed more of a debt to Tennis For Two, now that we think about it - to arcades, and the world would never be the same. And just think how crazy people went for Space Invaders when two paddles batting a pixel at each other was considered cutting edge.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
