In, 1958, William Higinbotham created the first video game ever. His game, called "Tennis for Two," was created and played on a Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope. Then in 1962, Steve Russell invented "SpaceWar!" "Spacewar!" was the first game intended for computer use. Russell used a MIT PDP-1 mainframe computer to design his game.

In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote the first video game played on a television set, a game called "Chase." Ralph Baer, who was then part of Sanders Associates, a military electronics firm, first conceived of his idea in 1951 while working for Loral, a television company.

In 1971, Nolan Bushnell together with Ted Dabney, created the first arcade game. It was called "Computer Space," based on Steve Russell's earlier game of "Spacewar!" The arcade game "Pong" was created by Nolan Bushnell, with help from Al Alcorn, a year later. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney would go on to become the founders of Atari Computers that same year. In 1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game.