<P> The creation of general programming languages like BASIC, which could be run on different hardware types, allowed for programs to be written for more than one specific computer, in turn letting games written in them to spread to more end players in the programming community than before . These games included a baseball simulation game written in BASIC by John Kemeny in 1965; a BASIC bingo game by Larry Bethurum in 1966; a basketball simulation game written in BASIC by Charles R. Bacheller in May 1967; another baseball game that simulates the 1967 World Series written in BASIC by Jacob Bergmann in August 1967; Space Travel, written by Ken Thompson for a Multics system in 1969 and which led in part to the development of the Unix operating system; and Hamurabi, a text - based FOCAL game written by Doug Dyment in 1968 and converted to BASIC by David H. Ahl in 1969, and one of the first strategy video games ever made . Hamurabi and Space Travel were among several early mainframe games that were written during the time, and spread beyond their initial mainframe computers to general - purpose languages like BASIC . </P> <P> At the beginning of the 1970s, video games existed almost entirely as novelties passed around by programmers and technicians with access to computers, primarily at research institutions and large companies . The history of video games transitioned into a new era early in the decade, however, with the rise of the commercial video game industry . In 1971, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck developed a coin - operated computer game, Galaxy Game, at Stanford University using a DEC PDP - 11 computer with vector displays . The pair was inspired to make the game by Spacewar; Tuck had remarked in 1966 while playing the game that a coin - operated version of the game would be very successful . Such a device was unfeasible in 1966 due to the cost of computers, but in 1969 DEC released the PDP - 11 for US $20,000; while this was still too high for a commercially viable product, as most games in arcades cost around US $1,000 at the time, the pair felt it was low enough to build a prototype to determine interest and optimal per - game pricing . Only prototype units were ever built, though the second prototype was adapted to run up to eight games at once; a few months before the initial installation at Stanford in November 1971, the pair met with Nolan Bushnell, who informed them of his own game he was making for a much lower price . </P> <P> That game was Computer Space, developed by Bushnell and Ted Dabney . They had found the Data General Nova, a US $4,000 computer that they thought would be powerful enough to run four games of Spacewar at once; the computer turned out to not actually be powerful enough for the project . While investigating the concept of replacing some of the computer with purpose - built hardware, however, the pair discovered that making a system explicitly for running such a game, rather than general programs, would be much less expensive: as low as $100 . By 1971 when Bushnell met with Pitts and Tuck, a prototype version had been successfully displayed for a short time in August 1971 in a local bar, the design was nearly finished, and the pair had founded a company around it called Syzygy . Bushnell had also found a manufacturer for the game, Nutting Associates, who would make the final game cabinets and sell them to distributors . Bushnell felt that Galaxy Game was not a real competitor to Computer Space, due to its high price . Pitts and Tuck believed, however, that despite the economic argument their game was superior, as they felt that Galaxy Game was a true expansion of Spacewar, while Computer Space just a pale imitation . Some players at the time, however, believed Galaxy Game to actually be just a version of Spacewar! . Galaxy Game's prototype installation was very popular, though at a low price - per - game, and the pair developed a second version to display at the same location; they were never able to enter production, though, as they eventually had to abandon the idea after spending US $65,000 developing it due to the high cost and lack of business plan . </P> <P> Around the same time as Galaxy Game's protoype installation, Computer Space was released . It was the first coin - operated video game to be commercially sold (and the first widely available video game of any kind). While it did well in its initial locations near college campuses, it performed very poorly in bars and arcades where pinball and other arcade games were typically placed; while it was commercially successful and made over US $1,000,000, it did not meet the high expectations of Nutting, who had expected to sell more than 1,500 units . Bushnell and Dabney immediately started work on another game, using the same television set design as Computer Space, as well as founding their own company Atari, Inc. to back their projects . While initially this game was to be a driving game that Bushnell planned to design, their first employee, Allan Alcorn, took a prototype ping - pong game suggestion of Bushnell's and expanded on it to create a game the company immediately seized on . They were unable to find a manufacturer, but on the evidence of the success of their prototype installation, decided to produce the game cabinets themselves . Pong was released in 1972, a year after Computer Space . It was immensely commercially successful, selling over 8,000 units . It inspired copycat games to be sold in America, Europe, and Japan, and led to the popularization of the medium . </P>

Who invented the first computer game and what was the name of it