Video game development
The history of game making begins with the development of the first video games, although which video game is the first depends on the definition of "video game". The first games created had little entertainment value, and their development focus was separate from user experience—in fact, these games required mainframe computers to play them. "OXO", written by Alexander S. Douglas in 1952, was the first computer game to use a digital display. In 1958, a game called "Tennis for Two", which displayed its output on an oscilloscope, was made by Willy Higinbotham, a physicist working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. In 1961, a mainframe computer game called "Spacewar!" was developed by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students led by Steve Russell.
Technological and industrial history of 20th-century Canada
Video games have become a wildly popular form of entertainment especially for youth, since the 1980s. The earliest video game dated from 1947 and a number of devices were produced in the 1950s and 1960s. However, it was the development of the computer chip that led to their popularization. The coin-operated arcade game "Pong" introduced by Atari in 1972 was the first to become widely available. The next phase of development included the introduction in the mid-1970s of the home console, first with a hardwired game, but then complemented in 1977 by “plug and play”, which allowed the use of game cartridges for variety. Beginning in 1985 PC gaming became popular, exploiting the flexibility and increasing popularity of the personal computer. In 1989 Nintendo released its Game Boy, the first of the hand-held electronic games. Game imagery became more elaborate with the introduction of the 32-bit chip that was featured in the Sony PlayStation released in 1994. The 128-bit, sixth generation of video games was born with the introduction of the Sega Dreamcast in 1998. These technologies found a place in the Canadian consumer market from the moment of their introduction and Canadian companies have played a role in their development, with hardware makers like ATI Technologies developing high-powered video chips for game imagery and software companies developing a number of games.