Early history of video games
The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering a long period of invention and changes. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video games, gaming consoles and home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since then, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern culture in most parts of the world. The early history of video games, therefore, covers the period of time between the first interactive electronic game with an electronic display in 1947, the first true video games in the early 1950s, and the rise of early arcade video games in the 1970s ("Pong" and the beginning of the first generation of video game consoles with the Magnavox Odyssey, both in 1972). During this time there were a wide range of devices and inventions corresponding with large advances in computing technology, and the actual first video game is dependent on the definition of "video game" used.
Edson Hendricks
As an undergraduate, Hendricks visited the MIT student employment center where he was offered the position of computer operator, running an IBM System/360 model 65 computer. 
Hendricks was rapidly promoted to systems programmer. When IBM added a 2250 video display to the 360/65, Hendricks looked for a project to learn how to program it. Upstairs in the same building, Steve Russell had created “Spacewar!,” the first computer game, using a DEC PDP-1 computer. Hendricks wrote his own game, also named “Spacewar!,” which was the first computer video game to run on an IBM Computer. For several years, MIT used Hendricks version of “Spacewar!” at their Annual Open House, making it possibly the first video game ever to be seen (and played) by the general public.