I was a child in the 80, by the time I was old enough to know what a video game was, Pong was old, and the Atari quickly became the game console to have. I always think of Pong as the first video game, but the first one is the "CRT Amusement Device" that was patented in 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game took up a living room worth of space and had a dot on a screen representing an airplane that was controlled by knobs. The idea was based on the radar systems used to control missiles in WWII. It sounds a lot like Missile Command to me. link
I was a child in the 80, by the time I was old enough to know what a video game was, Pong was old, and the Atari quickly became the game console to have. I always think of Pong as the first video game, but the first one is the "CRT Amusement Device" that was patented in 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The game took up a living room worth of space and had a dot on a screen representing an airplane that was controlled by knobs. The idea was based on the radar systems used to control missiles in WWII. It sounds a lot like Missile Command to me. link
He did get computerspace right, PONG never had the text pong on the screen.. Now get of my lawn! :-D