Computer Space - The First Mass-Produced Arcade Video Game
In some previous history of video games articles, I wrote about how “Spacewar!” video game influenced the creation of the first and second arcade video games. The first one was “Galaxy Game”, created by Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck (only two versions/five consoles were created). The second one, which will be the beginning of the main subject in this article, was “Computer Space” by Noland Bushnell and Ted Dabney (the first mass-produced arcade video game).
As written in my last article, Bushnell and Dabney were co-workers at a company named “Ampex”. Bushnell played “Spacewar!” at the University of Utah, and as soon as he played, he noticed the business potential. They both started making a new version of “Spacewar!” video game, suitable for arcade gaming. Some of the changes they made were making it 1-player (instead of two spaceships, it was a player-operated spaceship against two cpu-operated flying saucers) and removing the center star . Since they needed more time to work on this project and since they were convinced of their future success in their new business venture, they both left Ampex and started their own business under the name of “Syzygy Engineering“ (all of this happened during the same year, 1970).
In 1971 they sold the system to Bill Nutting, owner of “Nutting Associates”, a company that manufactured coin-operated trivia game machines. But the arcade machine was not ready for production yet (only the basic concept and game programming was done, and the latter still needed some refining), so Bill Nutting hired Noland Bushnell to finish it (as Chief Engineer in charge of the project). Bushnell and his crew at Nutting Associates were very clever with their arcade design. In order to keep unit costs down they used discreet components circuits (made mostly of transistors and diodes) instead of a CPU and a Black and White TV set instead of a vector display. They also included a two-player version, similar to the original “Spacewar!” video game. They put everything together in a very nice looking “space-age” cabinet made of fiberglass, and there it was, the first mass produced arcade video game was made: “Computer Space”.
About 1,500 units of “Computer Space” arcade machines were made with a brief initial success. However, it was not a massive hit as originally expected. This was attributed to the fact that the game was complicated, and game control was difficult. Most of these arcade machines were installed in bars and similar places, where a simple game was the selection of choice by customers.
Although there were some negotiations between Syzygy Engineering and Nutting Associates for designing new arcade video games, it actually never happened. That was the end of their business relationship, so Bushnell and Dabney continued designing and manufacturing video games on their own. But when they attempted to do business under the “Syzygy” name they found out that the name was already taken by another company (some says that it was a roofing company, others says that it was a candle making company). So they started this new business venture under a new name: Atari.
And this will be the subject of our next article.
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