Control panel of Computer Space

Computer Space is a space-combat arcade game released in 1971. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game and the first commercially available video game. In the game the player controls a rocket engaged in a missile battle against a pair of hardware-controlled flying saucers set against a starfield background. The goal is to score more hits than the enemy within a set time period. The game is enclosed in a custom fiberglass cabinet, which Bushnell designed to look futuristic. Bushnell and Dabney created the game to be a coin-operated version of Spacewar!, a 1962 computer game. They could not economically run the game on a general-purpose minicomputer, so they built specialized hardware for the game. They ran their first location test in August 1971, and it was shown to industry press and distributors at the annual Music Operators of America Expo in October. More than one thousand cabinets were sold by mid-1972. (Full article...)