The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer
scientists began designing simple games and simulations on minicomputers
and mainframes. Spacewar! was developed by Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) student hobbyists in 1962 as one of the first such
games on a video display. The first consumer video game hardware was
released in the early 1970s. The first home video game console was the
Magnavox Odyssey, and the first arcade video games were Computer Space
and Pong. After its home console conversions, numerous companies sprang
up to capture Pong's success in both the arcade and the home by cloning
the game, causing a series of boom and bust cycles due to oversaturation
and lack of innovation.
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