 Following the 1947 invention of the cathode @-@ ray tube amusement device , the earliest known interactive electronic game as well as the first to use an electronic display , the first true video games were created in the early 1950s . Initially created as technology demonstrations , such as the Bertie the Brain and Nimrod computers in 1950 and 1951 , video games also became the purview of academic research . A series of games , generally simulating real @-@ world board games , were created at various research institutions to explore programming , human – computer interaction , and computer algorithms . These include OXO and Christopher Strachey 's draughts program in 1952 , the first software @-@ based games to incorporate a CRT display , and several chess and checkers programs . Possibly the first video game created simply for entertainment was 1958 's Tennis for Two , featuring moving graphics on an oscilloscope . As computing technology improved over time , computers became smaller and faster , and the ability to work on them was opened up to university employees and undergraduate students by the end of the 1950s . These new programmers began to create games for non @-@ academic purposes , leading up to the 1962 release of Spacewar ! as one of the earliest known digital computer games to be available outside a single research institute . 
