 Around this time , non @-@ visual games were being developed at various research computer laboratories ; for example , Christopher Strachey developed a simulation of the game draughts , or checkers , for the Pilot ACE that he unsuccessfully attempted to run for the first time in July 1951 at the British National Physical Laboratory and completed in 1952 ; this is the first known computer game to be created for a general @-@ purpose computer , rather than a machine specifically made for the game like Bertie . Strachey 's program inspired Arthur Samuel to develop his own checkers game in 1952 for the IBM 701 ; successive iterations developed rudimentary artificial intelligence by 1955 and a version was shown on television in 1956 . Also in 1951 , Dietrich Prinz wrote the first limited program of chess for the University of Manchester 's general @-@ purpose Ferranti Mark 1 computer , one of the first commercially available computers . The program was only capable of computing " mate @-@ in @-@ two " problems as it was not powerful enough to play a full game , and it had no video output . Around the same time in the early 1950s , the RAND Corporation developed a series of combat simulation games of increasing complexity , where the player would enter orders to intercept enemy aircraft , or set up their forces to counter an enemy army invasion . These simulations were not yet true video games , as they required human intervention to interpret the player 's orders and the final results ; the computer only controlled the paths that the enemies would take . 
