Trivia

Hard

The First Commercial Coin-Operated Video Game Was?

Pong
Computer Space
Pac-Man
Spacewar!
A space-blue Computer Space arcade cabinet.
Flippers/Wikimedia

Answer: Computer Space

In 1971, Nutting Associates, an arcade game company located in Mountain View, California, decided to branch out from electro-mechanical arcade games and into video games. They worked with Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney to create a clone of Spacewar! (an early and popular computer video game) in a stand-alone cabinet.

By the end of the year, production started on a 1,500 unit run of Computer Space and the first commercial coin-operated video game was put into arcades across the country. We specify commercial because at roughly the same time Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck had built a single coin-operated video game unit (Galaxy Game) as a project, but never commercialized it beyond setting it up for Stanford students to play.

Despite the first-in-history award we can bestow on Computer Space, it wasn’t much of a commercial success. Of the 1,500 units, more than 1,000 sold, but it was not the runaway success that everyone hoped for. Undiscouraged, Bushnell and Dabney left Nutting Associates in 1972 and went on to found Atari, Inc.

More Trivia Questions

Trivia

Easy

A Keyboard Shortcut Designed To Hide Your Current Activity Is Known As What?

Trivia

Hard

Which Novel Is Stephen King’s Longest?

Trivia

Hard

Bathing Machines Were An Integral Part Of What Victorian-Era Activity?

Trivia

Easy

What Unit of Measurement Denotes Half A Byte?

Trivia

Very Hard

The Advent Of Smartphones Put A Dent Into The Sales Of?

Trivia

Hard

Which Soda Is Distributed By Both Coca-Cola And Pepsi?

Trivia

Easy

Which Sci-Fi Actor Raised $25,000 For Charity By Selling His Kidney Stone?

Trivia

Hard

The Largest Known Freshwater Flood In All Of History Is Known As The?

Trivia

Hard

Which 1980s Video Game’s Theme Song Is Actually A Courtship Folk Song?

Trivia

Hard

The British Royal Navy Considered Rations Of What Foodstuff A Military Secret?