Computer Space is widely recognized as the first commercially released video game. Nutting Associates released it in 1971, making it an important starting point for the coin-operated video game industry.
The game was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who later founded Atari. It adapted the ideas of Spacewar!, a computer game developed at MIT in the 1960s, but placed them in a dedicated arcade cabinet that players operated by inserting coins.
Computer Space challenged players to control a rocket, destroy a pair of flying saucers, and avoid enemy fire. Its futuristic cabinet design helped establish the visual identity of arcade games, although the controls and gameplay were considered difficult for some players.
It is often confused with Galaxy Game, which appeared at Stanford University in 1971, or Pong, Atari’s 1972 table-tennis game. Galaxy Game was an earlier public installation, but Computer Space is generally credited as the first commercially released arcade video game.