Get in the Game

Preface: The Revolution of 1972

The year 1972 not only irrevocably changed the consumer entertainment ecosystem, but also set into motion events that continue to fundamentally alter the ways in which humans interrelate via media. More specifically, two distinct but related phenomena were occurring in the world.

First, the Magnavox Odyssey was released, which is widely considered to be the first home gaming console. The home console shifted the center of gravity for video games from the arcade to the home. Though the transition period would be tumultuous, including a crash that nearly capsized the entire industry less than a decade away, interactive entertainment had found a home in living rooms across the globe by merit of being an accessory to existing home technology (it connected to a standard television set) rather than requiring a separate (and expensive) monitor. In one sense, 1972 is the year that video games shifted from being occasion‐ and geographic‐bounded entertainment to personal, accessible, and scaled—attributes that would paint the success of the industry for decades to come.

Second, beyond the living room and within the venerated halls of Stanford University, the first digital gaming competition was being held. A tournament around the early‐computer gaming favorite Spacewar! was being held at the artificial intelligence lab, complete with multiple competitors and a valuable prize (a yearlong subscription to Rolling Stone). In a similar parallel to home consoles, ...