[Ads-l] Antedating of "Video Game"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Stiudent newspapers can be valuable sources for antedatings.  Unfortunately, two of the very earliest digitized student newspapers -- The Tech (MIT) and the Harvard Crimson -- are extremely clunky and not that useful.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 6:45 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Antedating of "Video Game"

I just attempted to search the PDF archive of the MIT newspaper "The Tech".

https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.mit.edu%2Fbrowse.html&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C2a7d84f92ed24b14b83408daee4940fd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638084295660513374%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=lHq5K1USfWeMePp%2FVyz8UP%2FxwNkUkVd%2F4DNGi2LsclI%3D&reserved=0

It is not easy to search because there is no natural way to specify
temporal limits. Happily, it is possible to search one volume at a
time. I was unable to find any instances of "video game" in 1973 or
before.

Garson

On Wed, Jan 4, 2023 at 2:52 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Spacewar! Was one of the first video games.
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FSpacewar&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C2a7d84f92ed24b14b83408daee4940fd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638084295660513374%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8ts%2F%2BnMH9HLmf5AzuEEz%2ByXRUFycwHWOzZQK2k%2FcFOU%3D&reserved=0!
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve
> Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob
> Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly
> installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of
> Technology.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Between 1962 and 1972 someone might have referred to "Spacewar!" as a
> video game. There were other early games, e.g., "Snoopy and the Red
> Baron" which Stewart Brand mentioned in 1972. The term "video game" is
> a natural label, but I do not know whether anyone employed it in the
> 1960s. Some M.I.T publication might contain an early instance of
> "video game".
>
> Stewart Brand published an article titled "Spacewar: Fanatic Life and
> Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums" in the December 7, 1972 issue
> of Rolling Stone (This date is after Nolan Bushnell letter), but Brand
> did not use the term "video game" in the article.
>
> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wheels.org%2Fspacewar%2Fstone%2Frolling_stone.html&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C2a7d84f92ed24b14b83408daee4940fd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638084295660669591%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=lhrlkVhLv9KKJKddWMZBpdQqV1nWY6Bvo85kYDZ1ERE%3D&reserved=0
>
> Garson
>
> On Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 8:35 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> >
> > The OED's first use for the term "video game" is dated 25 Sept. 1973.  A very thorough website
> >
> > https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fallincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com%2F2015%2F04%2Fthe-etymology-of-term-video-game.html&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7C2a7d84f92ed24b14b83408daee4940fd%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C638084295660669591%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=R9RxsKnKUOFDX2PS7IjdyQAotTOqzaxowupAuPtkgFI%3D&reserved=0
> >
> > has images of the following two citations.  The first of these may be the actual coinage.
> >
> > 1972 Nolan K. Bushnell Letter to John A. Britz 10 July  My projected delivery date for the flipper mock-up is September 1, 1972 with the video game to be finished November 15. ... The video game has a hockey theme which has a great amount of two player speed and excitement.
> >
> > 1973 Cash Box 10 Mar.  Braun also reveled [sic] that two new allied amusement products began shipping to his distributors last Thursday: a video game called 'Paddle Battle' and a machine gun target novelty called 'Rapid Fire'.
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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