What Was the First Video Game System? Key Milestones

Depends on your definition of "game system." Key milestones:

Earliest Dedicated Game Machines

• 1951 — Nimatron (or "Nimrod"): Built by Ferranti for Festival of Britain. Played Nim (mathematical strategy game) using lights. Not programmable — single-game hardware.
• 1952 — OXO (EDSAC): Tic-tac-toe on Cambridge's EDSAC computer. CRT display. Research demo, not commercial.
• 1958 — Tennis for Two: William Higinbotham, Brookhaven National Lab. Oscilloscope display, analog computer, two controllers. Public demo — arguably first interactive video game.
• 1962 — Spacewar!: MIT PDP-1. Two-ship dogfight, gravity star. First digital video game widely distributed (source code shared).

First Commercial Systems

• 1971 — Computer Space (Nutting Associates): First coin-op video game (Spacewar! clone). Commercial failure.
• 1972 — Magnavox Odyssey: **First home video game console.** Cartridge-less; game cards + overlays. 12 games (Table Tennis, Hockey, etc.).
• 1972 — Pong (Atari): First *successful* arcade cabinet → home version (1975).

Consensus

• First game machine: Nimatron (1951) or Tennis for Two (1958).
• First programmable computer game: Spacewar! (1962).
• First home console: Magnavox Odyssey (1972).
• First arcade video game: Computer Space (1971).

Ralph Baer (Odyssey) is rightly called "Father of Video Games" for conceiving the home system concept (1966 patent).