The
history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering a long period of invention and changes.
Video gaming would not reach mainstream popularity until the 1970s and 1980s, when
arcade video games,
gaming consoles and
home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since then, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of
modern culture in most parts of the world. The
early history of video games, therefore, covers the period of time between the first
interactive electronic game with an electronic display in 1947 and the first true video games in the early 1950s, and the rise of early arcade video games with
Pong and the beginning of the
first generation of video game consoles with the
Magnavox Odyssey, both in 1972. In between these two points in time was a wide range of devices and inventions corresponding with large advances in computing technology, and the actual first video game is dependent on the definition of "video game" used.