
Indeed, 2016 marks the 69th anniversary of 1947, the year that computer games were actually invented.
Inevitably, in its first 15 or so years, gaming was barely recognisable. Yet without the things that happened in those years, the things that happen now wouldn't also be happening. Incredibly, the games created between 1947 and 1959 featured many of the hallmarks of the sorts of games we're still playing today. Get a load of this.
The snappily-named Cathode Ray Amusement Device comprised of a cathode ray tube hooked up to an oscilloscope, whatever that is. A set of knobs and switches allowed players to fire artillery shells at targets such as tanks and planes - represented using plastic screen overlays, Vectrex-style.
Though Goldsmith Jr and his colleague Estle Ray Mann (no, really - the first computer game was created by Ray Mann) applied for a patent, the Cathode Ray Amusement Device was never released commercially.
Seen ultimately more as a novelty than a signpost to the future of computing, Bertie was disassembled following the Exhibition, and never seen again. Not technically a video game - Bertie's display used lightbulbs, rather than a video screen - it was designed by Doctor Josef Kates, who later went on to create the first traffic signalling system, earning him the nickname "The Bulbfather".
Though we cannot be certain that the two events are unconnected, it seems unlikely that Turing's experience with Bertie led to his tragic suicide just three years later.
Strachey also wrote one of the first computer music programs, instructing the Ferranti Mark 1 to perform Baa Baa Black Sheep, God Save The King, and Glenn Miller's In The Mood. In the mood for what though, Glenn? Sadly, your lack of explanation leaves it open to the lewdest of interpretations.
Sadly, not available to be played by the grubby 1950s public, OXO was only open to visitors to University of Cambridge's Mathematical Laboratory.
It focused on a fictional confrontation along the banks of the Rhine, and like later - commercial - strategy games, required the players to balance ammunition and fuel supplies. The university later created a similar naval warfare simulator, and a more advanced version of Hutspeil - Theatrespiel.
That accolade had already been taken by Tennis For Two, created by William Higinbotham for the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition. Unlike the top-down Pong, Tennis For Two adopted a side-on perspective, simulating a ball's trajectory based upon wind resistance. Viewed on yet another oscilloscope, whatever that is, Higinbotham created a pair of familiar-looking aluminium paddle controllers.
In 1985, Nintendo sued Magnavox and Ralph H. Baer - creator of the first games console, the Magnavox Odyssey - in a bid to invalidate his patents. Nintendo stated that Baer had stolen his idea for a tennis game from Tennis For Two. Nintendo lost the court case, when the judge ruled that Tennis For Two didn't use video signals, and could therefore not qualify as a video game.
Baer is widely considered to be the Father of Video Games. Consequently, some have labelled Higinbotham the Grandpapapapa of Video Games.
Simulating three years in the lives of the companies, The Management Game would take two whole semesters to play. Still being used at some universities today, it holds the distinction of having the longest life of any computer game ever written. The very thought of it makes us die a little inside.
A virtual mouse - also represented by a dot - was then released and would explore the maze to find the objects, based upon characteristics (such as only following left or right walls) defined by the player.
The next milestone in gaming was Spacewar. But that's another story.