We all know the Playstation, the PC, the Xbox, the Gameboy, and all the other myriad examples of gaming devices out there in the world today. Gaming is a pervasive part of our culture, coloring everything from our choices in clothing to our taste in cuisine, there are even themed restaurants that are entirely dedicated to gamers and the games they love. Video Games Day is dedicated to recalling this defining part of our culture and sharing it with our fellow gamers, new and old alike. Get your game on! History of Video Games Day The history of Video Games Day is really the history of the video game, and that history goes back much farther than most people imagine. The first game ever created is often thought to be Bertie the Brain, an artificial intelligence designed to play Tic-Tac-Toe. Considering that Bertie was a 4 meter high machine built on vacuum tube technology, you can imagine it didn’t get out much, in fact, it was disassembled after the Canadian National Exhibition it was revealed at, and never rebuilt. A year later a computer was built called Nimrod, Nimrod was a computer built and displayed at the Festival of Britain in 1951 and designed to play a game called Nim. From these humble beginnings things continued to build, first with Cabinet style games (those are the ones you put quarters in kids) which became hugely popular, and then into the first consoles, home based platforms you could play the games on. In the years that followed development of computers and video games just kept growing exponentially, until they now absolutely permeate our culture. What used to be a luxury item for the rich and elite has now become a standard part of most people’s homes, and a diversion that involves all ages. Red Dead Redemption is still my favourite game but Witcher 3 was pretty impressive.
