Release Date: 1948
Platform: REAC 100
Genre: Wargame
Developer(s): Operations Research Office
Publisher(s): Operations Research Office
We're already off into the weeds with a gaiden article post-reboot!
Surprisingly, we're not done with the 1940s yet. This was the other potential starting point for the video game chronology, as this is the earliest game listed by MobyGames; it doesn't include the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device in its database. The irony in that is that neither of my other databases include Air Defense Simulation, plus I consider it to be far less of a video game than the CRT Amusement Device. I'm not sure I'd even call it a "proto-video game," to be perfectly honest with you. Yes, I'm spoiling it from the beginning here that I don't consider this a video game, hence why I'm considering this a gaiden article (plus the fact that this program can't be played...) I even considered not including it for the above reasons.
That being said, Air Defense Simulation is interesting in the sense that it represents the beginning of an alternative track in the history of video games that will eventually converge with the main track some decades later, meaning that it's worth discussing - even if there's not a whole lot to talk about when it comes to the actual "game" itself.
That alternative track begins with the program's intent. Unlike the CRT Amusement Device, which was intended, according to its patent, for purely entertainment purposes, Air Defense Simulation has a far more practical purpose. I'll briefly note here that there's very limited information available concerning ADS (unsurprising, considering it's a military project), but we at least have an idea of what it was and how it was used. For one, it was developed by the military for military training purposes.
With the accelerated development of computers and computer science through the Second World War came an increased interest post-war in the uses of computers in a wide variety of fields - military operations being one of the most pressing given the hell the world went through over the decade prior to 1948. This necessity required there to be specialist organisations dedicated to computer research for military operations. One of the first of these organisations to arise was the Operations Research Office, a civilian-based military research organisation founded in 1948 by the United States Army. It operated out of the Johns Hopkins University, founded in 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland. JHU itself has a rather interesting history, being a university founded out of a posthumous philanthropic donation to the city of Baltimore by Quaker businessman Johns Hopkins. It runs based on more of a European model of university, known as a "Research University," making it an ideal candidate for the sort of operations research the military was interested in conducting.
That research evidently included exploring the use of computers in strategic operations and training simulations. One of the ORO's first projects appeared to be our titular Air Defense Simulation. According to MobyGames, the purpose of the ADS was to help speed up existing wargame simulations by having all the mathematical calculations run through the computer ADS ran on. So, in that sense, it's really not a video game at all, but just a computational aid for pre-existing wargames. Apparently other elements were implemented in the program, enemy targets and missiles, which were all displayed on a three-dimensional grid. Sounds a little more game-like, but the majority of the simulation appeared to still be done with pen and paper. Unfortunately there are no photos of the program in action, so what this actually looks like in practice is impossible to discern.
What's also somewhat difficult to discern is what computer the bloody thing ran on. The majority of online sources suggest it ran on the UNIVAC - likely the UNIVAC I, if those sources are to be believed. One small problem with that, however: the UNIVAC wasn't developed fully until 1951. We're still in 1948, so that doesn't work (unless they had access to a very early prototype.) Always check your dates, folks. One possibility it that ADS was ported over to the UNIVAC I after it finished development, but that still doesn't solve the conundrum of what hardware ADS started off on.
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| NASA's REAC 100. It's a big unit. |
MobyGames once again provides an answer for us. It suggests that ADS may have run on a Reeves Electronic Analog Computer (REAC) initially. The Reeves Instrument Corporation was a computer and radar manufacturer that worked in tandem with the United States military - especially the US Navy - for much of its existence. In the late 1940s, they developed the REAC, one of the first electronic analog computers for public commercial sale. According to Wikipedia, there was over sixty of these office-sized beasts installed in various institutions across the United States - including NASA. ORO would've had the REAC 100, the very first model of the computer. There wasn't exactly a lot of choice in 1948 when it came to commercially produced whole computers, so I think it's a fairly safe bet to say that the REAC 100 was the computer Air Defense Simulation was designed to run on.
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| REAC even had a brochure. Buy one today! |
And that's where the trail of information runs cold, unfortunately. We know that ADS was actually used by the military, so it's got a one-up on the CRT Amusement Device in that respect. But other than that, how it performed, who was involved in the development, etc... no idea. I wouldn't be surprised if that information existed in some classified or confidential form.
What is somewhat surprising, on the other hand, is that Air Defense Simulation doesn't exist as an island (another one-up on the CRT Amusement Device!) ADS's existence led to the development of the Carmonette series of wargames, beginning in 1953. The Carmonette wargame series continued into the 1970s, with the fourth installment coming in 1970. It could possibly be argued then, that ADS led to the development of the first ever video game series - if you wanted to count Carmonette as such.
Regardless, it gives me a good excuse to pull out one of the new additions to OGC that I've been working on: the video game family tree!
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| CRT Amusement Device sits atop, all on its lonesome. |
This has been an idea floating around in my head since the start of the blog - to create a visual representation of the chronology of video games as a supplement to the blog. Naturally this tree will expand into an utter behemoth once the industry begins proper 1971-onward. Obviously I wouldn't include the entire thing when I need to pull it out. Just the relevant snippets.
I suppose we could also consider ADS as somewhat of a nascent starting point for the Wargame genre that finds a real home starting on the first generation of microcomputers. Not a start proper, seeing as I don't consider ADS a video game, but we can see from it that the idea for computer wargames was present from almost the very beginning of game development. I discovered the term "proto-wargame" from The Wargaming Scribe, and I think that's potentially an apt term for ADS, although it may even be too early for that term to apply correctly.
I'll also briefly mention the concept of "serious" games, as I saw that term get bandied about during my research. "Serious" games are basically educational games - video games with the ulterior educational motive, from which we later get the term "edutainment." However, "serious" games delineate somewhat from the conventional educational game in that these are typically games used in commercial and private sectors as a means to teach employees or students, and generally aren't intended for public consumption. Some of these have floated into the public sphere, such as the America's Army series of first-person shooters from the 2000s, and the somewhat infamous Japan-only "McDonald's Training Game", eCrew Development Program (or eSMART) for the Nintendo DS. ADS marks the beginning of the "serious" game, in that it's not a game intended for public entertainment, but as a means of simulating battle scenarios and developing military strategy.
All in all, not a video game, but ADS still manages to be a rather interesting piece of the puzzle in early video game history.
Next up: Bertie the Brain (1950)
Hello !
ReplyDeleteSome old entries are quite strange on Mobygames. I was also doubtful about ADS's qualification as a video game. I didn't knew there was a grid for some part of the simulation. If this grid is displayed on a screen, or could have been (like teletypes games, a lot of them were played through teleprinter paper, but we could have change the teleprinter for a screen and it would have worked just as well), maybe we could pretend that this very specific part is a video aspect of a broader game. Like in Odyssey's games, some games use boards, and sometime the players don't look at the screen for a while... In this configuration, I'd say that there is a 'game', part 'video', part 'board'. There are pure video games that are only played through a video display, and others.
Now, 'serious games', military simulations and stuff like that, are those games ? It's very hard to define what's a game, when you think about it. There is even a name for this philosophical subject : ludology. Intent really matters, but why bother create a simulation with imaginary rules, if we could just read a military or economic book or something ? A game is at it's core a entertaining activity that involved playing with imaginary rules. While first made for having fun and killing time, games can involve into something else. The imaginary setting of a game is then used as a powerful tool to convey more practical uses, training... or performance, like in sports. All sports are games, we start a sport because it's fun, but when we're getting, and things get serious, the game remains, although the players does not necessarily 'play' anymore. The same thing could be said for competitive video games. At some point, players starts to act on the game as it is their job, maybe they don't even have fun anymore, who knows, but they are entertained nonetheless, and are entertaining, all thanks to the power of the game setting, whether direct (game rules, gameplay) or indirect (stakes, unspoken rules, psychology aspect).
Another great comment!
DeleteI do agree that ADS' inclusion on MobyGames is indeed strange. Even more strange that it doesn't include the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device. What's even stranger is that the first of the Carmonette games doesn't even use a video display, and that's on the site! ADS, though, definitely falls into that "hybrid game" category that the Odyssey also occupies. Though it's harder to tell what ADS actually did since there's so little information available on it.
I do think "serious" games still count as games. By definition, they count, even if the intent isn't strictly to entertain. Entertainment becomes more of a secondary objective to the instructional component, but it's still in some regard an "entertaining" method of training or instruction. I mean, even regular games have some indirect teaching of practical skills built into them. Problem solving, critical thinking, mental arithmetic are a few things I can think of from the top of my head. Fire Emblem helped me learn how to do fast mental calculations growing up, which I've found a very useful skill to have even today.