Early mainframe games

<a href="/facts/Mainframe_computer/nrBR6rWa">Mainframe computers</a> are <a href="/facts/Computer/SQe1aK05">computers</a> used primarily by businesses and academic institutions for large-scale processes. Before <a href="/facts/Personal_computer/koaYfNce">personal computers</a>, first termed <a href="/facts/Microcomputer/ETW22UTv">microcomputers</a>, became widely available to the general public in the 1970s, the computing industry was composed of mainframe computers and the relatively smaller and cheaper <a href="/facts/Minicomputer/g8hvpQxe">minicomputer</a> variant. During the mid to late 1960s, many <a href="/facts/Early_history_of_video_games/mGGGIJYS">early video games</a> were programmed on these computers. Developed prior to the rise of the commercial <a href="/facts/Video_game_industry/3hucMmbw">video game industry</a> in the early 1970s, these early mainframe games were generally written by students or employees at large corporations in a <a href="/facts/Machine_language/bgdQ1Fxf">machine</a> or <a href="/facts/Assembly_language/7XuV0cla">assembly language</a> that could only be understood by the specific machine or computer type they were <a href="/facts/Software_development/UUfsAaYY">developed</a> on. While many of these games were lost as older computers were discontinued, some of them were <a href="/facts/Porting/7s6tFs8B">ported</a> to high-level computer languages like <a href="/facts/BASIC/VYMl5TmA">BASIC</a>, had expanded versions later released for personal computers, or were recreated for <a href="/facts/Bulletin_board_system/22d9c9s2">bulletin board systems</a> years later, thus influencing future games and developers.
Early computer games began to be created in the 1950s, and the steady increase in the number and abilities of computers over time led to the gradual loosening of restrictions on access to mainframe computers at academic and corporate institutions beginning in the 1960s. This in turn led to a modest proliferation of generally small, text-based games on mainframe computers, with increasing complexity towards the end of the decade. While games continued to be developed on mainframes and minicomputers through the 1970s, the rise of personal computers and the spread of high-level programming languages meant that later games were generally intended to or were capable of being run on personal computers, even when developed on a mainframe. These early games include <a href="/facts/Hamurabi_(video_game)/YlVNEXQl">Hamurabi</a>, an antecedent of the <a href="/facts/Strategy_video_game/NaBxMpy6">strategy</a> and <a href="/facts/City-building_game/Mj6oCxN7">city-building</a> genres; <a href="/facts/Lunar_Lander_(video_game_genre)/QM3b5IRq">Lunar Lander</a>, which inspired numerous recreations in the 1970s and 1980s; Civil War, an early war simulation game; <a href="/facts/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)/woXHsnsj">Star Trek</a>, which was widely ported, expanded, and spread for decades after; <a href="/facts/Space_Travel_(video_game)/K9vl18gY">Space Travel</a>, which played a role in the creation of the <a href="/facts/Unix/0pNL2seI">Unix</a> <a href="/facts/Operating_system/8XTuvMh2">operating system</a>; and Baseball, an early <a href="/facts/Sports_game/BFAAKTvK">sports game</a> and the first baseball game to allow player control during a game.

Early mainframe games open-in-new

Early mainframe games