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1952Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Alexander Douglas writes OXO for EDSAC

A Cambridge PhD student puts tic-tac-toe on a cathode-ray screen

On the timeline · around 1952 · Before the IndustryBefore the IndustryAlexander Douglas writes OXO for EDSAC1950195519601965

Quick facts

Creator
Alexander S. Douglas
Machine
EDSAC, University of Cambridge
Game
Noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe)
Display
35 x 15 dot cathode-ray tube

What happened

Alexander 'Sandy' Douglas, a Cambridge University PhD candidate, wrote a version of tic-tac-toe (called noughts and crosses in Britain) for the university's EDSAC computer as part of his research into human-computer interaction. The program, OXO, let a player choose to move first or let the machine go first, entering moves with a rotary telephone dial while EDSAC drew the three-by-three board on a 35-by-15 dot cathode-ray tube, one of the machine's three small built-in displays. Because EDSAC was a one-of-a-kind research machine at Cambridge, almost no one outside the university ever played it.

Why it matters

OXO is among the earliest programs to draw a genuine picture, rather than blinking lights or printed text, on an electronic screen in response to player input. It shows the graphical game arriving as a byproduct of academic computer science, years before anyone tried to sell games commercially.

How we know

The Computer History Museum's 1952 timeline entry describes the program, its author, the EDSAC hardware, and the rotary-dial input method from its own historical record.

Sources

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