Honorable Mention

Developed by Alan Turing and David Champernowne in 1948, this early chess prototype could think two moves ahead, play a full game of chess, and was the first video game to ever enter development. Unfortunately it was too complex to run on the Ferranti Mark 1, and was postponed in its development. Turing would end up passing away in 1954, and Champernowne would cancel the project indefinitely. The original source code has been lost, though recreations of the program exist based on Champernowne's account. For our purposes, the fact that is was never released and that the emulation is more symbolic than original were more than enough reason to give this game a pass. That being said, it deserves its mark on video gaming history by being the first game to enter development, the first game to have digital memory, and the first to have artificial intelligence. (The chess genre would go on to make huge strides in AI via Deep Blue and DeepMind).