Modern computer games

The UK has played a big part in influencing the development of computer games. Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing first created a chess game in 1947, although the resulting program was only capable of computing ‘mate-in-two’ games. In 1951, Alexander S Douglas, a British professor of computer science, created OXO (Noughts and Crosses), the world’s first graphical computer game. Later, in 1984, David Braben and Ian Bell created the first 3D game with Elite. The explosion of UK home computers resulted in the emergence of many UK-based games developers who would create some iconic titles. Some big studios are still based in the UK, including Rockstar North, developer of the Grand Theft Auto titles, and – under its old name of DMA Design – Lemmings.