Computer Space is a video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, it is generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game — and indeed, the first commercially sold video game of any kind, predating the Magnavox Odyssey by six months, and Atari's Pong by one year. Though not commercially sold, the coin operated minicomputer driven Galaxy Game preceded it by two months, located solely at Stanford University.

The player controls a rocket ship and must evade enemy fire from a pair of flying saucers using a thruster and a pair of rotational buttons. The player fires back to destroy the flying saucers by firing missiles at them from the rocket ship. Today, the game would be considered a multi-directional shooter.
The saucers moved in tandem. There were at least two places on the screen where the rocket could hide and not be hit by the saucers.
If the player's score was higher than that of the saucers at the end of 90 seconds, the player would get another 90 seconds of play, and the colors of the screen would switch in "Hyperspace" (it would switch like a photo negative, from black to white and white to black). If at the end of this 90 seconds the player's score was still higher than that of the saucers, the player received another 90 seconds and the colors would revert to normal. This sequence is repeated indefinitely.