The Development of the Swedish Game Industry - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 119

This chapter will describe and discuss the history and development of
the Swedish digital game industry, from the very fi rst computer games
in the 1950s until today. The focus is on the structure and formation of
a Swedish game development industry predominantly from the 1980s to
the present. Sweden has had a relatively large game developing commu-
nity, but very few publishing companies, so the focus will be entirely on
game developers. The material used in the chapter was collected mainly
through annual reports from all game developing companies that have
been active in Sweden. 3
GAMING ON THE COLOSSI—1950-1980
The very fi rst computer games were created on the colossal mainframe
computers that were developed in the 1940s and 1950s. The computers
were constructed at universities, often as part of military ef orts during
and after the Second World War (Akera 2002, 63-65; Campbell-Kelly
and Aspray 2004, 69-73). Despite this all but playful context, games
soon were developed on many of the computers. No technical standard
had emerged, so the computers were dissimilar and programs could not
easily be transferred. However, the invention of computer games spread
rapidly and although commercial games were still a thing of the future,
games fi lled other purposes than being a fun distraction for the employees
working with the computers. Games were often used as a way to adver-
tise the computers and used as showpieces at events where the computes
were demonstrated to the public (Saarikoski and Suominen 2009, 20-21).
Games could also be a way for programmers to explore the fi eld of artifi -
cial intelligence (Shannon 1950).
Early Swedish computer development follows a similar pattern as the rest
of the world. The government established the Swedish Board for Comput-
ing Machinery (Matematikmaskinnämnden) in 1948 to develop and build
a Swedish computer capacity. The fi rst computer, BARK, was completed in
Stockholm in 1950, making Sweden one of the fi rst countries after the U.S.,
Great Britain and Germany to have a functioning computer. The board built
a new and more advanced computer in 1954 named BESK, which allegedly
was one of the fastest computers at the time (Hallberg 2007, 167-168). But
from a gaming perspective, the third Swedish computer is the most interest-
ing. In 1956, the SMIL computer was constructed at Lund University. At
the unveiling ceremony, the computer played La Marseillaise for the crowd,
including the French ambassador, but it also challenged the attendees to
a game of Nim (Hallberg 2007, 172). This made it the fi rst documented
computer game in Sweden. It was, however, not the fi rst game in the Nor-
dic countries. Nim could also be played at the Norwegian NUSSE com-
puter and a similar Finish machine, which were both constructed in 1954
(Saarikoski and Suominen 2009, 21).