The early history of video games can be traced back to the mid-20th century, encompassing several key milestones that laid the groundwork for the video game industry as we know it today. ### 1940s and 1950s: Theoretical Foundations - **1940s**: The concept of game-playing machines began to emerge. One of the earliest instances was the use of computers for simulations and simple games like "Turing's Games" by mathematician Alan Turing.