The first method of being able to draw into a computer system was Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad (1961-62). It worked by the artist drawing onto a window with the required pen, then pressing buttons to alter the drawing to look as the artist wants it to.
Around the same time as Sutherland's Sketchpad, Steve Russel developed the first video game - Space War (1961-62). The object of the game is to shoot the other player's space ship without being sucked into the vortex in the middle of the screen. This should not be confused with two previous games which were made before Space War. These are OXO (1952) and Tennis for Two (1958). These are not considered video games, but are electronic games do to the fact they do not display by a process of frame-by-frame video. Tennis for Two is shown in the video below.
In 1968, Douglas Engelbart finished developing the NLS, the first online system. It was a huge leap forward in the world of computer graphics, with many never-seen-before features demonstrated, such as the first ever cimputer mouse.
In 1982, the Xerox Star Interview Interface was released. It was a more developed, and easier to use, version of the NLS.
The Xerox Star System was the influence for the personal computers from Windows and Apple that we have today.
