The Nimatron was an electro-mechanical machine that played Nim. It was first exhibited in April–October 1940 by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair to entertain fair-goers. Conceived of some months prior by Edward Condon and built by Gerald L. Tawney and Willard A. Derr, the device was a non-programmable digital computer composed of electro-mechanical relays which could respond to players' choices in the game in a dozen different patterns. The machine, which weighed over a metric ton, displayed four lines of seven light bulbs both in front of the player and on four sides of an overhead cube. Players alternated turns with the machine in removing one or more lights from one of the rows until the lights were all extinguished. The calculations were purposely delayed to give the illusion that the machine was considering moves, and winners received a token.
Nimatron in 1940
Edward Condon, the inventor of the Nimatron
The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science Building
Electro-mechanical games are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun games using light-sensitive sensors on targets to register hits, while others were simulation games such as driving games, combat flight simulators and sports games. EM games were popular in amusement arcades from the late 1940s up until the 1970s, serving as alternatives to pinball machines, which had been stigmatized as games of chance during that period. EM games lost popularity in the 1970s, as arcade video games had emerged to replace them in addition to newer pinball machines designed as games of skill.
Sega's Gun Fight (1969), a two-player EM game that used light-sensitive targets. It was one of the first games with head-to-head shooting, inspiring arcade shooter video games such as Gun Fight (1975).
All American Basket Ball (1969), an EM game produced by Chicago Coin