Bertie the Brain

Publishers N/A
Developers Josef Kates
Release date 1950
Genre Puzzle
Game rating

Game Description

Bertie the Brain was an early computer game, and one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. It was built in Toronto by Josef Kates for the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. The four meter (13 foot) tall computer allowed exhibition attendees to play a game of tic-tac-toe against an artificial intelligence. The player entered a move on a lit keypad in the form of a three-by-three grid, and the game played out on a grid of lights overhead. The machine had an adjustable difficulty level. After two weeks on display by Rogers Majestic, the machine was disassembled at the end of the exhibition and largely forgotten as a curiosity.

Download Bertie the Brain

We might have the game available for more than one platform. Bertie the Brain is currently available on these platforms:

  Bertie the Brain (1950)

Bertie the Brain is a lost video game. No simulated versions are available.

Additional files, patches and fixes

Bertie the Brain Screenshots

Example screenshots of how the game was played

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  1. It would be trivial, but meaningless to simulate the game. The actual physical machine was the relic, a non-solid-state tube-based computer like the more famous ENIAC and Colossus.

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  2. I really wish that this wasn’t dismantled. It’s a really simple game of tic-tac toe that you could play on some random website, but this was a huge step for gaming,

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  3. I think that it’s unfortunate that it was disassembled right after being shown to the public. It would be really interesting to see this in some kind of museum today.

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