“Although it had no sound, no color (black-and-white), and no animations, it did have one feature that would make it part of computer gaming history — graphics. Mystery House was the first computer game to ever contain graphics (70 simple 2D pictures drawn by Roberta Williams). Before then, all computer games were text-based. Due to its newfangled graphics, Mystery House quickly became a best-seller…”
—Mystery House (Roberta Williams, 1980)Sierra Planet)
It’s not true that all computer games were text based before “Mystery House.” For instance, “Spacewar” dates from 1961 or ’62, though it wasn’t a commercial product, and you needed access to expensive high-tech research equipment in order to play. The crude line drawings of “Mystery House” were nothing like the bright graphics in arcade games such as Pac-Man. If the author had said that Sierra was the first commercial computer game for the home market that contained graphics, that would be in line with what most sources seem to say. Thanks for the link, “Traveling Ghost”.