I debated whether to include "video game", as it was described in the sub-heading. Maybe I should edit to quote those words. [edit to add - I've just wrapped quotes around them.]

Somewhat related, I noticed that the Nimatron Wikipedia page [1], which has quite a bit of interesting info, also mentions Nimrod.

On its Wikipedia page [2], it says, "The Nimrod, built in the United Kingdom by Ferranti for the 1951 Festival of Britain, was an early computer custom-built to play Nim, inspired by the earlier Nimatron. The twelve-by-nine-by-five-foot (3.7-by-2.7-by-1.5-meter) computer, designed by John Makepeace Bennett and built by engineer Raymond Stuart-Williams, allowed exhibition attendees to play a game of Nim against an artificial intelligence."

Also an interesting read, in my opinion at least.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimatron

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimrod_(computer)

Looks like Nimatron has a 4x7 pixel display. Maybe that should count?

It got multiple lights to display game state, so why not?

These handhelds LCDs that could only display a small number of images are also considered video games.

Normally I think those are called "electronic games", as were the earlier games that just used LEDs (like the famous Mattel "Electronic Football" from the 1970s that had you control an LED representing an American football quarterback trying to get touchdowns without being tackled by opponents, also LEDs). Video games are electronic games, but not all electronic games are video games.

There are products that definitely ride the border. For example, if Nim isn't a videogame, are LCD-games videogames? I think most people would still call Game & Watch consoles videogames, despite the fact they aren't doing any kind of bitmap imaging.

> For example, if Nim isn't a videogame, are LCD-games videogames?

I didn't consider them video games growing up. It's going to vary from person to person.

For example in the 1980s I owned a hand-held electronic interactive game made by Tiger, called John Elway's Quarterback [1]. They try to call it a video game on the back of the packge it was sold in (an "LCD video game"), but back then (~1989) Nintendo games were video games, and that Tiger device was merely an interactive electronic toy game (as far as I was concerned). GameGear was a video game however, as was GameBoy (video game playing devices; the cartridges were the video games, to be specific); I think it's the depth/elaborateness of the game (what it's capable of) and level of interactivity possible that separates them in my view.

[1] photo from eBay: https://i.imgur.com/PVcMFok.jpg

When I was young I don't remember the term video game being used very much, the preferred term was always "computer game", even for console games.