If you are looking at actual computers (otherwise all kinds of things count, even Pinball) then you are looking at things like Space Wars - you can't ignore it because computers were expensive. If you don't count "non-computers", then the Magnavox Odyssey and Pong consoles aren't in contention...
To be controversial, I will propose the date as the release of the 6502 processor: 1975. This was in the Atari 2600, Commodore PET/VIC20/64 and NES.