Tennis for Two © 1958 Higinbotham, William.
Tennis for Two is an early video game that simulates a game of tennis on an oscilloscope attached to a Donner Model 30 analog computer. Players used custom made aluminium controllers with knobs to angle their shots, and a button in order to hit a ball back and forth. Unlike other early tennis-like simulations such as Pong, the ball is affected by gravity and uses a side view. The ball can hit the net or go out of bounds.
It was exhibited Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition and considered by some definitions to be the earliest video game ever made. It was on display for three days when originally displayed and returned the next year with a bigger oscilloscope screen and ability to adjust gravity (moon or Jupiter). It was then dismantled and largely forgotten until the late 1970s when Higinbotham testified in court about the game during lawsuits between Magnavox and Ralph H. Baer over video game patents. Since then, it has been celebrated as one of the earliest video games, and Brookhaven has made recreations of the original device. Under some definitions Tennis for Two is considered the first video game, as while it did not include any technological innovations over prior games, it was the first computer game to be created purely as an entertainment product rather than for academic research or commercial technology promotion.
Naturally this game served as an inspiration for Ralph Baer for some of the games on his brown box which would later be sold as the Magnavox Odyssey.
Developed by: William Higinbotham
Info
Edit
Upload
Add