Tennis for Two

Last updated

Tennis for Two
Tennis For Two on a DuMont Lab Oscilloscope Type 304-A.jpg
Tennis for Two on a DuMont Lab Oscilloscope Type 304-A
Designer(s) William Higinbotham
Platform(s) Analog computer
Release
  • US: October 18, 1958
Genre(s) Sports
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Tennis for Two (also known as Computer Tennis) is a sports video game that simulates a game of tennis, and was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. American physicist William Higinbotham designed the game in 1958 for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's annual public exhibition after learning that the government research institution's Donner Model 30 analog computer could simulate trajectories with wind resistance. He designed the game within a few hours, after which he and technician Robert V. Dvorak built it over a period of three weeks. The game was displayed on an oscilloscope and played with two custom aluminum controllers. Its visuals show a representation of a tennis court viewed from the side, and players adjust the angle of their shots with a knob on their controller and try to hit the ball over the net by pressing a button.

Contents

The game was very popular during the three-day exhibition, with players lining up to see the game, especially high school students. It was shown again the following year with a larger oscilloscope screen and a more complicated design that could simulate different gravity levels. 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.

Development

Reproduced version of the game built at Brookhaven for the game's 50th anniversary. [1]

In 1958, American physicist William Higinbotham worked in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, as the head of the instrumentation division. Higinbotham had a bachelor's degree in physics from Williams College, and had previously worked as a technician in the physics department at Cornell University while unsuccessfully pursuing a Ph.D. there. He served as the head of the electronics division of the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945, and began working at Brookhaven in 1947, which focused on researching peaceful uses of atomic power. [2] [3] Once a year, the government research facility held an exhibition for the public, with one day each for high school students, college students, and the general public. The exhibition largely consisted of tours and static displays, with some attempts at making displays with "action", so for the 1958 exhibition Higinbotham decided to make an interactive display to entertain the visitors. [2] [3] [4] While reading the instruction manual for one of Brookhaven's computers, a Donner Model 30 analog computer, he learned that the computer could calculate ballistic missile trajectories or a bouncing ball with wind resistance, and he decided to use this ability to form the foundation of a game. [5] [6] He later recalled his intentions were that "it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which could convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society." [7]

Modern recreation of the controller Tennis for Two - Modern recreation.jpg
Modern recreation of the controller

Higinbotham designed a game that used an oscilloscope to display the path of a simulated ball on a tennis court viewed from the side. The attached computer calculated the path of the ball and reversed its path when it hit the ground. The game also simulated the ball hitting the net if it did not achieve a high enough arc as well as changes in velocity due to drag from air resistance. [7] Two aluminum controllers were attached to the computer, each consisting of a button and a knob. Pressing the button hit the ball, and turning a knob controlled the angle of the shot. [4] [8] Originally, Higinbotham considered having a second knob to control the velocity of the shot, but decided it would make the controller too complicated. [9] The device was designed in a few hours and was assembled over three weeks with the help of technician Robert V. Dvorak. [7] While most of the circuitry was based on vacuum tubes and relays, the circuits to display the graphics on the oscilloscope used transistors, then beginning to replace vacuum tubes in the electronics industry. [3] Excluding the oscilloscope and controller, the game's circuitry approximately took up the space of a microwave oven. [8]

Presentation

The setup for Tennis for Two as exhibited in 1959 Tennis For Two in 1959.jpg
The setup for Tennis for Two as exhibited in 1959

Tennis for Two was first shown on October 18, 1958. [7] The game was rendered as a horizontal line, representing the tennis court, and a short vertical line in the center, representing the tennis net. The first player would press the button on their controller to send the ball, a point of light, over the net, and it would either hit the net, reach the other side of the court, or fly out of bounds. The second player could then hit the ball back with their controller while it was on their side, either before or after it bounced on the ground. [3] Hundreds of visitors lined up to play the new game during its debut. [8] Higinbotham claimed later that "the high schoolers liked it best, you couldn't pull them away from it." [2] Due to the game's popularity, an upgraded version was shown the following year, with enhancements including a larger screen and different levels of simulated gravity. [7] Players could set the game to simulate the gravity levels of the Moon or Jupiter. [3] Higinbotham referred to the game as Tennis for Two, though a placard attached to the 1959 version titled it "Computer Tennis". After the 1959 exhibition, the game was dismantled so its components could be put to other uses. [3]

Legacy

After being dismantled, Tennis for Two was largely forgotten. It remained virtually unknown until the late 1970s and early 1980s when Higinbotham was called on to testify in court cases for defendants sued by Magnavox over the video game patents of Ralph H. Baer. [9] Having discovered the game, the lawyers for the defense unsuccessfully attempted to have the game declared prior art to invalidate Baer's patents on television video games, resulting in attention being given to the nearly 20-year-old game as possibly the first video game. It received further attention as the subject of articles in Creative Computing and Video Replay in 1982 and 1983 highlighting its possible status as the first video game; the editor of Creative Computing, David H. Ahl, had played Tennis for Two at Brookhaven in 1958, and dubbed Higinbotham the "Grandfather of Video Games". [9] [10] [11] Higinbotham himself felt that the game was an obvious extension of the Donner Model 30's bouncing ball program and therefore not worthy of patenting or a large part of his legacy; he preferred to be remembered for his post-World War II nuclear non-proliferation work. [10] [12]

1997 recreation of the original Tennis for Two setup Tennis For Two re-created in 1997.png
1997 recreation of the original Tennis for Two setup

In 1997, a team at Brookhaven recreated the game for Brookhaven's 50th anniversary. The reconstruction took about three months, partially because the parts were not readily available. This recreation was also displayed at the 2008 celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the original game. [8] [13] The replica implemented an analog computer using solid-state operational amplifier devices instead of vacuum tubes as the original Donner Model 30 did. In 2010, it was replaced with a restored Donner Model 3400 analog computer. [6] In 2011, Stony Brook University founded the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, dedicated to "documenting the material culture of screen-based game media", and "collecting and preserving the texts, ephemera, and artifacts that document the history and work of early game innovator and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist William A. Higinbotham, who in 1958 invented the first interactive analog computer game, Tennis for Two." [14] [15] [Note 1]

Tennis for Two is considered under some definitions to be the first video game. [9] Other candidates include the 1947 cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game, though it did not run on a computing device; the 1950 Bertie the Brain , the earliest known game to run on a computer, though it used light bulbs for a display; and OXO and a draughts game by Christopher Strachey in 1952, the earliest digital computer games to display visuals on an electronic screen. Tennis for Two, though it contained no technological developments to separate it from earlier games, has the distinction of being the earliest known computer game with visuals created purely for entertainment purposes. [17] [18] [19] [20] Prior games were created primarily for academic research purposes or to demonstrate the computing power of the underlying machine, with the exception of the non-computer based cathode-ray tube amusement device. This, therefore, makes Tennis for Two the first video game under some definitions from a philosophical viewpoint rather than a technical one and a distinctive moment in the early history of video games. [17] [18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Stony Brook University's statement that Tennis for Two was "the first interactive analog computer game" is likely correct depending on the definition of "game" used, but only due to the "analog computer" constraint; several games, including the 1950 Bertie the Brain and 1952 OXO , were previously developed for vacuum tube-based digital computers. One prior game run on an analog computer was Hutspiel, a 1955 war simulation game by the Operations Research Office, but the Goodyear Electronic Differential Analyzer computer had no display, and it is unclear if the computer ran the game or was only used to run requested calculations. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analog computer</span> Computer that uses continuously varying data technology

An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically and by discrete values of both time and amplitude.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joystick</span> Control lever used in aircraft and video games

A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a centre stick or side-stick. It has various switches to control functions of the aircraft controlled by the Pilot and First Officer of the flight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trackball</span> Pointing device

A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the on-screen pointer, using their thumb, fingers, or the palm of the hand, while using the fingertips to press the buttons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video game console</span> Computer system for running video games

A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to a television or other display devices and controlled with a separate game controller, or handheld consoles, which include their own display unit and controller functions built into the unit and which can be played anywhere. Hybrid consoles combine elements of both home and handheld consoles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnavox Odyssey</span> First commercial home video game console

The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track scores. The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other board game paraphernalia to accompany the games, while a peripheral controller—the first video game light gun—was sold separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game controller</span> Device used with games or entertainment systems

A game controller, gaming controller, or simply controller, is an input device or input/output device used with video games or entertainment systems to provide input to a video game. Input devices that have been classified as game controllers include keyboards, mice, gamepads, and joysticks, as well as special purpose devices, such as steering wheels for driving games and light guns for shooting games. Controllers designs have evolved to include directional pads, multiple buttons, analog sticks, joysticks, motion detection, touch screens and a plethora of other features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Higinbotham</span> American physicist (1910–1994)

William Alfred Higinbotham was an American physicist. A member of the team that developed the first nuclear bomb, he later became a leader in the nonproliferation movement. He also has a place in the history of video games for his 1958 creation of Tennis for Two, the first interactive analog computer game and one of the first electronic games to use a graphical display.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamepad</span> Type of video game controller

A gamepad is a type of video game controller held in two hands, where the fingers are used to provide input. They are typically the main input device for video game consoles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paddle (game controller)</span> One-dimensional game controller

A paddle is a game controller with a round wheel and one or more fire buttons, where the wheel is typically used to control movement of the player object along one axis of the video screen. A paddle controller rotates through a fixed arc ; it has a stop at each end.

<i>OXO</i> (video game) 1952 video game/naughts-and-crosses simulator

OXO is a video game developed by A S Douglas in 1952 which simulates a game of noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe). It was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. Douglas programmed the game as part of a thesis on human-computer interaction at the University of Cambridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic game</span> Game that employs electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play

An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common forms of electronic game including handheld electronic games, standalone systems, and exclusively non-visual products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic media</span> Media that require electronics or electromechanical means to be accessed by the audience

Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media, which today are most often created digitally, but do not require electronics to be accessed by the end user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and online content. Most new media are in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analogue electronics data or digital electronic data format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APF TV Fun series</span> Series of home video game consoles

The APF TV Fun brand is a series of dedicated home video game consoles manufactured by APF Electronics Inc. and built in Japan starting in 1976. The systems were among the first built on the General Instrument "Pong-on-a-chip", the AY-3-8500, that allowed many manufacturers to compete against the Atari Home Pong. The APF TV Fun consoles were one of the earliest Pong clone consoles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vector monitor</span> Type of display device

A vector monitor, vector display, or calligraphic display is a display device used for computer graphics up through the 1970s. It is a type of CRT, similar to that of an early oscilloscope. In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels as in raster graphics. The electron beam follows an arbitrary path, tracing the connected sloped lines rather than following the same horizontal raster path for all images. The beam skips over dark areas of the image without visiting their points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscilloscope</span> Instrument for displaying time-varying signals

An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing information on electrical signals for debugging, analysis, or characterization. The displayed waveform can then be analyzed for properties such as amplitude, frequency, rise time, time interval, distortion, and others. Originally, calculation of these values required manually measuring the waveform against the scales built into the screen of the instrument. Modern digital instruments may calculate and display these properties directly.

The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering many inventions and developments. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video games, gaming consoles and home computer games were introduced to the general public. Since then, video gaming has become a popular form of entertainment and a part of modern culture in most parts of the world. The early history of video games, therefore, covers the period of time between the first interactive electronic game with an electronic display in 1947, the first true video games in the early 1950s, and the rise of early arcade video games in the 1970s. During this time there was a wide range of devices and inventions corresponding with large advances in computing technology, and the actual first video game is dependent on the definition of "video game" used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Input device</span> Device that provides data and signals to a computer

In computing, an input device is a piece of equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system, such as a computer or information appliance. Examples of input devices include keyboards, computer mice, scanners, cameras, joysticks, and microphones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cathode-ray tube amusement device</span> Earliest known interactive electronic game

The cathode-ray tube amusement device is the earliest known interactive electronic game as well as the first game to incorporate an electronic display. The device simulates an artillery shell arcing towards targets on a cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen, which is controlled by the player by adjusting knobs to change the trajectory of a CRT beam spot on the display in order to reach plastic targets overlaid on the screen. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann constructed the game from analog electronics and filed for a patent in 1947, which was issued the following year. The gaming device was never manufactured or marketed to the public, so it had no effect on the future video game industry. Under many definitions, the device is not considered a video game, as while it had an electronic display it did not run on a computing device. Therefore, despite its relevance to the early history of video games, it is not generally considered a candidate for the title of the first video game.

<i>Bertie the Brain</i> 1950 video game

Bertie the Brain is 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 tall computer allowed exhibition attendees to play a game of tic-tac-toe against an artificial intelligence. The player entered a move on a 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atari joystick port</span> Computer port used for gaming controllers

The Atari joystick port is a computer port used to connect various gaming controllers to game console and home computer systems in the 1970s to the 1990s. It was originally introduced on the Atari 2600 in 1977 and then used on the Atari 400 and 800 in 1979. It went cross-platform with the VIC-20 in 1981, and was then used on many following machines from both companies, as well as a growing list of 3rd party machines like the MSX platform and various Sega consoles.

References

  1. ↑ Hunter, William (2007-09-10). "The Original Video Game". The Dot Eaters. Retrieved 2018-11-25– via YouTube.
  2. 1 2 3 Donovan, Tristan (2010-04-20). Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. pp. 1–9. ISBN   978-0-9565072-0-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Smith, Alexander (2019-11-27). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry. Vol. 1: 1971 – 1982. CRC Press. pp. 39–42. ISBN   978-1-138-38990-8.
  4. 1 2 "Video Games—Did They Begin at Brookhaven?". Office of Scientific and Technical Information. 1981. Archived from the original on 2015-11-03. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  5. ↑ Nowak, Peter (2008-10-15). "Video games turn 50". CBC News. Archived from the original on 2015-10-16. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  6. 1 2 Peter, Takacs (2010-12-14). "Resurrecting One of the World's 1st Video Games". ScienceBlogs. Archived from the original on 2015-03-27. Retrieved 2012-07-16.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Lambert, Bruce (2008-11-07). "Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game". The New York Times . p. LI1. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Kalning, Kristin (2008-10-23). "The anatomy of the first video game". msnbc.com . NBC. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Smith, Alexander (2014-01-28). "Tennis Anyone?". They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  10. 1 2 Lovece, Frank (June 1983). "The Honest-to-Goodness History of Home Video Games". Video Review. Viare Publishing: 40. ISSN   0196-8793 . Retrieved 2013-09-13.
  11. ↑ Anderson, John (Spring 1983). "Who Really Invented The Video Game?". Creative Computing . 1 (1). Ziff Davis: 8. Archived from the original on 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  12. ↑ Chaplin, Heather; Ruby, Aaron (2005). Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. Algonquin Books. pp. 35–36. ISBN   1-56512-346-8 . Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  13. ↑ Greenberg, Diane (2008-11-03). "Celebrating 'Tennis for Two' With A Video Game Extravaganza" (Press release). Brookhaven National Laboratory. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 2009-03-23.
  14. ↑ "William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection at Stony Brook University". William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection. Stony Brook University. 2013-11-01. Archived from the original on 2015-11-06. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  15. ↑ "Mission & Goals of the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection". William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection. Stony Brook University. 2013-11-01. Archived from the original on 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  16. ↑ Harrison Jr., J. O. (1964). Computer-Aided Information Systems for Gaming (PDF) (Report). Research Analysis Corporation. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 12, 2020.
  17. 1 2 Smith, Alexander (2014-01-22). "The Priesthood At Play: Computer Games in the 1950s". They Create Worlds. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
  18. 1 2 Wolf, Mark J. P. (2012-08-16). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. XV–7. ISBN   978-0-313-37936-9.
  19. ↑ Kowert, Rachel; Quandt, Thorsten (2015-08-27). The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN   978-1-138-83163-6.
  20. ↑ Hey, Tony; Pápay, Gyuri (2014-11-30). The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN   978-0-521-15018-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.