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The Earliest Documented Video Game

Posted by Zonk on from the truly-old-school dept.

AsiNisiMasa writes "The first documented video game was created in 1952 by a scientist who felt the need to give his work relevance to society. It was called 'Tennis for Two' and took up about as much room as one would expect. The article at Brookhaven History comes complete with several pictures and even video: 'A two-dimensional, side view of a tennis court was displayed on an oscilloscope, which has a cathode-ray tube similar to a black and white TV tube. In order to generate the court and net lines and the ball, it was necessary to time-share these functions. While the rest of the system used vacuum tubes and relays, the time-sharing circuit and the fast switches used transistors, which by 1958 were coming into use.'"

28 comments

  1. Interesting I guess, but... by yurnotsoeviltwin · · Score: 1, Funny

    Doesn't this bring new meaning to the term "old news?" I mean seriously, reporting an event a few days afterwards is one this, but 53 years is a bit much.

  2. very cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    that game seems much more complex than Pong. The only thing I don't get is how the players know where their 'racquet' is...

    1. Re:very cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually they don't from what I've gathered, the dial only says what angle to shoot the ball, you can hit it anytime it's on your court. If the other players hits it right next to the net, and you don't have the reflexes to save it, they score. On the contrary, if the player hits it far back, with not a high enough angle, it will hit the net and the other player scores.

      Much much more complex than pong. But then again even in normal video game terms, pong wasn't first. I believe Spacewar was, though I'm not sure how complex that game was.

    2. Re:very cool by AndreiK · · Score: 1

      Much more complex than pong, but the controls are a bit different. In this, you can see they use a dial and button to use it - nobody actually used a dial for a game since then I believe.

    3. Re:very cool by atomic-penguin · · Score: 2, Informative

      In this, you can see they use a dial and button to use it - nobody actually used a dial for a game since then I believe.

      Paddles

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    4. Re:very cool by dbhankins · · Score: 1

      Tempest. Pong. Breakout.

      All used an analog dial without stops, also known as a "paddle".

    5. Re:very cool by kingsmedley · · Score: 1

      But then again even in normal video game terms, pong wasn't first. I believe Spacewar was,

      OK, this depends on how you want to define "normal" video games:

      First mass manufactured arcade videogame - Computer Space (Nutting Associates)

      First mass manufactured home game console - Odyssey (Magnavox)

      First hand-made dedicated videogame - Tennis for Two (Willy Higginbotham, Brookhaven National Laboratory))

      First game program (that I know of) - Checkers (A. L. Samuel, IBM)

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  3. Not just old school - old news too :P by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This has been widely reported in a lot of different places for a long time now; it is still kind of interesting, I guess, but it's not exactly a recent discovery. Most video game historians discount it entirely, as Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell had no knowledge of its existence. Much like Charles Babbage's steampunk computers actually! A curiousity but not much more.

  4. Don't be hatin' by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 1

    Screw you guys who are dissing this story. I've never seen or heard of this before, AND I think it's cool as hell. :D

  5. Up, Down, A, B, A, B, Start by Somatic · · Score: 4, Funny
    Thus, the first video came combo move was 30 degrees left, 60 degrees right, TheOnlyButton, TheOnlyButton, RESET

    (and yeah, it may not be new news, but lighten up. At this point, anything besides another 360, PSP or Hot Coffee lawsuit story is a breath of fresh air).

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  6. It was 1958. by sharopolis · · Score: 1
    Not 1952.

    Ahem. Carry on.

    1. Re:It was 1958. by skyman8081 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, the first video game was OXO, it was an adaptation of tic-tac-toe for the ESDAC computer. It was created in 1952 at the University of Cambridge.

      Tennis for two was not the first video game, as is widely believed.

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    2. Re:It was 1958. by Dwedit · · Score: 2, Informative

      Linky

    3. Re:It was 1958. by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      That's boring. Let's play a game of Global Thermonuclear War.

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  7. FTFA by Repton · · Score: 1
    Sanders Associates applied for the first videogame patent in 1964. The patent was purchased by Magnavox, which put out the first simple game in 1971. Magnavox sued all other entrants to the field.

    Ho ho ho...

    --
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    1. Re:FTFA by b1t+r0t · · Score: 1

      What the Ralph Baer/Magnavox patent covered was a raster-based video game. There were quite a few X/Y oscilloscope video games in the early days (Tennis for Two, Spacewar), but nobody had thought to make one that used a regular TV set until Ralph Baer.

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  8. In the book Game Over...? by BinaryOpty · · Score: 1

    I could have sworn this was documented in the book Game Over. I remember learning about this oscilloscope "video game" sometime around the time I read that book, so I might just be attaching it to the book instead of wherever I learned it from, so can anyone verify that it is indeed in Game Over or not?

    1. Re:In the book Game Over...? by thelonestranger · · Score: 1

      Yep, its in Game Over. Somewhere around the beginning. It said that it was used as a tourist attraction at somekind of goverment facility, I'm not sure but I think it was a power plant.

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    2. Re:In the book Game Over...? by CheechWizz · · Score: 1

      A nuclear fascility IIRC, he had all these computers standing around and at the time they had one day a year visitors could come in and look around in the complex. He couldn't get the public interested in the computers by explaining how they worked and what they did, so he decided to create a little program to demonstrate the power of the computers and unintentionaly created one of the first videogames. Atleast that's how the story is told in 'the ultimate history of videogames' by Steven L. Kent (good read btw).

  9. Old News by Landshark17 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This was in David Kushner's "Masters of Doom"

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    1. Re:Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That must be where I've heard of it then.

  10. I always thought is was that gravity game by tod_miller · · Score: 1

    You know, where to ships call towards the center, that always seems a bit to complex.

    Is this true? I am sure the real first computer game was nothing like what we imagine, it was perhaps a 'numebr guess' game or something.

    o.0

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    1. Re:I always thought is was that gravity game by sharopolis · · Score: 1
      Spacewar?
      That came slightly later in 1960 on the PDP-1.

      A noughts and crosses/tic tac toe game on the EDSAC system, was possibly the first ever computer game, created in 1952 by A. S. Douglas at the University of Cambridge, though not really a true video game like Tennis For Two,

  11. Why is this news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I did a report on this in high school, and that was about 10 years ago.

  12. even earlier by Dzube · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's nice to see Mr. Higinbotham get some recognition now and again. It is old news and yes, his work didn't set the world on fire or even influence others that came after him. But his work is there and it's interesting.

    Video games go back even further. Patent 2,455,992 (i.e. the Goldsmith patent) is called _Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device_. It was filed on Jan 25, 1947 and granted on Dec 14, 1948. From it:

    "This invention relates to a device with which a game can be played. The game is of such a character that it requires care and skill in playing it or operating the device with which the game is played. Skill can be increased with practice and the exercize of care contributes to success."

  13. what about the EDSAC OXO program by jenso · · Score: 1

    The tennis for two game was created in 1958...

    I teach a class on videogame history, and this game of knots-and-crosses (OXO) in 1952 appears to be the earliest well documented computer game.

    You can even download a simulator and play/modify it.