As in my previous post about the ArcAttack madmen, here is another lovely example of physicists (who are quite possibly a little mad – I mean this in the nicest possible way) taking something that would ordinarily have quite dull scientific properties and uses, and turning it into something highly entertaining. Tennis For Two is (depending on how you see it) either the first, second or possibly third computer game ever created, but it’s certainly the first to have the entirety of its gameplay and its visuals contained within the game and displayed electronically, and was created by physicist William Higinbotham in 1958.
William was working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and observed that it was a tad dull for its visitors, so in his spare time he developed and built Tennis For Two with bits of equipment he had lying around. It featured an oscilloscope for a screen, was around the size of an old microwave oven, and had two handheld controllers with two functions – a push button to hit the ball, and an analog dial to adjust the ball’s trajectory. Hundreds queued up to play this infuriatingly addictive game and loved the game’s surprisingly realistic physics – even balls hitting the top of the net received a little drag, slowing them and altering their trajectory.
He never made any money from the game because had he filed a patent, it would have belonged to the US Government (as it was made in their lab with their equipment) but you have to love that he took the time to do this as a technical exercise and simply as a bit of fun, so William Higinbotham, we salute you, and here for your enjoyment, is his masterpiece:
Filed under: Opinion, Retrospective, Technology | Tagged: early, game, oscilloscope, physics, retro, tennis, tennis for two, video games
