(YouTube link)
You might think that videogames began with Pong, but here’s one that dates back fifty years!
Way back in 1958, William Higinbotham invented Tennis For Two to liven up visitor day at Brookhaven National Laboratory, his workplace. The game uses an oscilloscope with two control pads. It remained largely unknown until 1981 when a lawyer trying to break Magnavox's patent for video games came across writings talking about the game.
Blueprints of it were found to predate Magnavox's game, the case was settled out of court, and the game found fame as the second ever invented, since it was later predated by A.S. Douglas' 'OXO' game from 1952.
The music is “To Find Our Freedom” from The
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Presumably this is a later reconstruction of the device, because the two LEDs clearly visible in the circuitry didn't exist in 1958.
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like many things, it's interesting, but the background music makes it watchable
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Pong was based off of Tennis for Two.
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I wish I could go back in 58, show them the wii tennis and see their faces ;)
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Davideo - that's dedicated analog hardware circuitry, not maths on processors. It could have been built at any time past 1900AD.
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