Introduction
Friends, have you ever heard of the first video game? Of course you have. It’s called Space Invaders and it came out in 1978. Well, that would be the wrong answer! The real first video game was invented by a man named William Higinbotham in 1958. His creation went by the name Tennis For Two, which is an apt title because while playing it, two people can play tennis against each other.
Invented by a man named William Higinbotham
William Higinbotham was a nuclear physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who invented the game Tennis For Two in 1958. He created this game due to his obsession with tennis and his belief that video games were going nowhere if they didn’t have more exciting applications than just shooting ducks. While Higinbotham was not the first person to invent a video game nor did he invent Tennis For Two out of thin air, but rather he took his original idea from an article about computers that had been published in Scientific American by Edward Sutherland Curtis (the inventor of Spacewar!).
This was during a time when nuclear technology was just starting to grow as well; it wouldn’t be until 1962 when we would see our first hydrogen bomb explosion on Eniwetok Atoll in Pacific Oceanic waters. It is also worth noting that while this event happened after Higinbotham’s invention of Tennis For Two, it has been said that he wasn’t able to fully understand what it meant until later down the road after seeing firsthand how destructive these weapons could become through their actual use during World War 2 (1939 – 1945).
The game went by the name Tennis For Two
The game went by the name Tennis For Two, and it was invented by William Higinbotham. This was an analog computer that he built in 1958, which means it wasn’t like a digital computer that we use today—it was a lot more complicated than that. It actually had hundreds of wires connecting different parts together, but they did all fit into this box with two knobs and two buttons on top of it.
The game was played on an analog computer
Analog computers were used to solve complex problems. They could help find the area of a triangle, or calculate how much time it would take for a rocket to reach the moon. These machines were also used to play video games!
This game was played on an analog computer, which allowed players to move around the board and interact with other characters by entering simple commands in binary code (0s and 1s). When it came time for sound effects, these machines had no problem generating them; they made almost no noise at all by themselves. It was also easy for these machines to generate graphics on their own—they only needed electricity!
The console itself was a large black box with a huge screen on top of it
The console itself was a large black box with a huge screen on top of it. The box was about the size of the average desktop computer, but its shape was more like that of an old VCR or DVD player. The screen was about half as tall as the box, and it had an aspect ratio of 4×3 (like old CRT monitors).
The controller was simply a box with two knobs and two buttons, one for each player.
The controller was simply a box with two knobs and two buttons, one for each player. The game was played by moving the knobs at the bottom of the screen to move your spaceship up and down while pressing the buttons to shoot bullets at your opponent’s ship.
When you started playing video games, there weren’t any controllers—just two people sitting side-by-side on their couch or in front of their TV watching a simple game that would make them laugh out loud (or cry) when they won or lost.
This blog post will teach you how to play Space Invaders
Though it might have been the world’s first video game, it wasn’t the first digital one, which would be OXO aka Noughts and Crosses – developed in 1952 by Alexander Douglas for thesis project at University of Cambridge.
Though it might have been the world’s first video game, it wasn’t the first digital one. That honor goes to OXO (aka Noughts and Crosses), which was developed in 1952 by Alexander Douglas for his thesis project at University of Cambridge. Like Tennis for Two, this game required users to use a light pen (a device that detects light) and was played on a cathode ray tube. It wasn’t until the 1970s that computer graphics were used in games design; however, Douglas’ work paved way for such technologies.
People lined up to play this thing at Brookhaven Labs from October 18th through October 21st 1958.
People lined up to play this thing at Brookhaven Labs from October 18th through October 21st 1958. The line was long, but it moved quickly. It took only a few minutes to get your turn at playing the game and then you were back in line again!
The game was popular and played for a week before it was retired.
Games are cool
Games are cool. You may not know this, but games can be a great way to learn, have fun, kill time and make friends. Games also provide an amazing opportunity for making money and even a living!
Many people may wonder why you might want to learn about the first video game in particular. The answer is that it’s easy to get started with and very rewarding in terms of what you’ll be able to do later on with your skillset.
Conclusion
So now you know: the first video game was a simple tennis game. There’s not much else to say, really. It might be hard to imagine how exciting it was for people in 1958 to play this thing, but it was! So I’ll just leave you with that thought and wish you a happy day.
