I stumbled upon this discovery earlier today while reading “Video Game Design Between 1990-2008” on Webdesigner Depot. While there are numerous debates over what the first video game was, the answer depends largely on how you define “video games”. The first truly interactive video game was “Tennis for Two” and this was also one of the first electronic games to use a graphical display.

The game was created by William Higinbotham in 1958 on an analog computer and simulated a game of tennis on an oscilloscope. The game was a predecessor of Pong. Unlike Pong however, Tennis for Two showed a simplified tennis court from the side instead of from a top-down perspective, with no representation of the player, only the ball and net.

So the concept hasn’t changed but the gameplay and graphics have certainly come a long way… think I’ll give Tennis on my Wii a go tonight because it’s too cold outside to play the real thing!

Related links:

• Wikipedia: The first video game
• Wikipedia: Pong
• MSNBC: The anatomy of the first video game
• Tennis for Two video on YouTube.
• Streaming video of the original Tennis for Two.
• Brookhaven History – The First Video Game. Includes a video of the game.
• Tennis For Two simulator available for download.
• The Dot Eaters entry on Tennis for Two and creator William Higinbotham
• Who Really Invented The Video Game?

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Design, Gaming. You can keep updated on the conversation by subscribing to the comments feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.