View source for Tennis for Two

{{Short description|1958 video game}}
{{good article}}
{{Infobox video game
| title = Tennis for Two
| image = Tennis For Two on a DuMont Lab Oscilloscope Type 304-A.jpg
| caption = ''Tennis for Two'' on a [[DuMont Laboratories|DuMont Lab]] Oscilloscope Type 304-A
| designer = [[William Higinbotham]]
| platforms = [[Analog computer]]
| released = {{Video game release|US|October 18, 1958}}
| genre = [[Sports video game|Sports]]
| modes = [[Multiplayer]]
}}

'''''Tennis for Two''''' (also known as '''''Computer Tennis''''') is a [[sports video game]] that simulates a game of [[tennis]], and was one of the first games developed in the [[early history of video games]]. American physicist [[William Higinbotham]] designed the game in 1958 for display at the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]]'s annual public exhibition after learning that the government research institution's Donner Model 30 [[analog computer]] could simulate trajectories with wind resistance. He designed the game within a few hours, after which he and technician Robert V. Dvorak built it over a period of three weeks. The game was displayed on an [[oscilloscope]] and played with two custom aluminum controllers. Its visuals show a representation of a [[tennis court]] viewed from the side, and players adjust the angle of their shots with a knob on their controller and try to hit the ball over the net by pressing a button.

The game was very popular during the three-day exhibition, with players lining up to see the game, especially high school students. It was shown again the following year with a larger oscilloscope screen and a more complicated design that could simulate different gravity levels. It was then dismantled and largely forgotten until the late 1970s when Higinbotham testified in court about the game during lawsuits between [[Magnavox]] and [[Ralph H. Baer]] over video game patents. Since then, it has been celebrated as one of the earliest video games, and Brookhaven has made recreations of the original device. Under some definitions ''Tennis for Two'' is considered the first video game, as while it did not include any technological innovations over prior games, it was the first computer game to be created purely as an entertainment product rather than for academic research or commercial technology promotion.

==Development==
[[File:Tennis for Two - The Original Video Game.webm|thumb|Reproduced version of the game built at [[Brookhaven National Laboratory|Brookhaven]] for the game's 50th anniversary<ref name="25th"/>]]
In 1958, American physicist [[William Higinbotham]] worked in the [[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] in [[Upton, New York]], as the head of the instrumentation division. Higinbotham had a bachelor's degree in physics from [[Williams College]], and had previously worked as a technician in the physics department at [[Cornell University]] while unsuccessfully pursuing a Ph.D. there. He served as the head of the electronics division of the [[Manhattan Project]] from 1943 to 1945, and began working at Brookhaven in 1947, which focused on researching peaceful uses of atomic power.<ref name="Replay50s"/><ref name="TCW3942"/> Once a year, the government research facility held an exhibition for the public, with one day each for high school students, college students, and the general public. The exhibition largely consisted of tours and static displays, with some attempts at making displays with "action", so for the 1958 exhibition Higinbotham decided to make an interactive display to entertain the visitors.<ref name="Replay50s"/><ref name="TCW3942"/><ref name="begin@brookhaven"/> While reading the instruction manual for one of Brookhaven's computers, a Donner Model 30 [[analog computer]], he learned that the computer could calculate ballistic missile trajectories or a [[bouncing ball]] with wind resistance, and he decided to use this ability to form the foundation of a game.<ref name="turn50"/><ref name="Donner"/> He later recalled his intentions were that "it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which could convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society."<ref name="pioneer"/>

[[File:Tennis for Two - Modern recreation.jpg|thumb|Modern recreation of the controller]]
Higinbotham designed a game that used an [[oscilloscope]] to display the path of a simulated ball on a tennis court viewed from the side. The attached computer calculated the path of the ball and reversed its path when it hit the ground. The game also simulated the ball hitting the net if it did not achieve a high enough arc as well as changes in velocity due to [[drag (physics)|drag]] from air resistance.<ref name="pioneer"/> Two aluminum controllers were attached to the computer, each consisting of a button and a knob. Pressing the button hit the ball, and turning the knob controlled the angle of the shot.<ref name="begin@brookhaven"/><ref name="anatomy"/> Originally, Higinbotham considered having a second knob to control the velocity of the shot, but decided it would make the controller too complicated.<ref name="tennis"/> The device was designed in a few hours and was assembled over three weeks with the help of technician Robert V. Dvorak.<ref name="pioneer"/> While most of the circuitry was based on [[vacuum tube]]s and [[relay]]s, the circuits to display the graphics on the oscilloscope used [[transistor]]s, then beginning to replace vacuum tubes in the [[electronics industry]].<ref name="TCW3942"/> Excluding the oscilloscope and controller, the game's circuitry approximately took up the space of a microwave oven.<ref name="anatomy" />
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==Presentation==
[[File:Tennis For Two in 1959.jpg|thumb|The setup for ''Tennis for Two'' as exhibited in 1959|left]]
''Tennis for Two'' was first shown on October 18, 1958.<ref name="pioneer"/> The game environment was rendered as a horizontal line, representing the tennis court, and a short vertical line in the center, representing the tennis net as viewed edge-on. The first player would press the button on their controller to send the ball, a point of light, over the net, and it would either hit the net, reach the other side of the court, or fly out of bounds. The second player could then hit the ball back with their controller while it was on their side, either before or after it bounced on the ground.<ref name="TCW3942"/> Hundreds of visitors lined up to play the new game during its debut.<ref name="anatomy" /> Higinbotham claimed later that "the high schoolers liked it best, you couldn't pull them away from it."<ref name="Replay50s"/> Due to the game's popularity, an upgraded version was shown the following year, with enhancements including a larger screen and different levels of simulated gravity.<ref name="pioneer" /> Players could set the game to simulate the gravity levels of the Moon or Jupiter.<ref name="TCW3942"/> Higinbotham referred to the game as ''Tennis for Two'', though a placard attached to the 1959 version titled it "Computer Tennis". After the 1959 exhibition, the game was dismantled so its components could be put to other uses.<ref name="TCW3942"/>

==Legacy==
After being dismantled, ''Tennis for Two'' was largely forgotten. It remained virtually unknown until the late 1970s and early 1980s when Higinbotham was called on to testify in court cases for defendants sued by [[Magnavox]] over the video game patents of [[Ralph H. Baer]].<ref name="tennis"/> Having discovered the game, the lawyers for the defense unsuccessfully attempted to have the game declared [[prior art]] to invalidate Baer's patents on television video games, resulting in attention being given to the nearly 20-year-old game as possibly the first video game. It received further attention as the subject of articles in ''[[Creative Computing]]'' and ''Video Replay'' in 1982 and 1983 highlighting its possible status as the first video game; the editor of ''Creative Computing'', [[David H. Ahl]], had played ''Tennis for Two'' at Brookhaven in 1958, and dubbed Higinbotham the "Grandfather of Video Games".<ref name="tennis"/><ref name=videoreview /><ref name="CChistory"/> Higinbotham himself felt that the game was an obvious extension of the Donner Model 30's bouncing ball program and therefore not worthy of patenting or a large part of his legacy; he preferred to be remembered for his post-World War II [[nuclear proliferation|nuclear non-proliferation]] work.<ref name=videoreview /><ref name="Smartbomb"/>

[[File:Tennis For Two re-created in 1997.png|thumb|1997 recreation of the original ''Tennis for Two'' setup]]
In 1997, a team at Brookhaven recreated the game for Brookhaven's 50th anniversary. The reconstruction took about three months, partially because the parts were not readily available. This recreation was also displayed at the 2008 celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the original game.<ref name="anatomy" /><ref name="extravaganza"/> The replica implemented an analog computer using solid-state operational amplifier devices instead of vacuum tubes as the original Donner Model 30 did. In 2010, it was replaced with a restored Donner Model 3400 analog computer.<ref name="Donner" /> In 2011, [[Stony Brook University]] founded the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, dedicated to "documenting the material culture of screen-based game media", and "collecting and preserving the texts, ephemera, and artifacts that document the history and work of early game innovator and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist William A. Higinbotham, who in 1958 invented the first interactive analog computer game, Tennis for Two."<ref name="SBU1"/><ref name="SBU2"/>{{#tag:ref|[[Stony Brook University]]'s statement that ''Tennis for Two'' was "the first interactive analog computer game" is likely correct depending on the definition of "game" used, but only due to the "analog computer" constraint; several games, including the 1950 ''[[Bertie the Brain]]'' and 1952 ''[[OXO (video game)|OXO]]'', were previously developed for vacuum tube-based digital computers. One prior game run on an analog computer was ''Hutspiel'', a 1955 war simulation game by the [[Operations Research Office]], but the Goodyear Electronic Differential Analyzer computer had no display, and it is unclear if the computer ran the game or was only used to run requested calculations.<ref name="HUTSPIEL"/>|group="Note"}}

''Tennis for Two'' is considered under some definitions to be the first video game.<ref name="tennis"/> Other candidates include the 1947 [[cathode-ray tube amusement device]], the earliest known [[interactivity|interactive]] [[electronic game]], though it did not run on a computing device; the 1950 ''[[Bertie the Brain]]'', the earliest known game to run on a computer, though it used light bulbs for a display; and ''[[OXO (video game)|OXO]]'' and a [[draughts]] game by [[Christopher Strachey]] in 1952, the earliest digital computer games to display [[video game graphics|visuals]] on an electronic screen. ''Tennis for Two'', though it contained no technological developments to separate it from earlier games, has the distinction of being the earliest known computer game with visuals created purely for entertainment purposes.<ref name="Priest"/><ref name="EVG"/><ref name="TVGD"/><ref name="TCU"/> Prior games were created primarily for academic research purposes or to demonstrate the computing power of the underlying machine, with the exception of the non-computer based cathode-ray tube amusement device. This, therefore, makes ''Tennis for Two'' the first video game under some definitions from a philosophical viewpoint rather than a technical one and a distinctive moment in the [[early history of video games]].<ref name="Priest"/><ref name="EVG"/>
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==Notes==
{{Reflist|group="Note"}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=

<ref name="25th">{{cite web |last=Hunter |first=William |title=The Original Video Game |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k |via=[[YouTube]] |publisher=The Dot Eaters |date=2007-09-10 |access-date=2018-11-25}}</ref>
<ref name="Replay50s">{{cite book |title=Replay: The History of Video Games |last=Donovan |first=Tristan |publisher=Yellow Ant |date=2010-04-20 |isbn=978-0-9565072-0-4 |pages=1–9|title-link=Replay: The History of Video Games }}</ref>
<ref name="tennis">{{cite web |url=https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/tennis-anyone/ |title=Tennis Anyone? |work=They Create Worlds |last=Smith |first=Alexander |date=2014-01-28 |access-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151225121214/https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/tennis-anyone/ |archive-date=2015-12-25 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="TCW3942">{{cite book |title=They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry |volume=1: 1971 – 1982 |last=Smith |first=Alexander |publisher=[[CRC Press]] |date=2019-11-27 |isbn=978-1-138-38990-8 |pages=39–42}}</ref>
<ref name="begin@brookhaven">{{Cite web |url=http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/videogame.html |title=Video Games—Did They Begin at Brookhaven? |publisher=[[Office of Scientific and Technical Information]] |date=1981 |access-date=2008-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103104553/http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/videogame.html |archive-date=2015-11-03 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="turn50">{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/video-games-turn-50-1.703624 |title=Video games turn 50 |last=Nowak |first=Peter |date=2008-10-15 |publisher=[[CBC News]] |access-date=2009-03-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016190310/http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/video-games-turn-50-1.703624 |archive-date=2015-10-16 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="Donner">{{cite web |url=http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2010/12/14/resurrecting-one-of-the-worlds/ |title=Resurrecting One of the World's 1st Video Games |publisher=[[ScienceBlogs]] |date=2010-12-14 |first=Takacs |last=Peter |access-date=2012-07-16 |archive-date=2015-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150327013544/http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2010/12/14/resurrecting-one-of-the-worlds/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name=videoreview>{{cite journal |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/146227082/The-Honest-to-Goodness-History-of-Home-Video-Games |author-link=Frank Lovece |first=Frank |last=Lovece |journal=Video Review |publisher=Viare Publishing |title=The Honest-to-Goodness History of Home Video Games |date=June 1983 |page=40 |access-date=2013-09-13 |issn=0196-8793}}</ref>
<ref name="anatomy">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27328345/ |title=The anatomy of the first video game |last=Kalning |first=Kristin |date=2008-10-23 |work=[[MSNBC|msnbc.com]] |publisher=[[NBC]] |access-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120131805/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27328345/ |archive-date=2015-11-20 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
<ref name="pioneer">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/nyregion/long-island/09videoli.html?_r=2 |title=Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game |last=Lambert |first=Bruce |date=2008-11-07 |page=LI1 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2009-03-23}}</ref>

<ref name="CChistory">{{cite journal |url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/cva/v1n1/inventedgames.php |title=Who Really Invented The Video Game? | journal=[[Creative Computing]] |publisher=[[Ziff Davis]] |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=Spring 1983 |page=8 |first=John |last=Anderson |access-date=2016-02-03 |archive-date=2015-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423091255/http://www.atarimagazines.com/cva/v1n1/inventedgames.php |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="SBU1">{{cite web|url=http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/videogames/index.html |title=William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection at Stony Brook University |work=William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection |publisher=[[Stony Brook University]] |date=2013-11-01 |access-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106042610/http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/videogames/index.html |archive-date=2015-11-06 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="SBU2">{{cite web|url=http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/videogames/mission.html |title=Mission & Goals of the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection |work=William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection |publisher=[[Stony Brook University]] |date=2013-11-01 |access-date=2016-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018001746/http://www.stonybrook.edu/libspecial/videogames/mission.html |archive-date=2015-10-18 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="Smartbomb">{{cite book |last1=Chaplin |first1=Heather |last2=Ruby |first2=Aaron |title=Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution |publisher=[[Workman Publishing Company|Algonquin Books]] |date=2005 |isbn=1-56512-346-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oSOVdxI_gysC&dq=%22It+is+imperative%22&pg=PA36 |pages=35–36 |access-date=2014-02-07}}</ref>
<ref name="extravaganza">{{Cite press release |url=http://www.bnl.gov/today/story.asp?ITEM_NO=964 |title=Celebrating 'Tennis for Two' With A Video Game Extravaganza |last=Greenberg |first=Diane |date=2008-11-03 |publisher=[[Brookhaven National Laboratory]] |access-date=2009-03-23 |archive-date= 2015-11-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119211211/https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/print/friendly.php?a=2964 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="Priest">{{cite web |url=https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/the-priesthood-at-play-computer-games-in-the-1950s/ |title=The Priesthood At Play: Computer Games in the 1950s |work=They Create Worlds |last=Smith |first=Alexander |date=2014-01-22 |access-date=2015-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222172058/https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/the-priesthood-at-play-computer-games-in-the-1950s/ |archive-date=2015-12-22 |url-status=live}}</ref>
<ref name="HUTSPIEL">{{cite report |last=Harrison Jr. |first=J. O. |date=1964 |title=Computer-Aided Information Systems for Gaming |publisher=Research Analysis Corporation |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/623091.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025940/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/623091.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 12, 2020}}</ref>
<ref name="EVG">{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming |last=Wolf |first=Mark J. P. |date=2012-08-16 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-313-37936-9 |pages=XV–7}}</ref>
<ref name="TVGD">{{cite book |title=The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games |last1=Kowert |first1=Rachel |last2=Quandt |first2=Thorsten |date=2015-08-27 |page=3 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-138-83163-6}}</ref>
<ref name="TCU">{{cite book |title=The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution |last1=Hey |first1=Tony |last2=Pápay |first2=Gyuri |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2014-11-30 |page=174 |isbn=978-0-521-15018-7}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.pong-story.com/tennis1958.htm Video of ''Tennis for Two'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060207030729/http://www.gamersquarter.com/tennisfortwo/ ''Tennis for Two'' simulation]

{{Early history of video games}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennis For Two}}
[[Category:1958 video games]]
[[Category:Early history of video games]]
[[Category:Multiplayer video games]]
[[Category:Tennis video games]]
[[Category:Video games developed in the United States]]