Before Mario and Luigi rescued Princess Peach, before Link helped Princess Zelda, and even before Pac-Man started eating dots and fruits, there was Tennis for Two, the first video game, created by William A. Higinbotham on October 18, 1958. Video games have not been around for a long time, less than 67 years. Yet, there have been many advancements in technology that changed the way video games look and are played.
William A. Higinbotham was a nuclear scientist working on the atom bomb. He graduated from Cornell Physics department. After that, he went and became a general-purpose technician, making him perfect for creating Tennis for Two. When he created Tennis for Two, he did not apply for a patent because he created the game during work hours, so the patent would be for the government, and Higinbotham would not get any money.
Higinbotham created Tennis for Two for after-hour entertainment during the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s annual visitors’ day. He thought the exhibits were not very interactive, so he thought the game would liven things up. The brain of Tennis for Two was a small analog computer, and while Higinbotham was reading the instructions, he got the idea because some examples were trajectories of a bullet, a missile, and a bouncing ball. The ball reminded Higinbotham of Tennis, so Tennis for Two was born. It took him over three weeks to make the game.
The first game created was Tennis for Two, made in 1958, where there would be two players who each had a controller with a dial and a button. The game had one line crossing the bottom of the screen for the court, a line from the middle up for the net, and a ball with a trail for the tennis ball. Players would control the angle using the dial and hit the ball by pressing the button. Another of the early games was Pong, created by Atari in 1972, which was a big success. Pong had a ball which moved side-to-side and two blocks for either side. The goal was to try to hit the ball to the other side, past the opponent’s block. A third game was Pac-Man, the most successful game, created in 1980. In the U.S alone, it sold 100,000 consoles. Finally, Space Invaders, created in 1987. It was so popular in Japan, that they had a shortage of coins used to play the game.
All of the games from the 1950’s are very different from what we see today. One of the most major differences is graphics. In older games, the characters were two dimensional and pixelated. Now, the characters are three dimensional and the characters are very lifelike. Another major difference is the controls. In older games, you would just have to press a few buttons to control the character. Now, there are things like motion sensors and touchscreen. A third major difference is the gameplay. In earlier games, everything was straightforward, like moving right on a sidescroller game to get to the end. Now, there is open gameplay where you can choose to do missions or just explore. Finally, technology has changed significantly. Virtual reality has been added and games also have virtual reality versions.
Video games have changed, from Higinbotham’s Tennis for Two, to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Video games have added many new features and technology has advanced. Many new games have been created. Overall, video games have a rich, but short history.