The earliest widely recognised electronic video game, "Tennis for Two", was created in 1958 by physicist William Higinbotham and demonstrated on an oscilloscope at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Origin and launch
William Higinbotham designed "Tennis for Two" to entertain visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s annual public exhibition, first displaying the game on October 18, 1958 using an analog computer connected to an oscilloscope.
How it worked
The game simulated a simple tennis match where two players controlled paddle‑like inputs that bounced a dot across the oscilloscope screen. Higinbotham adapted a Donner Model 30 analog computer to calculate the ball’s trajectory and displayed it on a DuMont oscilloscope.
Impact and legacy
Although rudimentary, "Tennis for Two" is regarded as a pioneering step toward interactive electronic entertainment and helped inspire later developments that culminated in arcade and home video games, with historians and physics organizations recognising its cultural and technical significance.
Context and importance
Created by a physicist working with laboratory instrumentation rather than a commercial developer, the game demonstrated how existing scientific equipment could be repurposed for play, marking an important early intersection of computing, display technology and human interaction that foreshadowed the video‑game industry.
Takeaway
"Tennis for Two" (1958) stands as an important milestone: a simple oscilloscope tennis simulation that introduced interactive electronic games to the public and paved the way for more complex digital entertainment forms.