Tennis for Two
1958 · Sports · Analog Computer / Oscilloscope
Overview
Tennis for Two is one of the earliest electronic games ever created, built in 1958 by physicist William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The game displayed a simple side-view tennis court on an oscilloscope screen, where two players each used a box-shaped controller with a knob and a button to aim and hit a moving ball over a net. It was designed as an interactive exhibit to entertain visitors during the lab's open day, and was dismantled shortly after the event. Though largely forgotten for decades, it is now recognized as a pioneering landmark in the history of interactive electronic entertainment.
Deep Dive
Tennis for Two was conceived and built in just three weeks by William Higinbotham, a senior physicist who had previously worked on the Manhattan Project. He connected a Donner Model 30 analog computer to a DuMont Lab Oscilloscope Type 304-A to create the display. The game ran at approximately 60 frames per second, making it unusually smooth for its era. Players could adjust the angle of their shots with a dial and hit the ball by pressing a button at the right moment. The game attracted large queues of visitors during the 1958 and 1959 Brookhaven open days before being disassembled. Higinbotham never patented the invention, and it faded into obscurity until the late 1970s when video game patent disputes brought renewed attention to early computing history.
