18 October 1958 - World's first video game developed

Digital Innovation Days

On 18th October 1958, physicist William Higinbotham developed what is considered the world’s first video game - an invention that would later lead to a $180 billion industry. Called “Tennis for Two'', this was an electronic tennis game with controllers connected to an analogue computer. An oscilloscope served as the screen which could display different curves including the path of the bouncing ball (just a dot). A knob was used to adjust the angle of the ball and a button was pushed to throw it to the other player. While some designs and blueprints were built for this game, the actual time between the conception of the idea and the development of the game was surprisingly very short - nearly two weeks. This was largely because Higinbotham had already done extensive work on displays for radar systems and various other electronic devices.

Many wonder today how a nuclear physicist came up with the idea of a video game. While serving as the head of the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s instrumentation group, Higinbotham was tasked with creating an exhibit showcasing the group’s work on the annual visitors’ day. The existing exhibits, unfortunately - or fortunately in this case - were unable to capture the audience’s interest or excitement. Hence, he decided to create an engaging demonstration that would make the event more lively and interactive. This decision turned out to be a huge success with visitors enjoying the game thoroughly and even standing in long queues awaiting their turn to play.

Beyond offering an interactive exhibit to the visitors, Higinbotham’s vision entailed showcasing how even complex technological endeavours are relevant to society and that, above all, technology can lead to a lot of fun. Although the heavy use of augmented and virtual reality in today’s video games is a far cry from this game’s basic circuitry of resistors, capacitors, transistors, and relay, the underlying goal virtually remains the same 6 decades later: leveraging technology to offer entertainment.