Strong Museum in New York Recreates First Video Game

Jan 18, 2017 11:29 AM EST | Danica Esguerra

For those who are fans of history and video games, better head over to The Strong Museum in New York. The museum will be recreating the world's first ever video game.

Video game historian Raiford Guins said in his blog post that the museum successfully recreated Tennis For Two and put it up on display for people who visit. This is in line for the 1959 Visitor's Day, where the museum displayed lots of artifacts for the public. What caught the eye of most people is a 5.5-inch DuMont cathode ray tube graphic oscilloscope. The device is connected to an analog computer and people can see a "net", "court", and "ball" on the small screen. The components composed the world's first ever video game created.

Tennis For Two was first developed in 1958. The video game only shows a simulation of a game of tennis using trajectories of an object. It is first shown using an Analog Compute back in 1958 to emulate how trajectories interact with wind resistance. The game can be played using two custom aluminum controllers, displayed on an oscilloscope. American physicist William Higinbotham and Robert V. Dvorak built the simulation in three weeks. Tennis For Two is considered as the one of the world's first video game, predating Spacewar! which was released in 1962.

"The challenge posed by the game's disassembly in 1959 is that no intact original Tennis For Two exists," said Guins. There is no known original copy of Tennis For Two that exists today. So for the fact that the museum managed to recreate it in order to show it to the public is something that is worth praising. It may not be original but it will still provide people information on the history of video games. Since there is no original copy if it existing today, it is a "valuable addition to the museum's library."

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