The articlegameplay, story, development, reception
Development
In 1958, American physicist William Higinbotham worked in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, as the head of the instrumentation division. D. there. He served as the head of the electronics division of the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945, and began working at Brookhaven in 1947, which focused on researching peaceful uses of atomic power.
Once a year, the government research facility held an exhibition for the public, with one day each for high school students, college students, and the general public. The exhibition largely consisted of tours and static displays, with some attempts at making displays with "action", so for the 1958 exhibition Higinbotham decided to make an interactive display to entertain the visitors. While reading the instruction manual for one of Brookhaven's computers, a Donner Model 30 analog computer, he learned that the computer could calculate ballistic missile trajectories or a bouncing ball with wind resistance, and he decided to use this ability to form the foundation of a game. He later recalled his intentions were that "it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which could convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society."
Legacy
After being dismantled, Tennis for Two was largely forgotten. It remained virtually unknown until the late 1970s and early 1980s when Higinbotham was called on to testify in court cases for defendants sued by Magnavox over the video game patents of Ralph H. Baer. Having discovered the game, the lawyers for the defense unsuccessfully attempted to have the game declared prior art to invalidate Baer's patents on television video games, resulting in attention being given to the nearly 20-year-old game as possibly the first video game.
It received further attention as the subject of articles in Creative Computing and Video Replay in 1982 and 1983 highlighting its possible status as the first video game; the editor of Creative Computing, David H. Ahl, had played Tennis for Two at Brookhaven in 1958, and dubbed Higinbotham the "Grandfather of Video Games". Higinbotham himself felt that the game was an obvious extension of the Donner Model 30's bouncing ball program and therefore not worthy of patenting or a large part of his legacy; he preferred to be remembered for his post-World War II nuclear non-proliferation work.
