Life Of Navin

OK, so here's a question I'm pretty sure you don't know the answer to: Which is the oldest video game?? Pacman?? Naaah....... Mario?? Naaah...... Its gotta be Pong right?? Naaaaaaaaaaah ....Well here it is: Its Tennis for Two, a game which was developed by, brace yourselves for this, a Nuclear Scientist!!

After writing about GTA recently, lets now head in the opposite direction.“Tennis for Two” started off as a science experiment, created by William Higinbotham for the annual visitor’s day at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and was never meant for commercial purposes. His aim wasn’t to kick off the multibillion-dollar game industry — he just wanted to “liven up the place” with his invention. And in pure Geek-ishtyle, he did it by modding a oscilloscope that was meant to be used to study stuff like particle projectiles!!

Hundreds of people lined up to play “Tennis for Two” on Oct. 18, 1958. Players saw a side view of a tennis court on an oscilloscope screen and used an aluminum controller to serve and volley the “ball,” a bright dot that left trails as it bounced from one side of the “net” to the other.

To celebrate the game’s 50^th anniversary, Brookhaven gave players another shot at “Tennis for Two.” On Friday, the lab opened its doors to the public from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., displaying “Tennis” alongside more modern game hardware, including the Nintendo Wii, the Sega Genesis and the Atari 2600.

Here's a video, of the first video game ever!! Enjoy!!


God bless Prof. Higinbotham's soul!!