Games Past, Present, Future

Game Past In 1958 William Higinbotham (see figure 1) tiring to find a way to help stimulate interest in his exhibit at Brookhaven created with the help of Robert V. Dvorak a game called Tennis for Two. This was a two-dimensional view of a tennis court that was displayed on an oscilloscope (see figure 2). This is believed to be the first video game that had been created (see figure 3) (Brookheaven national Laboratory), (Scientific and Technical Information, 2008), (TJB, 2007), (Anderson, 1983). However, Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr and Estle Ray Mann have claimed to have created a game that they called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device that was patented in the United States on December 14, 1948 (Wikipedia®, 2008), (US patent 2455992). Regardless of who created the first video game the results are still the same the first video game was a simple device using the Cathode-Ray tube that was incapable of any type of graphics except for a ball of light, straight bars, and a tail as the ball bounced back and forth. It was not until the early 70s that video games officially entered the market. Most games before this time were developed at such places such as MIT they were not patented nor distributed such as the games that came later therefore, most have been lost. Atari’s pong was the first official game to be released for public use later followed by Midway’s space invaders (Games Investor, 2003). The first games the user simply sat down played with a controller and watch the screen there’s very little interaction with the game itself.
Game Present Today’s games have involved greatly from their predecessors such as Tennis for Two created by William Higinbotham and Robert V. Dvorak. With our advancement in technology it has allowed our software capabilities to also increase. Today’s gaming industry is even large and than that of the movie picture industry and with the new CGI technology it is even currently being used in some of the movies today an example of

Cited: Anderson, J. (1983). Who Really Invented the Video Game? Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from atarimagazines.com: http://www.atarimagazines.com/cva/v1n1/inventedgames.php Brookheaven national Laboratory. (n.d.). The First Video Game. Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from Brookhaven History: http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp Games Investor. (2003). The Games Industry: Past, Present and Future. Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from Game Investor: http://ep2010.salzburgresearch.at/knowledge_base/gibson_2003a.pdf Scientific and Technical Information. (2008, 07 12). Video Games - Did They Begin at Brookhaven? Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from DOE R&D Accomplishments: http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/videogame.html TJB. (2007, November 18). Gaming: past, present, future. Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from BrophBlog: http://brophinator.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/gaming-past-present-future/ US patent 2455992. (n.d.). Cathode-ray tube amusement device. Retrieved 07 17, 2008, from European Patent Office: http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US2455992 Wikipedia®. (2008, July 15). History of video games. Retrieved July 17, 2008, from Wikipedia History of video Games: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games