VIDEO! This is the First Video Game! Red Dead Redemption in its Infancy!

It was at the Brookhaven National Laboratory open house back in October of 1958, that Physicist William Higinbotham created what is thought to be the first video game. The game was powered by a small analog computer that had the ability to display various curves, including tracking the path of a “bouncing ball” — the monitor used to display these cutting edge graphic display? An oscilloscope.

Higinbotham was familiar with radar display systems which enabled him to engineer the simple game display and in October when Brookhaven held its annual visitors’ days — most of the existing exhibits were all quite dull and boring. Higinbotham had an idea that he believed, “might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavors have relevance for society.”

The game took Higinbotham about two weeks to build and after a few days of debugging he was finally ready to reveal Tennis for Two! Enough with the word play.

Watch the video and then get on your knees and thank your maker for William Higinbotham!