Cathode-ray tube amusement device

The cathode-ray tube amusement device is the earliest known interactive electronic game with an electronic display. The device simulates an artillery shell arcing towards targets on a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen, which is controlled by the player by adjusting knobs to change the trajectory of a CRT beam spot on the display in order to reach plastic targets overlaid on the screen. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann constructed the game from analog electronics and filed for a patent in 1947, which was issued the following year. The gaming device was never manufactured or marketed to the public, so it had no effect on the future video game industry. Under most definitions, the device is not considered a video game, as while it had an electronic display it did not run on a computing device. Therefore, despite its relevance to the early history of video games, it is not generally considered a candidate for the title of the first video game.

Cathode-ray tube
amusement device
Circuitry schematic from the patent
TypeInteractive electronic game
Inventor(s)
Materialscathode ray tube, oscilloscope

Gameplay

The cathode-ray tube amusement device consists of a cathode ray tube connected to an oscilloscope with a set of knobs and switches. The device uses purely analog electronics and does not use any digital computer or memory device or execute a program.[1] The CRT projects a spot on the oscilloscope display screen, which traces a parabolic arc across the screen when a switch is activated by the player. This beam spot represents the trajectory of an artillery shell. Overlaid on the screen are transparent plastic targets representing objects such as airplanes. At the end of the spot's trajectory, the beam defocuses, resulting in the spot expanding and blurring. This represents the shell exploding as if detonated by a time fuze. The goal of the game is to have the beam defocus when it is within the bounds of a target. Prior to the beam spot beginning its arc, the player can turn the control knobs to direct the beam spot's trajectory and adjust the delay of the shell burst. The machine can be set to fire a "shell" either once or at a regular interval, which is adjustable by the player. This gives the player the goal of hitting one of the overlay targets with the shell burst within a time limit.[2] The player was recommended to make the trajectory far removed from a straight line "so as to require an increased amount of skill and care".[3]

History

The cathode-ray tube amusement device was invented by physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The pair worked at television designer DuMont Laboratories in Passaic, New Jersey specializing in the development of cathode ray tubes that used electronic signal outputs to project a signal onto television screens.[1][4] Goldsmith, who had received a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1936 with a focus on oscilloscope design, was at the time of the device's invention the director of research for DuMont Laboratories.[5] The two inventors were inspired by the radar displays used in World War II, which Goldsmith had worked on during the war.[1][6] The patent for the device was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14, 1948.[2] The patent, the first for an electronic game,[7] was never used by either the inventors or DuMont Laboratories, and the device was never manufactured beyond the original handmade prototype.[8][9] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers historian Alex Magoun has speculated that Goldsmith did not make the prototype with the intent for it to be the basis of any future production, but only designed the device as a demonstration of the kind of commercial opportunities DuMont could pursue.[3] Video game historian Alexander Smith has also speculated that DuMont's ongoing financial issues prevented any investment into a new product.[4] Goldsmith did not work on games after the invention of the device; he was promoted to vice president in 1953 and left DuMont—by then split up and sold to other firms—to become a professor of physics at Furman University in 1966.[3][6] Goldsmith kept the device and brought it with him to Furman; in a 2016 interview fellow physics professor Bill Brantley recalled Goldsmith demonstrating the game to him.[3]

Despite being a game that used a graphical display, the cathode-ray tube amusement device is generally not considered under most definitions to be a candidate for the first video game, as it used purely analog hardware and did not run on a computing device; some loose definitions may still consider it a video game, but it is still usually disqualified as the device was never manufactured.[3][10][11] Nevertheless, it is the earliest known interactive electronic game to incorporate an electronic display, as no prior games, such as the 1936 Seeburg Ray-O-Lite, had such a display or primarily used electronic components—ones which modify an electrical signal, rather than simply using electricity as power. This makes the cathode-ray tube amusement device a forerunner to other games in the early history of video games. As the device was never manufactured or widely shown it did not directly inspire any other games and had no impact on the future video game industry.[1][3][8] The patent itself was not discovered again until 2002, when David Winter, a French electronics collector, while searching for evidence of early prototypes of the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey console found it in a set of documents in an archival warehouse originally compiled for a 1974 lawsuit by Magnavox against several arcade game companies.[12]

gollark: HTML isn't actually XML.
gollark: Like lynx? That's probably doable, yes.
gollark: And there *is* some stupid site out there using all those weird quirks.
gollark: It would be very hard to make one preserving all JS's weird quirks.
gollark: I mean, yes, Turing completeness means you *technically* can (except that both OC and CC have finite memory), however you practically can't.

See also

References
  1. Cohen, D. S. "Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device". About.com. IAC. Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  2. US patent 2455992, Goldsmith Jr., Thomas T. & Mann, Estle Ray, "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", issued 1948-12-14
  3. Blitz, Matt (2016-03-28). "The Unlikely Story of the First Video Game". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Corporation. Archived from the original on 2016-03-30. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  4. Smith, Alexander (2019-11-27). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry. 1: 1971 – 1982. CRC Press. pp. 140–141. ISBN 978-1-138-38990-8.
  5. "3 Promoted by DuMont; Officials of Laboratories Are Made Vice Presidents". New York Times. 1953-11-23.
  6. "IEEE History Center: Thomas Goldsmith Abstract". IEEE History Center. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 1973-05-14. Archived from the original on 2008-12-09. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
  7. Silberman, Gregory P. (2006-08-30). "Patents Are Becoming Crucial to Video Games". The National Law Journal. ALM. ISSN 0162-7325.
  8. Wolf, Mark J. P. (2012-06-05). Before the Crash: Early Video Game History. Wayne State University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-8143-3450-8.
  9. Donovan, Tristan (2010-04-20). Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-9565072-0-4.
  10. Kowert, Rachel; Quandt, Thorsten (2015-08-27). The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games. Routledge. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-138-83163-6.
  11. Wolf, Mark J. P. (2012-08-16). Encyclopedia of Video Games: The Culture, Technology, and Art of Gaming, Volume 1. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-313-37936-9.
  12. Audureau, William (2017-01-27). "La rocambolesque redécouverte du plus vieux brevet de jeu vidéo" [The incredible rediscovery of the oldest video game patent]. Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 2020-03-10.

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