4 ms·

Tennis for Two was an electronic game developed in 1958 on an analog computer

30 points by curtis 11y ago

adrian_kirk 11y ago
Heard about it...and mostly good things...
mch82 11y ago
I played Tennis for Two yesterday at the New York Historical Society museum, nyhistory.org, where it's part of the Silicon City exhibition, http://nyhistory.org/exhibition/silicon-city-computer-history-made-new-york http://nyhistory.org/exhibition/silicon-city-computer-histor...
andy_wrote 11y ago
If you live in NY, you can play this at a currently ongoing exhibit about the history of computing in New York at the NY Historical Society. (Review: I would say the exhibit was decent, though not great - might not be much new for people already familiar with computing history, and it's very clearly sponsored by IBM, though you could argue that this is not unfair for a history of NY-area computing. There's also a fun little exhibit on comic book heroes at the museum, plus I'd never been there before, maybe all added together it's worth a ticket.)
johansch 11y ago
Is there a video somewhere? The only one I found required the RealPlayer plugin :). (Shudder.)
curtis 11y ago
This video looks like it might be of the original game, rather than a re-creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k.
madengr 11y ago
Here is the original schematic: http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2011/01/24/so-you-wanna-rebuild-one-of-th/ http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2011/01/24/so-you-wanna-r... There is a clone using a microcontroller, but I won't link to that abomination.
anigbrowl 11y ago
If this takes your fancy you may want to interest yourself in modular audio synthesis, whether analog or the DSP emulation (an easier and cheaper way to get into it). There's a whole bunch of oscilloscope-friendly patches for Clavia's Nord Modular software that implement primitive videogames, including a working version of Asteroids.
rocky1138 11y ago
I've always been confused by this game. How do players know when to strike the ball when they can't see their paddle on the screen?
- qbrass 11y ago
  It's not like Pong where you have to line the paddle up with the ball. You can hit the ball as soon as it crosses onto your side of the court, using a button. You use the knob to change the angle you hit the ball at. Hitting downward increases the speed of the ball, but increases your chances of hitting the net.
  - rocky1138 11y ago
    Couldn't someone just win by pressing the button the second it crosses the net and never letting the ball reach the edge of the screen?
    - qbrass 11y ago
      Ideally you could. But because the speed of the ball changes with the angle you hit it, you can throw off your opponents timing and cause them to mess up.

30 points by curtis 11y ago

Heard about it...and mostly good things...

mch82 11y ago

I played Tennis for Two yesterday at the New York Historical Society museum, nyhistory.org, where it's part of the Silicon City exhibition, http://nyhistory.org/exhibition/silicon-city-computer-history-made-new-york http://nyhistory.org/exhibition/silicon-city-computer-histor...

andy_wrote 11y ago

If you live in NY, you can play this at a currently ongoing exhibit about the history of computing in New York at the NY Historical Society. (Review: I would say the exhibit was decent, though not great - might not be much new for people already familiar with computing history, and it's very clearly sponsored by IBM, though you could argue that this is not unfair for a history of NY-area computing. There's also a fun little exhibit on comic book heroes at the museum, plus I'd never been there before, maybe all added together it's worth a ticket.)

johansch 11y ago

Is there a video somewhere? The only one I found required the RealPlayer plugin :). (Shudder.)

curtis 11y ago

This video looks like it might be of the original game, rather than a re-creation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k.

madengr 11y ago

Here is the original schematic: http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2011/01/24/so-you-wanna-rebuild-one-of-th/ http://scienceblogs.com/brookhaven/2011/01/24/so-you-wanna-r... There is a clone using a microcontroller, but I won't link to that abomination.

anigbrowl 11y ago

If this takes your fancy you may want to interest yourself in modular audio synthesis, whether analog or the DSP emulation (an easier and cheaper way to get into it). There's a whole bunch of oscilloscope-friendly patches for Clavia's Nord Modular software that implement primitive videogames, including a working version of Asteroids.

rocky1138 11y ago

I've always been confused by this game. How do players know when to strike the ball when they can't see their paddle on the screen?

qbrass 11y ago
It's not like Pong where you have to line the paddle up with the ball. You can hit the ball as soon as it crosses onto your side of the court, using a button. You use the knob to change the angle you hit the ball at. Hitting downward increases the speed of the ball, but increases your chances of hitting the net.
- rocky1138 11y ago
  Couldn't someone just win by pressing the button the second it crosses the net and never letting the ball reach the edge of the screen?
  - qbrass 11y ago
    Ideally you could. But because the speed of the ball changes with the angle you hit it, you can throw off your opponents timing and cause them to mess up.