William Alfred Higinbotham (October 22, 1910 – November 10, 1994) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

. A member of the team that developed the first

nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear exp ...

, he later became a leader in the

nonproliferation Nuclear proliferation is the spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries, particularly those not recognized as nuclear-weapon states by the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the ''Non-Proliferation T ...

movement. He also has a place in the

history of video games The history of video games began in the 1950s and 1960s as computer science, computer scientists began designing simple games and simulation video game, simulations on minicomputers and mainframe computer, mainframes. ''Spacewar!'' was develop ...

for his 1958 creation of ''

Tennis for Two ''Tennis for Two'' (also known as ''Computer Tennis'') is a sports video game that simulates a game of tennis, and was one of the first games developed in the early history of video games. American physicist William Higinbotham designed the game ...

'', the first interactive analog computer game and one of the first electronic games to use a graphical display.

Early life

Higinbotham was born in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...

, and grew up in Caledonia, New York. His father was a minister in the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

. He earned his undergraduate degree from

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

in 1932 and his studies at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. He worked on the radar system at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

from 1941 to 1943.

Career

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was working at

Los Alamos Laboratory The Los Alamos Laboratory, also known as Project Y, was a secret scientific laboratory established by the Manhattan Project and overseen by the University of California during World War II. It was operated in partnership with the United State ...

and headed the lab's electronics group in the later years of the war, where his team developed electronics for the first

atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...

. His team created the bomb's ignition mechanism as well as measuring instruments for the device. Higinbotham also created the

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

display for the experimental B-28 bomber. Following his experience with nuclear weapons, Higinbotham helped found the nuclear nonproliferation group

Federation of American Scientists The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank with the stated intent of using science and scientific analysis to attempt to make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by a group of scient ...

, serving as its first chairman and executive secretary. From 1974 until his death in 1994, Higinbotham served as the technical editor of the ''Journal of Nuclear Materials Management'', published by the

Institute of Nuclear Materials Management The Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) is an international technical and professional organization that works to promote safe handling of nuclear material and the safe practice of nuclear materials management through publications, ...

. In 1947, Higinbotham took a position at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

, where he worked until his retirement in 1984. In 1958, as Head of the Instrumentation Division at Brookhaven, he created a computer game called ''

'' for the laboratory's annual exposition. A

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

simulator displayed on an

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (formerly known as an oscillograph, informally scope or O-scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying voltages of one or more signals as a function of time. Their main purpose is capturing i ...

, the game is credited with being one of the

first video game The history of video games spans a period of time between the invention of the first electronic games and today, covering many inventions and developments. Video gaming reached mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when arcade video game ...

s. The game took Higinbotham a few weeks to complete, and was a popular attraction at the show. It was such a hit that Higinbotham created an expanded version for the 1959 exposition; this version allowed the gravity level to be changed so players could simulate tennis on

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

and the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

. Higinbotham never patented ''Tennis for Two'', though he obtained over 20 other patents during his career. He recalled in 1983,

Legacy

In the 1980s, critics and historians began to recognize the significance of ''Tennis for Two'' in the development of video games. In 1983,

David Ahl David H. Ahl (born May 17, 1939) is an American author who is the founder of ''Creative Computing'' magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including '' BASIC Computer Games'', the first computer book to sell more than a million co ...

, who had played the game at the Brookhaven exhibition as a teenager, wrote a cover story for ''

Creative Computing ''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format t ...

'' in which he dubbed Higinbotham the "Grandfather of Video Games". Independently,

Frank Lovece Frank Lovece () is an American journalist, author, and a comic book writer primarily for Marvel Comics, where he and artist Mike Okamoto created the miniseries '' Atomic Age''. His longest affiliation has been with the New York metropolitan are ...

interviewed Higinbotham for a story on the history of video games in the June 1983 issue of ''Video Review''. In 2011,

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

founded the William A. Higinbotham Game Studies Collection, managed by Head of Special Collections and University Archives Kristen Nyitray and Associate Professor of Digital Cultural Studies Raiford Guins. The Collection is explicitly dedicated to "documenting the material culture of screen-based game media", and in specific relation to Higinbotham: "collecting and preserving the texts, ephemera, and artifacts that document the history and work of early game innovator and Brookhaven National Laboratory scientist William A. Higinbotham, who in 1958 invented the first interactive analog computer game, ''Tennis for Two''." As part of preserving the history of ''

'', the Collection is producing a documentary on the history of the game and its reconstruction by Peter Takacs, physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Higinbotham remained little interested in video games, preferring to be remembered for his work in nuclear nonproliferation. After his death, as requests for information on ''Tennis for Two'' increased, his son William B. Higinbotham told Brookhaven: "It is imperative that you include information on his nuclear nonproliferation work. That was what he wanted to be remembered for." For this work the Federation of American Scientists named their headquarters Higinbotham Hall in 1994.

References

External links

The Dot Eaters entry
on Higinbotham and his Pong precursor
Who Really Invented The Video Game?
an editorial by John Anderson from "Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games" Vol. 1, No. 1 / Spring 1983.
The Institute of Nuclear Materials Management

* ttps://archivesspace.williams.edu/repositories/2/resources/189 William A. Higinbotham Papersat Williams College Archives & Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Higinbotham, William 1910 births 1994 deaths People from Bridgeport, Connecticut Manhattan Project people Early history of video games Cornell University alumni Williams College alumni Brookhaven National Laboratory staff People from Caledonia, New York