Talk:Tennis for Two

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[edit] 1997 rebuild at BNL

Apparently Peter Takacs and colleagues at BNL rebuilt the game in 1997. I seem to recall the BNL site mentioning that at some point, but I can't find anything about the rebuild on the site now. However, it is reverenced elsewhere, including the introduction to the Pong Story site and a BBC News article. --Brouhaha 07:17, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Video game

I have taken out a line saying Tennis for Two was a video game due to concerns from Wgungfu. I'm not convinced, how is this not a video game? The definition from our own page is "a game that involves the interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device." What's the issue?--Cúchullain t/c 02:10, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Very specifically, the next line states "The 'video' in "video game" traditionally refers to a raster display device" (the two paragraphs are ones I helped construct after a compromise with several other editors on video games in the literall sense vs. the more modern general term). This is important when discussing "first video game" and "one of the first" which you keep trying to add and had already been gone through here. In the patent defense cases for Ralph, William was first brought to light by some of the other companies as an attempt to show prior work and invalidate the patent. It did not work, and Ralph's "pioneer" patent was upheld. Quite specifically, video game is defined by the courts as a game played on a display source using a video signal, which is a raster display device that recieves an actual video signal. Likewise even in the "video device" link of the sentence you quoted: A display device, also known as an information display is a device for visual or tactile presentation of images (including text) acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms. William's device was an analog computer hooked up to an oscilliscope, which is a directly controlled beam that is moved about under direction from the analog computer. There is no video signal, and no image transmitted, aquired or stored. This was also the problem with spacewar when it was presented as evidence and struck down in court. --Marty Goldberg 02:35, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
It still needs to be mentioned, as the game frequently comes up in discussion of the "first video game". It's one of the important moments in the development of video games.--Cúchullain t/c 03:03, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I've tried to add a sentance addressing this. Perhaps you can alter the wording to your taste, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't just delete it again - it's important to establish why this subject is notable. --Cúchullain t/c 03:11, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
You could mention that its erroneously mentioned as one of the first video games and then direct people to the First Video Games entry that discusses that in more detail. Its importance to the history of video games is more of a footnote - nobody had heard of it until it was brought up in court. It was put together and set up for a brief moment in 1958 and put away. There are no direct ties to it and any other game or development in video game history, it influenced nothing. Spacewar, by comparison, has a direct correlation to the timeline and influenced later developments. A lot of the confusion regarding the promotion of Tennis For Two being a "first video game" is by Brookhaven (for obvious reason) and some writers back at that time (late 70's/early 80's) who latched on to the idea and decided to promote it as such regardless of what the courts decided. --Marty Goldberg 03:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I meant that to the history of video games, it is noteworthy as an interesting footnote. But more importantly, the game is only notable in and of itself because of its place in the history of video games. In other words, there would be no reason to have an article on it but for that, so that needs to be mentioned explicitly.
On another note I'm not sure about it not being a video game; it obviously depends on definition, but I've seen multiple references to Tennis for Two as either the first video game or one of the first. Perhaps if and when this article is expanded, the various conflicting definitions and the game's ultimate place in history can be clarified in more detail.--Cúchullain t/c 03:44, 21 May 2007 (UTC)