15 Video Game Firsts We Take For Granted
9. Multiplayer
While you're playing video games on your nice 4K TV, marvelling at the wondrous graphics on offer as you play online with your chums, spare a thought for the first-ever multiplayer gamers.
The first ever multiplayer game was invented way, way back in 1958! It was entitled Tennis for Two, programmed by an American Physicist named William Higinbotham, and was designed to be played on an oscilloscope using two custom-built controllers.
It was built in just a few hours, but further refined over the next three weeks by William and another technician, Robert K. Dvorak.
The game was simplism in itself; you have a horizontal line which is your tennis court, then a vertical line which is your net. Pressing a button would send a 'ball' (basically a ball of light) over the net, where it could hit the net, reach the other side or go out of bounds. The other player could then return the ball back to the original side.
Amazingly, hundreds of people actually lined up to play this game when it was first debuted!