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{{Short description|Earliest known interactive electronic game
{{Infobox toy
|name = Cathode-ray tube<br/>amusement device
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|materials = [[Cathode ray tube]], [[oscilloscope]]
}}
The '''cathode-ray tube amusement device''' is the earliest known [[interactivity|interactive]] [[electronic game]] as well as the first game to incorporate 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
==Gameplay==
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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.<ref name="CRTAD_about.com"/><ref name="TCW140141"/> 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.<ref name="Dumont"/> The two inventors were inspired by the [[radar]] displays used in [[World War II]], which Goldsmith had worked on during the war.<ref name="CRTAD_about.com"/><ref name="GoldsmithInterview"/> The patent for the device was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14, 1948.<ref name="CRTAD_CRT game patent"/> The patent, the first for an electronic game,<ref name="patents"/> was never used by either the inventors or DuMont Laboratories, and the device was never manufactured beyond the original handmade prototype.<ref name="BTC"/><ref name="Replay50s"/> [[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.<ref name="PopMech"/> Video game historian Alexander Smith has also speculated that DuMont's ongoing financial issues prevented any investment into a new product.<ref name="TCW140141"/> 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.<ref name="PopMech"/><ref name="GoldsmithInterview"/> 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.<ref name="PopMech"/>
Despite being a game that used a graphical display, the cathode-ray tube amusement device is generally not considered under many 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.<ref name="PopMech"/><ref name="TCW140141"/><ref name="TVGD"/><ref name="EVG"/> Nevertheless, it is the earliest known [[interactivity|interactive]] [[electronic game]] to incorporate an electronic display, as no prior games, such as the 1936 [[Seeburg Ray-O-Lite]] or [[Spotlight Golf]], had such a display or primarily used [[electronics|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]].<ref name="PopMech"/><ref name="TCW140141"/><ref name="TVGD"/><ref name="EVG"/> 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]].<ref name="CRTAD_about.com"/><ref name="PopMech"/><ref name="BTC"/> 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
==References==
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<!-- Gameplay -->
<ref name="CRTAD_about.com">{{cite web |title=Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device |url=
<ref name="CRTAD_CRT game patent">{{cite patent |country=US |number=2455992 |status=patent |title=Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device |fdate=January 25, 1947 |gdate=December 14, 1948 |invent1=Goldsmith Jr., Thomas T. |invent2=Mann, Estle Ray}}</ref>
<ref name="PopMech">{{cite web |url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a20129/the-very-first-video-game/ |title=The Unlikely Story of the First Video Game |last=Blitz |first=Matt |date=March 28, 2016 |work=[[Popular Mechanics]] |publisher=[[Hearst Corporation]] |access-date=March 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330043442/http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a20129/the-very-first-video-game/ |archive-date=March 30, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>
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{{Early history of video games}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1947 video games]]▼
[[Category:Cathode ray tube]]
[[Category:Early history of video games]]
[[Category:History of computing hardware]]
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