WHEN	WHERE	WHAT	WHO	PHOTO	THE STORY
1958	Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY	TENNIS FOR TWO	William Higinbotham		Was created for BNL open houses to wow visitors (and continue to get funding). Displays the trajectory of a ball on a oscilloscope, with which users can interact. Controllers had a dial and a button. The dials affect the angle of the ball and the buttons "hit" the ball. After it was displayed to the public it was dismantled. It was neither marketed or patented, because William thought the idea too obvious to be worth pursuing.
1961	MIT Cambridge, MA	COMPUTER SPACE	Steve Russell		MIT gets a new super computer, the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, and similar to BNL, wants to create a program that will show off the computer and wow visitors at open houses. They develop an idea to simluate two spaceships have a missle battle in space. It becomes a huge hit in the computer community, and copies are passed educational facilities across the US. Again, no patent was pursued and thus was copied over and over again.
1966	Sanders Associates Nashua, New Hampshire	ODYSSEY	Ralph Baer		Baer, a television engineer and electrical engineer comes up with an "interactive TV" concept. He writes a paper describing a low cost device that can attach to a TV set and play a number of games. In 1966, wtih Sanders Asociates, he creates a tag game with two dots that can be moved around on a TV. In 1968 Baer files for the first videogame patent showing a system that plays ping-pong, volleyball, hockey and a shooting game used with a light-gun. Magnavox picks it up, and sells it for an expensive $100, which only works on Magnavox TVs. Recieves a settlement w/Atari after PONG is created because of its patent.
1971	Nutting Associates Mountain View, CA	COMPUTER SPACE / PONG	Nolan Bushnell		Bushnell incessantly plays Spacewar on the University of Utah's PDP-1 and becomes convinced of Spacewar's commercial viability. Becomes obsessed with creating a compact version for public consumption. He joins Nutting Associates, who make coin operated Trivia games and makes 1,500 units. It sells terribly, because its too difficult for people to learn the controls. After seeing the Odyssey at a trade show, Bushnell goes on to create an arcade version of Pong, forming the company Atari.

1. Relative Strengths of Representation in Different Media
   
   
   

   MEDIUM	PHOTO	STRENGTHS
   PAINTING		static visual representation
   SCULPTURE		static physical representation
   WRITING		abstract concepts, narrative
   FILM / ANIMATION		moving visual representation, narrative
   VIDEO GAMES		representing action / interaction




2. Early Games As Representations
   
   
   

   GAME	PHOTO	SIMULATING	CORE MECHANIC
   TENNIS FOR TWO		tennis	lobbing (determining trajectory)
   COMPUTER SPACE		space	avoiding and shooting
   PONG		tennis	blocking
   GRANTRACK		racing	driving (turning and accelerating)

   
   
   
3. Translation of Action Across Bandwidths
   
   
   
   
   
4. Different Representations of the Same Game: PING PONG
   
   
   

   INTERACTIONS		Ping Pong	Haptic Pong	TV Pong	TableTennis	3D Pong	Pong
   move	left	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.
   ----	right	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.
   ----	forward	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	----	----
   ----	back	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.	----	----
   swing	back	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.(lr)	----	----
   ----	forward	cont.	cont.	cont.	cont.(lr)	----	----
   ----	up	cont.	cont. (lr)	----	cont.(lr)	cont.	----
   ----	down	cont.	cont.	----	cont. (lr)	cont.	----
   ----	angle	cont.	----	----	----	----	--
   look	up	cont.	----	----	----	----	----
   ----	down	cont.	----	----	----	----	----
   ----	left	cont.	----	----	----	----	----
   ----	right	cont.	----	----	----	----	----

   
   
   
5. Different Representations of the Same Game: PAINTBALL
   
   
   

   INTERACTIONS		Paintball	Police 911	Quake III	Wolf. 3D	Berzerk	Tank
   move	left	cont.	----	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete
   ----	right	cont.	----	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete
   ----	forward	cont.	----	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete
   ----	back	cont.	----	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete
   shoot	aim	cont.	cont.	----	----	----	----
   ----	trigger	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete	discrete
   ----	reload	cont.	----	----	----	----	----
   dodge	duck	cont.	cont. (lr)	discrete	----	----	----
   ----	jump	cont.	----	discrete	----	----	----
   ----	step l	cont.	cont. (lr)	discrete	discrete	----	----
   ----	step r	cont.	cont. (lr)	discrete	discrete	----	----
   look	up	cont.	----	cont.	----	discrete	----
   ----	down	cont.	----	cont.	----	discrete	----
   ----	left	cont.	----	cont.	----	discrete	discrete
   ----	right	cont.	----	cont.	----	discrete	discrete