PAUSE: Meet the great-granddaddy of videogames.

Now this is retro gaming. This “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device”, invented by Thomas T. Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann in 1947, is one of the earliest examples of a videogame: 

Described it as a game of skill where a player sits or lies in front of a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) mounted in a closet, the analog device was inspired by a radar commonly used in the second World War to control missiles. Using knobs to adjust speed and trajectory, a plane was represented by a single point and the scores were assigned by hand!

Lana Polansky

[via]