Cathode-ray tube amusement device

The cathode-ray tube amusement device is the earliest known concept for an interactive electronic game and the first game concept to use an electronic display. It simulates an artillery shell arcing toward targets on a cathode-ray tube screen: the player turns knobs to change the trajectory of the beam spot and the delay of the burst, trying to defocus the beam inside transparent plastic targets overlaid on the screen. It was built from analog electronics with oscilloscope type circuitry, with no computer, memory or program, so it is often not counted as a video game. The physicists Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann invented it at DuMont Laboratories, inspired by wartime radar displays, and filed a patent in 1947 that was issued in 1948. It was never manufactured beyond a handmade prototype.