Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr., has died at the age of 99, his son Judson says. He helped create the cathode ray tube used in household televisions starting in the 1930s together with scientist Allen B. DuMont. Their cathode ray technology was on display at the 1939 World's Fair in New York and was used in radar displays during WWII and for picture-tube displays afterwards.

In 1948 he patented what may be the world's first video game. U.S. Patent 2,455,992, granted to Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann, describes what may be the world's first video game, a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", in essence a game involving aiming missiles at a target. It was inspired by the radar displays used in World War II.

I'll personally bite anyone who remotely considers of adding this to the database. :)

This would need a new platform first. :P

I would've long added this if I could add platforms, so bite me Indra!

I have to admit, this is the first I've ever heard of him.

And don't most say that Space War is the first video game ever?

Most do. Most have a somewhat limited scope.

Here are some of the early ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_video_game

We should support these kind of games here :(

Hey, I took care of Tennis for Two and OXO -- let someone else bust their hump for the others 8)

I think the reasoning behind that is usually that both Mr. Goldsmith's device and William Higinbotham's Tennis for Two in 1958 are not considered to have generated an actual "video signal", both using oscilloscopes as displays. Although I'm not really sure what the definition of "video" is.

OXO in 1952 ran on the EDSAC, whose CRT displayed the contents of one of its memories... same as any console or PC today.