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===Beginnings of sports games=== In 1958, William Higinbotham created a game called ''Tennis for Two'', a competitive [[Multi-player|two-player]] tennis game played on an oscilloscope. The players would select the angle at which to put their racket, and pressed a button to return it. Although this game was incredibly simple, it demonstrated how an [[action video games|action video game]] (rather than previous puzzles) could be played on a computer.<ref name="Ars Technica">{{Cite web|url=http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2005/10/gaming-evolution.ars/2|title=The evolution of gaming: computers, consoles, and arcade|work=Sports games|date=2005-10-10|first=Jeremy|last=Reimer|accessdate=2009-05-14}}</ref> Video games prior to the late 1970s were primarily played on university mainframe computers under timesharing systems that supported multiple computer terminals on school campuses. The two dominant systems in this era were Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-10 and Control Data Corporation's PLATO. Both could only display text, and not graphics,originally printed on teleprinters and line printers, but later printed on single-color CRT screens. Around that time, electro-mechanical sports [[arcade game]]s were being produced. Examples include [[Taito]]'s ''Crown Soccer Special'' (1967),<ref>{{KLOV|16047|Crown Soccer Special}}</ref> [[SEGA]]'s racing game ''Grand Prix'' (1969),<ref>{{KLOV|17382|Grand Prix}}</ref><ref>Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), ''Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time'', p. 198, Focal Press, ISBN 0240811461</ref> and Chicago Coin's racing game ''Speedway'' (1969).<ref>{{KLOV|5616|Speedway}}</ref> In the 1970s, arcade video games began to appear, many of them centred around the sports genre, after it was popularized by the first commercially successful video game, [[Atari]]'s ''[[Pong]]'' (1972). In 1973, Taito released an early team sport video game, ''[[Tomohiro Nishikado#Davis Cup and Soccer|Davis Cup]]'', a tennis doubles game with similar ball-and-paddle gameplay but played in doubles, with both players controlling two paddles each.<ref>{{KLOV|7528|Davis Cup}}</ref> That year, Taito also released another early team sport video game, ''[[Tomohiro Nishikado#Davis Cup and Soccer|Soccer]]'',<ref name=Kohler-16>Chris Kohler (2005), ''Power-up: how Japanese video games gave the world an extra life'', p. 16, BradyGames, ISBN 0744004241</ref> based on association football; it was also a ball-and-paddle game, but with a green background to simulate a playfield, allowed each player to control both a forward and a goalkeeper, and let them adjust the size of the players who were represented as paddles on screen.<ref>[http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=4054 Soccer], [[Killer List of Videogames]]</ref> Both ''Davis Cup'' and ''Soccer'' were designed by [[Tomohiro Nishikado]] of ''[[Space Invaders]]'' fame.<ref name=Kohler-16/> Early hockey video games were also released in 1973: SEGA's ''Hockey TV'',<ref>{{KLOV|id=8127|name=Hockey TV}}</ref> and Taito's ''Pro Hockey'', which had similar gameplay to ''Pong'' but with boundaries around the screen and only a small gap for the goal.<ref>{{KLOV|id=9128|name=Pro Hockey}}</ref> In 1974, Taito released ''Basketball'', an early [[basketball]] game. It was an early example of a video game that displayed [[Sprite (computer graphics)|sprite]] images, both for the players and the baskets, and an early attempt at accurately simulating a team sport. Each player controlled two team members, a forward and a guard, both represented as sprite [[Player character|character]] images. The ball could be dribbled and passed between team members before shooting, and the ball had to fall into the opposing team's basket to score a point.<ref>{{KLOV|id=7025|name=Basketball}}</ref> That same year, SEGA released an association football game, ''Goal Kick'', which was played like an early vertical ball-and-paddle game.<ref>{{KLOV|12791|Goal Kick}}</ref> The first [[Racing video game|driving video games]] were also released that year: Taito's ''[[Speed Race]]'' (1974)<ref name=Kohler-16/><ref>{{KLOV|id=9709|name=Speed Race}}</ref> which introduced [[scrolling]] graphics,<ref>Bill Loguidice & Matt Barton (2009), ''Vintage games: an insider look at the history of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the most influential games of all time'', p. 197, Focal Press, ISBN 0240811461</ref> and Atari's ''[[Gran Trak 10]]''. In 1976, the driving subgenre was extended into [[2.5D|three dimensions]], with the forward-scrolling [[Third person (video games)|third-person]] perspective of SEGA's motorbike racing game ''[[Fonz (arcade)|Moto-Cross]]'',<ref name=Moto-Cross>{{KLOV|12812|Moto-Cross}}</ref> soon re-branded as ''[[Fonz (arcade)|Fonz]]'' that same year,<ref name=Fonz>{{KLOV|id=12812|name=Fonz}}</ref> and with the [[First person (video games)|first-person]] perspective of SEGA's ''Road Race''<ref>{{KLOV|12733|Road Race}}</ref> and Atari's ''[[Night Driver]]''. In 1975, Universal Research Laboratories (URL) released an early four-player multiple-sports game, ''Video Action'', which featured several different sporting [[minigame]]s, including ''Pong''-style variants of tennis, hockey, and association football, as well as an early volley ball game and a unique four-court tennis game. ''Video Action'' was also an early example of cooperative gameplay, as each sport could be played in teams of two.<ref>{{KLOV|id=10309|name=Video Action}}</ref> That same year, [[Nintendo]] released ''EVR-Race'', an early horse racing simulation game with support for up to six players.<ref>[http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3181467 Where Were They Then: The First Games of Nintendo, Konami, and More (Nintendo)], [[1UP.com|1UP]]</ref> In 1976, SEGA released an early combat sport game, ''[[Heavyweight Champ]]'', based on [[boxing]] and now considered the first [[fighting game]].<ref>[http://www.1up.com/features/20-years-street-fighter 20 Years of Whoop-Ass], [[1UP.com|1UP]]</ref> In 1978 Atari released ''[[Atari Football]]'', which is considered to be the first video game to accurately emulate American football;<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.atarifootball.com/joomla/index.php/history-football |title=History of Atari Football |publisher=Atarifootball.com |date=2009-07-04 |accessdate=2011-07-19}}</ref> it also popularized the use of the [[trackball]], having been inspired by an earlier Taito soccer game that used a trackball.<ref>{{Cite book|first=Steve L.|last=Kent|year=2001|title=The ultimate history of video games: from Pong to Pokémon and beyond : the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world|publisher=Prima|isbn=0761536434|page=118|quote=Contrary to a popular notion, Football was not the first game to use a trak-ball controller. According to Dave Stubben, who created the hardware for Atari Football, Taito beat Atari to market with a soccer game that used one. According to Steve Bristow, when his engineers saw the game, they brought a copy into their lab and imitated it.}}</ref> Taito also released an early bowling game in 1978, ''Top Bowler'',<ref>{{KLOV|id=10150|name=Top Bowler}}</ref> followed by an early baseball game in 1979, ''Ball Park''.<ref>{{KLOV|id=7002|name=Ball Park}}</ref>
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