Cathode ray tube amusement device game

Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device. Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device Patent — Filed on January 25, and issued on December 14, There are a lot of people that view this as an electronic toy more than a video game but this is subjective and open for interpretation.

Inventors Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. An Overview of the first interactive electronic game. History of CRADS and the Original Goldsmith-Mann Game The cathode-ray tube amusement device has an interesting place in video game histories, in that it's frequently mentioned at the beginning, but is generally not considered to be a video game.

There are many conflicting accounts of its capabilities and the only visual aids provided by most sources are the circuit diagrams from the patent. I wasn't very satisfied with this state of things, so I decided to make CRADS to provide people both a visual and an interactive demonstration of what Goldsmith and Mann proposed in Development of the original game was led by Thomas T.

Goldsmith Jr. They are the load resistors of the thyratron '3 which has 'a variable resistor l its-cathode-circuit. A switch 5 is-provided for short-'circuitingthe resistor t, thus firing the thyratronmanually'whenever de-'- sired for a purpose toflce explained later. The grid 6 of the thyratron 3 in connected to ground. The -condenser"l together with variable resistor I and fixed resistor 2 gives the desired time constants for the sawtooth wave which is the output on lead '8 that is connected to the plateof the thyratron 3.

This resistor I0 is in series with the re sistors, II and I2 which are in parallel with each other and have one end of each grounded. Resistors I I and I2 are ganged to acommon control M. The movable contactor IS on resistor I I is connected by lead It to the control grid ll of tube I 8 which is part of a balanced phase inverter deflection amplifier which is to be described below.

The plate Id of tube 18 is connected by lead 20 to one of the vertical deflection plates 2. I The load resistor "for tube 18 is resistor The cathode of tube I8 is connected to the cathode of tube 23 which is another tube of the balanced deflection amplifier mentioned above.

A resistor. Resistor 25 and a variable rer sistor 2. Lead 23 connectsa point between resistors. The plate load ofethis tube is resistor 29, and the plate of this-tube is connected by lead 30 to the othervertical deflection plate 3 of the cathode-ray tubeuOfTh-c screen grids of tubes I8 and 23 are connected together by lead. This lead is connected by resistor 33 to'the source of positive potentialy-and a capacitor 34 is connected between this resistor 33 and ground.

The amplifier for the horizontal deflection plates of tube 0 is like the one just described, corresponding parts being designated by the same reference characters with primes. However, :the plate load resistors 2 I and 3 I of the two vacuum tubes I9 and 23' difier from resistors 22 and These load resistors 2 " and 3 " :are high'resistance coatings on the two horizontal deflection plates of the cathode-ray tube 0 which will be described later.

Lead 35 from contactor I5 extends to thegrid 36 of tube The plate of this tube is connected to a" regulated power supply which may be at v. Lead 38 fromthe contactor ' 'on resister 12 extends to the grid of :tube ' The plate of this tube is also connected to :the regulated power supply.

The cathode of tube 13] is connected to the cathode of tube 39 lbyLlead. The cathode of tubedd is connected through :resistor 45 to :a source oi positive potential, and this cathode is also grounded through a variable resistor The plate load of the tube 44 is the field coil 48 of a single-pole spring-biased relay.

Contactor 49 is spring biased so that as long as this coil is not energized the contactor 49 of this relay is caused to contact with the contactor'50 to focus the beam of the cathode-ray tube 0, as explained more fully below.

When the coil 48 is energized by current passing through tube 44 contactor 49;;-. This defocuses the beam of the tube 0. A positive voltage is applied to the lead 52 that is connected to coil The resistors 54 and 56 are connected in parallel.

Resistor 51 is connected between one end of the resistors 54, 56 and ground, and resistor 58, which is connected to a source ofnegative potential, is connected between the other ends of these resistors opposite resistor