What was the first video game?

Did you know the gigantic, 180-billion-dollar video game industry started as a tiny glowing green dot at a 1958 science fair? Join Mira and Finn on an epic quest to discover who really invented video games! We'll travel back in time to play Tennis for Two on a chunky metal radar box, and find out how a simple table tennis game called Pong was so popular that the arcade machine literally broke from being stuffed with way too many quarters! But it wasn't always a high score. Discover the dramatic Video Game Crash of 1983 when games almost disappeared forever! Who saved the day? A 100-year-old playing card company from Japan called Nintendo, armed with a jumping, mustache-wearing plumber named Super Mario! From the addictive falling blocks of Tetris and the creature-catching adventures of Pokemon, all the way to the shocking truth that the very first version of Minecraft was built in just six days, this episode is packed with mind-blowing gaming facts! Press start and jump into this amazing history adventure!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we dive into history today, we have a massive shout out to Nev, who is eight, and Gabe, who is five. They are listening all the way from Memphis, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hey Nev and Gabe. We know you guys listen every single day at home and in the car. Thank you so much for hanging out with us.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

You asked for an episode about Nintendo and Super Mario. And guess what? Mario is starring right here in today's story. This one is entirely for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

We also have to mention Rashawn and Kean from New York City. They love the podcast and requested an episode about Minecraft.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

That's right! We have been completely inundated with Minecraft requests, so we have a full dedicated episode on that coming up very soon. But we packed some mind-blowing Minecraft facts into today's story, just for Rashan and Kian.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Awesome! So what exactly are we talking about today?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

What if I told you that an entertainment industry, worth over $180 billion, which is bigger than the global movie and music industries combined, started as a tiny glowing green dot at a science fair.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Wait, really? Bigger than movies and music put together?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Way bigger. Today, we're tracking down exactly who invented video games. From giant analogue computers to the screen in your living room. Our story starts on October 18th, 1958. Dwight D. Eisenhower is president, and kids are busy playing with hula hoops and riding bicycles.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Wait, so there are no smartphones, no tablets, and definitely no PlayStations. How did kids survive? What did they even do?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

They played outside. But at a huge research facility called the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, an American physicist named William Higgin Bottom was setting up for a public science fair.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

A science fair? I love science fairs. Did he make a massive baking soda volcano or a potato clock?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Nope. William was a brilliant scientist who had worked on complex radar systems. But he noticed that regular people usually got super bored looking at static science exhibits.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, reading giant walls of text is not very fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Exactly! He wanted to make something truly interactive to entertain the visitors. Using a massive Donner Model 30 analogue computer and a small five-inch screen called an oscilloscope, he built tennis for two. Wait, an oscilloscope? What on earth is that? It's a chunky metal box with a tiny round screen. Normally it just shows squiggly green lines to measure electricity. But William programmed those lines to look like a side view of a tennis court. A glowing green tennis court? How did you actually play it? He built two little aluminium controllers. Each one had a dial to aim and a tiny button to hit the ball. You pushed the button and a little green dot bounced over a straight line that was supposed to be the net.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Did people actually like it? It sounds so basic.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Oh, they went absolutely crazy for it. Hundreds of people waited in line down the hall for hours just to play a single match. It was the world's first interactive electronic game. But incredibly, after two years, William completely took it apart. What? Why did he destroy the greatest invention ever? He just didn't think it was important. He used the computer parts for other science experiments. He never even tried to patent his amazing invention. Fast forward 14 years to 1972. A tiny new company in California called Atari decides to make an electronic table tennis game for arcades. It was created by Nolan Bushnell and Alan Alcorn, and they called it Pong.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Was it just like Tennis for Two with the green dot?

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Sort of. It had two digital white paddles moving up and down on a black television screen, hitting a square pixel back and forth. Imagine hearing beep, boop, beep, boop.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

That sounds super simple. Were there special power-ups or explosions?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Zero power-ups. The instructions on the machine simply said avoid missing ball for high score. They put the very first Pong arcade cabinet inside a local hangout called Andy Cap's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. Did people wait in line for this one too? Absolutely. It was incredibly popular. But just a few days later, the owner of the tavern called Atari and said, Your machine is broken. Come get it out of my restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

Oh no! Did the screen explode from being turned on too much?

SPEAKER_00 5:08

No. When Alan Alcorn went to fix the machine, he opened up the bottom panel and found out exactly why it had stopped working. The coin box was completely overflowing with quarters.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Wait, there were so many quarters it literally broke the machine.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yes! People had pumped so many coins into it that they physically jammed the coin slot. Pong became a massive, unprecedented hit. Soon there were thousands of Pong machines ringing and beeping in arcades everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

But you still had to leave your house and use your allowance to play it.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Not for long. In 1977, Atari released the Atari 2600. For exactly $199, you could plug this wooden-looking console directly into your family's living room television. Whoa! The arcade came straight to the living room! Exactly! You could buy different plastic game cartridges to play classics like Space Invaders and Asteroids. By 1982, Atari was selling millions of consoles and making billions of dollars.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

So they lived happily ever after as the absolute kings of gaming.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Not exactly. They got greedy and made way too many terrible games really quickly. In 1983, the entire video game industry completely crashed. Stores refused to sell games anymore. The industry crashed. Like, video games almost completely died out. Yes, it was known as the video game crash of 1983. People thought video games were just a passing fad, like the Hulu, and that it was over forever.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

Oh man, Nevin Gabe must be sweating right now. Who saved the day?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

A 100-year-old playing card company from Kyoto, Japan, named Nintendo.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Playing cards? How does a paper card company fix electronic video games?

SPEAKER_00 7:10

In 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the NES, in North America. It came with a game created by a brilliant Japanese designer named Shigeru Miyamoto.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Let me guess. Did this game star a certain jumping plumber with a moustache and a red hat?

SPEAKER_00 7:29

You got it! Super Mario Bros. Instead of just staring at a single dark screen, Mario ran across the television through a massive, bright, scrolling world. It had 32 different levels.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yes, stomping on Goombas, jumping down green pipes and collecting coins.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

Mario was a massive global phenomenon. Super Mario Bros. sold over 40 million copies worldwide. Nintendo basically single-handedly saved the entire video game industry from collapse. So Nintendo ruled the entire world? Pretty much. And in 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, a handheld console you could take anywhere, powered by AA batteries. And it came packed with a game invented by a Russian programmer named Alexei Pajitnov. Ooh, what game was it? Tetris! Alexi had invented it in 1984 on an old computer in Moscow. It was a brilliantly simple puzzle game where you matched different falling shapes to clear lines.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Oh, I know Tetris! The music gets totally stuck in your head and it's so addictive.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Right! Alexi loved puzzles, but he didn't make any money from his invention at first, because he lived in the Soviet Union and the government claimed ownership of it. Even though Tetris on the Game Boy sold a staggering 35 million copies.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Wait, he made a masterpiece that sold 35 million copies and got absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

It took years, but he eventually got the legal rights back and formed the Tetris Company in 1996.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Okay, so we've got Pong in arcades, Mario in the living room, and Tetris in our backpacks. What happened next?

SPEAKER_00 9:16

The games kept getting bigger and more complex. In 1996, a Japanese game designer named Satoshi Tajuri launched Pokemon Red and Green in Japan.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Pikachu, Charizard! Did you know my friend has a giant binder full of rare Pokemon cards? I believe it!

SPEAKER_00 9:35

When Satoshi was a little boy, he loved exploring the local forests and collecting insects. He wanted to give City Kids that exact same feeling of catching and cataloguing strange creatures. That is such a cool inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

How big did it get?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Huge! Today, Pokemon is the single highest-grossing media franchise of all time, making over $90 billion.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Okay, what about Minecraft? Rashan and Kian are waiting for their facts.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Ah yes. In 2011, a Swedish programmer named Markus Person, who is also known as Notch, officially released a 3D block building game called Minecraft.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

I love Minecraft. You can build anything. I built a giant roller coaster out of solid gold blocks.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Exactly! There's no specific goal, just pure creativity. Do you want to know a crazy fact about how it started? You know I always do. Marcus created the very first prototype version of Minecraft in just six days, back in 2009.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Six days? Are you serious? I couldn't even build a proper dirt house in six days.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Well, he kept updating it, and the community kept growing. Today, Minecraft is the best-selling single video game in human history. It has sold over 300 million copies. And to think, from William Higginbotham's tiny green bouncing dot on a radar screen in 1958, video games have grown into a $180 billion industry. There are over 3 billion active gamers on planet Earth right now.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Whoa, that means almost half the world plays video games. I guess William's Science Fair project really changed the world.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

Alright Finn, it's time for the quiz. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Okay, I've got my game face on. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

First question. Who was the American physicist that invented Tennis for Two in 1958? Next one. What exactly caused the very first Atari Pong arcade machine to break down? Question 3. What 100-year-old playing card company from Japan saved the video game industry in 1985? Here's number four. What famous falling block puzzle game was invented by a Russian programmer? Last question. What block building game created by Marcus Person is the best selling video game ever? Great job! Let's see how you did. The first answer is William Higginbotham. He built it on an oscilloscope. For question two, it broke because the coin box was jammed with way too many quarters. Number three, the answer is Nintendo! They brought us Super Mario Bros. Question 4. That highly addictive puzzle game is Tetris. And the final answer is Minecraft, which has sold over 300 million copies.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I still can't believe the very first video game was made out of radar testing equipment.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

I know, right? It makes me appreciate my console so much more. History really is hiding everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Hey, if you love playing games and learning cool facts with us, you should definitely leave us a five-star review.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Yes, just scroll down on your podcast app and tap the five stars. It helps us reach the next level, just like Mario powering up with a super mushroom.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games and interactive activities waiting for you there.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Head over to kidopoly.com for more cool stuff to explore. And hey, if you want to shout out on the show or just want to say hi, send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

We love hearing from you, especially if you have a high score to share.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Thanks for learning with us today, everyone. See you next time on Histories Not Boring. Bye guys, keep on playing.