William Higinbotham, the man who made the world’s first video game, was also a member of the team which made the world’s first nuclear bomb.
video games
Before the internet, Nintendo…
Before the internet, Nintendo had “game counselors” – whom you could call if you were stuck in a game and they would coach you through it.
The first computer game was Nim…
The first computer game was Nim, released in April 1940 on a computer called the Nimatron, which weighed over a ton. The designer was a nuclear physicist and quantum mechanics pioneer who later participated in the Manhattan Project. 100,000 games were played, with the computer winning ~90%
Attorney John Joseph Kirby Jr. successfully…
Attorney John Joseph Kirby Jr. successfully defended Nintendo against Universal Studios over the copyrightability of the character of Donkey Kong in 1984, from which Nintendo subsequently named the character Kirby to honor him.
In the 1980s you could download…
In the 1980s you could download video games from a radio broadcast, by recording the sounds onto a cassette tape that would then play on a computer.
Elementary school children in Japan…
Elementary school children in Japan came together online by creating a virtual graduation ceremony in a Minecraft-rendered graduation hall with students attending as Minecraft avatars.
Creator of Super Mario and…
Creator of Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda, Shigeru Miyamoto, is forbidden to go to work with a bicycle because his safety is too valuable.
Several European countries classify…
Several European countries classify loot boxes in video games as gambling, forcing game companies such as Blizzard, EA and Valve to release “loot box-free” versions of their games in those territories.
The Sony PlayStation was never meant…
The Sony PlayStation was never meant to be a product. It was intended to be a new console that would play exclusively Nintendo games on CDs. Instead Nintendo backed out of the deal at the last minute. Sony went ahead and launched what would become the most successful console of all time.
The creator of The Sims…
The creator of The Sims, Will Wright, was inspired to make the game after losing his home and most of his material possessions in a fire in 1997. Thinking about the value of material needs as he rebuilt his life gave him the idea of a game where players managed the life of a suburban household.
When the video game market crashed…
When the video game market crashed in 1983 revenues fell by an astounding 97%, causing many pundits to predict that video games were just a fad and that no one would ever play video games again.
Using the red cross as a symbol…
Using the red cross as a symbol of health in a video game or any other commercial product technically constitutes a violation of the Geneva conventions.