logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2021
10m 1s

Pong and the birth of computer games

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In 1973, a video game was invented which would change the way we play. An on screen version of table tennis, Pong was initially only played in arcades. But later a home version was created which gamers could plug into their televisions. Louise Hidalgo spoke to Nolan Bushnell, one of the creators of Pong.

Photo credit: BBC.

Up next
Yesterday
The man who said ‘no’ to Disney
In 1941, Walt Disney made a tempting offer to a fellow pioneer of the animation industry, Quirino Cristiani - the author of the first animated feature film.Cristiani was an Italian immigrant raised in Argentina who built a career creating animated political satires in the early d ... Show More
9m 55s
Jul 10
Ni Una Menos women’s movement in Argentina
On 3 June 2015, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in dozens of cities and towns demanding an end to violence against women. There were demonstrations in Chile and Uruguay in solidarity too. Argentina was reporting a female murder rate of one e ... Show More
9m 31s
Jul 9
Argentina’s national genetics bank created to identify stolen babies
In 1982, Argentine geneticist Victor Penchaszadeh was living in exile in New York when he received a call that would change the course of his career. Two founding members of the campaign group, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, were asking for his help to find their kidnappe ... Show More
10m 41s
Recommended Episodes
May 2020
Sponsored: When Small Businesses Think Big - Atari & Red Bull (Dell Podference) | 1
This episode is brought to you by Wondery in partnership with Dell Technologies. In honor of small businesses, we’re featuring inspiring stories of successful companies that started out small.In 1972, pinball machines and mechanical games ruled the arcades. Then, Atari founders N ... Show More
31m 39s
Jun 2021
Videogames | Ping-Pong
Computer Space von Nolan Bushnell war das erste kommerziell vertriebene Videogame der Welt. Aber es ist ihm nicht massenhaft aus den Händen gerissen worden. Nun versuchen Bushnell und seine Mitstreiter bei der neuen Firma Atari einen Spielautomaten für Arcades und Spielhallen auf ... Show More
38m 9s
Nov 2022
Video Games!
Episode 73: Ralph Baer fled Nazi Germany and settled in America where he eventually created the first home video game console, known as the Magnavox Odyssey. Not long after Ralph's creation, Jerry Lawson, a Black computer engineer, built on that idea and lead the team that create ... Show More
31m 19s
Dec 2013
Grand Theft Auto
A new computer game - designed in Scotland - became a surprise global hit in 1997. But Grand Theft Auto also courted controversy and sparked debate over violence and drugs in video games. Listen to Brian Baglow - one of the original team behind the launch. 
8m 55s
Mar 2024
Billy Mitchell – The Prince of Pac-Man & The King of Kong
Billy Mitchell is the Video Game Player of the Century, the first to achieve a perfect score of 3,333,360 points on the original Pac-Man arcade game, the original high score record-holder on Donkey Kong, and the subject of the 2007 documentary, “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Qua ... Show More
56m 4s
Sep 2023
How Mortal Kombat Konquered Gaming
When the video game Mortal Kombat released in 1992, it took arcades — and later the American home — by storm. Thirty years on, the franchise is still going strong. NPR's Scott Detrow faces off against co-host Juana Summers in the latest version of the game, Mortal Kombat 1, and s ... Show More
14m 8s
Nov 2023
Simplified Speech #185 – Nintendo power
In this fun episode, Kassy and Andrew share their love of video games with each other. They mostly talk about games from the Nintendo franchise, which is famous for characters like Mario and Pikachu. Kassy chats about the cooperative game she has been playing with her husband on ... Show More
22m 27s