Pong and the birth of computer games

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese VietCong guerrillas built a vast network of tunnels in the south of the country as part of the insurgency against the South Vietnamese government and their American allies. The tunnel network was a key base and shelter for the North Vietna ...  Show more

In 1995, Octavia E Butler became the first author to receive a MacArthur “genius” award for science fiction writing.From a young age she dreamed of writing books, but faced many challenges, including poverty, sexism and racism in the publishing industry.Her sci-fi books are now t ...  Show more

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

Before the terms 'open source' and 'internet' were even coined—there were gamers. They created proto-open source communities, sharing and building upon each other’s work. For many programmers, gaming led them to their careers. In this episode, we explore the creative free-for-all ...  Show more

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

What is the ping tool, what is it used for, and where did it come from? We learn about the man who first created ping, why it's not an acronym for anything, and why gamers care about it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.