Video Game Facts for Kids

Forget fancy graphics; the first true electronic game, Tennis for Two, was made by physicist William Higinbotham in 1958.

It wasn't on a TV! It used a cathode-ray tube oscilloscope, which is a machine scientists use to look at electrical signals.

The screen was tiny, showing only a side view of a tennis court with a bouncing dot—way simpler than Mario, but it started it all for kids today!

When this arcade legend was first released in Japan in 1980, his name was Puck-Man.

The name came from the Japanese sound 'paku-paku' which means to open and close your mouth quickly.

Fearing vandals could easily change the 'P' to an 'F' in the arcades, the creators wisely switched it to Pac-Man for the US release!

Forget your Switch or PS5! The biggest gaming console was actually the Sega Titan, designed in the 1990s.

It weighed over 15,000 pounds, which is heavier than three full-sized family cars stacked together!

It was meant to be an arcade cabinet, but it was so huge and complicated that only a few were ever made—it’s a true giant for kids to learn about.

You might think esports are new, but the first recorded video game competition was for Spacewar! at Stanford University in 1972!

The grand prize wasn't a million dollars, but a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine and a $500 Sony TV.

Imagine that- this humble start led to today’s massive stadium esports events for kids to watch!

Believe it or not, Nintendo, the company that gave us Mario and Zelda, didn't start with electronics!

They were founded way back in 1889 to make hand-painted Hanafuda playing cards.

That's over 135 years of business before their first big video games, proving that even the best game makers start somewhere!

The best-selling video game of all time isn't a shooter or a racing game—it’s Minecraft!

As of early 2024, it has sold over 300 million copies across all platforms. That is more than four times the population of France!

This shows that simple, creative building games for kids can become the biggest hits globally.

Game developers used to avoid putting their names in games, but one programmer got sneaky! Warren Robinett hid his name in the Atari 2600 game Adventure.

To find it, players had to move a tiny, invisible grey pixel block to a specific room—that's a secret within a secret!

This tiny signature, found by players in 1979, started the awesome tradition of Easter Eggs for kids to discover.

Before he was 'Super Mario,' he was a simple carpenter named Jumpman in the 1981 arcade hit Donkey Kong.

He was rescuing a girl named Pauline, not Princess Peach!

He didn't become a plumber until his next game, Mario Bros., because the setting for that game involved lots of pipes.

This isn't a game you play on a console; it’s an art installation called The Long Now Foundation’s Clock's potential game concept.

However, a game called The Decade Video Game, designed by experimental artist, runs on a loop that takes 1,000 years to complete one full cycle!

The idea is that by the time it finishes, the entire world will have changed—it’s a game that lasts for generations of kids!

While some cabinets are huge, the smallest officially licensed one is tiny! The Tiny Arcade games are only 4 inches tall.

They actually play classic games like Pac-Man using a 1.77-inch screen.

That screen is smaller than the screen on some older digital watches—proof that great gaming experiences come in every size for kids!