Game

Bouncing Ball

1953 · Legacy Computer

About this game

The first known game incorporating graphics that updated in real time, rather than only when the player made a move, was a simulation of a bouncing ball created by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student Oliver Aberth for the Whirlwind I computer. He began creating the simulation in February 1951, before the computer was completed in April. It allowed users to adjust the frequency of the bounces with a knob, and sometime between late 1951 and 1953 he made it into a game by adding a hole in the floor for players to aim for.