Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison Play Ping-Pong Video Game, 1969

[Captain0Price]

99999 views! WOW :D

[1231Clay]

Still better than Call Of Duty

[shernabi1]

this is more then x box and playstation in 1969

[Operative13]

"The most advanced game in the entire world."

[Vospader21]

Two questions. 1. Are these men still alive today. 2. What do they think of the gaming world today?

[Cubehouse]

@Vospader21 I had a conversation with Ralph Baer last week. He doesn't even like video games and has no idea about them :|...

[Vospader21]

@Cubehouse Interesting. You know it's kind of amazing when you think about it. How we can go from this ping pong game to Assasins Creed, inFamous, Halo, Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and much more.

[Vospader21]

@Cubehouse Hey did they invent it, or are they just playing it?

[LotsaSpaghetti84]

@Cubehouse He invented video games and he doesn't even like them? Hypocrite much?

[lalaboy9]

Bill is actually my uncle and the system that was his and my cousin's played on as kids is located in the Smithsonian. He and Ralph did a presentation on it last summer or the summer before i cannot remember.

[Vospader21]

@lalaboy9 You mean one of the men in this video. One of the men who built the worlds very first video game is your uncle?

[vickimec]

I would rather play this than kinnect

[GreenBoyDope]

The most Awsum Controller EVA!!! x3

[KNAAC]

I wonder how gaming did turn from The Brown Box to what we have today. When this video with Ralph Baer and his Brown Box was transmitting on television, nobody knew what this was about.

I have so much respect to Ralph Baer. He is a man with HUGE visions.

Today the gaming industry is more powerful than the Hollywood movie industry. That is a giant leap for gaming.

[FFVIIBertoldiBrasil]

RALPH BAER,Nolan Bushnell,Hiroshi Yamauchi,Akio Morita,Shigeru Miyamoto and Ken Kutaragi. You are AMAZING!!! Congratulations!!! 

[trey14211]

Its amazing...We went from pong to games like Mass Effect in 40+ years

[TheUnholyExpert]

is that the odyssey or the brown box?

[JohnFortman]

Pac-Man is also a GTA. Maze is a city, pellets are drugs, and ghosts are citizens. Or a police game, where you put bad guys back into prison, using drugs to gain super powers.

[theknightlynews]

Too bad this video game idea never caught on. Those guys could have been rich.

[WhereThereDude]

do you wanna score bill ? lol

[lselmes]

This Shit is better then MW2

[MrFailme]

i saw this at video games live the gaming system ralph bear made was called the brown box

[dragonforce1679]

Actually its just called pong idiot

[KingKehra]

@dragonforce1679 Pong is short for Electric Ping Pong. And this is 1969, Pong is an Atari game from 1972, idiot.

[ninotimecrisisfan]

this the begining of the videogames

[XKnightWarxa]

It was the first video game ever?

[jglwba]

i'm so glad he left Germany 2 months before the Holocoust, otherwise this world would be a DULL place.

[MattTheSaiyan]

For it's age, this is very impressive and looks pretty fun to play. Doesn't this prototype still exist at a museum or something?

[awsomenova11]

@rockangel1967 ok.. One not everyone is spoiled and two, NOBODY gives a fuck about your life

[buddhasknowbest]

now THIS is old school, mother phuckers!

[ViniciusFiocco]

the playstation3 of 60'

so real graphics..

[rockangel1967]

you guys are just spoiled haha. you go into a store, buy a game on a CD rom. but be honest have you an idea HOW the simplest game worked? back then they had NO microprocessors... i am currently learn how to draw something on a TV or monitor with electronic circuits.

[woinney]

Ralph Baer was german

[iajua]

This somthing hard to play with that controllers you need practice, seriously

[Starfighterking]

Willy Higinbotham, is the first Videogame Man ever!

[wingnut4427]

Who were the 4 assholes that gave this a thumbs down !? Don't you know that if it was not for this guy You wouldn't be sitting on your couch enjoying your playstation 3 , xbox 360, & Wii's today ? ungrateful assholes !

[ClapsyPlapsy]

This "electric game" technology is stupid and has no future.

[SandraBullcocked]

not only that but I think this video was recorded on a portacam, one of the first portable video cameras that came out a little before 1969.

[Snuffomatica]

Love the ability to curve the ball!! 

[MillionarioMan]

When Baer was eleven, he was expelled from school in Germany because he is Jewish and had to go to an all-Jewish school. His father worked in a shoe factory in Pirmasens at the time. Two months before Kristallnacht, his family escaped from Germany with him. In America, he was self-taught and worked in a factory for a weekly wage of twelve dollars. (Read more about him online)

[mechi1993]

Idiot..it wasnt at 1969...the development and function of the game is from 1972

[vintagecomputing]

@mechi1993 This film was shot in 1969. The Odyssey console was first commercially released in 1972.

[DataCollaborate]

@vintagecomputing actually game has stand in the world 1967 ..on in year 69-70 are comes the first "Arcade Box" in the Mall with Pong

[wingnut4427]

@mechi1993 You are aware of development time & what not aren't you ? The actual first video game prototype was made back in the 50's But it was so big & bulky that it was impractical.

[Minijugador]

@mechi1993 they are testing the prototype of the magnavox odyssey... the "brown box"

[Xxb0obwatcher]

hey im a kid and im doing a project of gameconsoles history for school so i know that xbox 360 aint the first console most of my age (10) had ps2 to start :^l

so humphh

[CurlyTopsRicoa]

ralph baer is still aive he is now 88 and love playing games that he invented and modern warfare 2 LOL

[raiders1967]

Great video.

[wootboy4201]

thats even better than pong, and its older. lol

[bobbyfishstick5]

First Multiplayer right here xD

[dalekenbuck]

Woodstock, the Moon , and Pong ....Epic

[thiagobastoscf4]

Mas falanso serio pessoal isso foi o começo de tudo que a gente tem hoje em dia sem ess pong nada disso existiria

[counourc66]

this is very good is the first guy that invented video game!!!!!!!

[mypalrocco]

These guys spawned generations of lazy ass, underachievers who sit around unbathed for days with stagnant hair and dirty asses because they're too fucking mesmerized by their video games.

[esubadog]

And what have you done that's worth anything?

[Gagonic]

@mypalrocco Calling you twelve would be an insult to twelve-year-olds.

[mypalrocco]

@Gagonic

Eat poo poo you cocka asshole!

[HateRepublicans]

haha thats so true

[mypalrocco]

His "partner" Bill? Are they homosexual?

[pongboy1100]

WHAT? mypalrocco???

THEY GAY????? SHUT THE F*CK UP!

THEY AREN'T GAY! THOSE TWO ARE USED T OWORK TOGETHER! damn....

Sorry for my.. *ahum* i can get realy mad about this.... excuse me...

[mypalrocco]

That is one of the stupidest things I've heard...they can't be gay because they worked together??? Are you retarded?

[mytek998]

They really are having fun!

[atariboy1]

exualy increddible that a little thing like that made the video game industrie like today if you think about it!

Now we heve xbox,wii and ps3 and kids start yelling when they see a game with bad graffics!

Back then this was something increddible!

Thanks Ralph Baer!

Youre mine hero!

PS: Sorry for my bad english... i live in Europe ;)

[mypalrocco]

It did not make it what it is today! It's like saying without the typewriter, the computer printer would have never been invented...total bullshit! They are mutually exclusive.

It's not like one fucked the others' mother and spawned the other.

[akumacornflakes]

@mypalrocco What are you, twelve?

[mypalrocco]

@akumacornflakes

I was going to ask you the same thing, what with you arguing about fucking video games...move out of your moms basement and get a life!

[Koenstuurwold0]

the start of something awesome

[Farin89]

w0rd! he are heros

[ItsNesBoy]

It actually looks really fun :).

[KartKing4ever]

ahhhhh...my heros =D

[Supersonicguerilla]

This is the development of the Playstation 4!

[dellhole3000]

imagine if this was LIVE ping pong around the world if u try to buy this on ebay they cost like 3 gram very expensive.

[empv2]

its graphix are better than the xbox 360 o0lololol

[crashbandicootable]

ralph baer is a great person i can have more fun with this playing with my friend than playing on ps3 or xbox360 alone

[ynja02]

No That isn't ping pong its Grand Theft Auto 5

[DasAntiNaziBroetchen]

@ynja02

LOL

[olliethesuperseal]

i used to have a videoscore pong machine until my dog chewed one of the controllers. Trying to find a replacement controller for a videoscore pong machine is like trying to find freakin' Atlantis!

[GorgePrincess6]

Ralph is an amazing guy!

[AndNoir]

Ralph Baer = GOD

[kmerchant99]

Willy Higinbotham made something called table tennis for two like retrogamer96 said but a court ruled that it doesn't send video signals so it wasn't called a video game which makes this one of the first ones technically

[ivandinio]

Holyshit thats like Xbox 990 or Playstation 10

[DarkGaaraX]

Thank you Ralph for bring video games in this world lol..

[FrumpyShakes]

controlling the ball while it's in flight is silly, but why they took out the ability to move the paddle on a X/Y axis is beyond me.

[Exxile400]

i can just imagine playing halo 3 with some guy saying " I aim up... and down... watch me fake with this sticky... oh here goes a head shot... up....down....up....down....fu­ck i died....up....down." XD

[ekhangel]

These two guys are probably the first no-lifes in history.

[CloneDroid899]

Good point but it was Ralph who made the first video game that could be HOOKED up to a telivision at home

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

dude it was not hooked up to a tellivistion!! it connected to the tellivision over the air!! you know like antenna?!?! yah you pluged it in tuned into it on your antenna tv and played it!

[PlayerAtYouTub]

Cool B) !!

[xyxyssy]

do you ever wounder what video games are going to be like in 30 40 ect... years?

[259]

See Playstation 9.

[KartKing4ever]

duz he say "i guess it makes it kind of a fag"

[hawanja]

Awesome. Ralph Baer is my hero.

[ThermonuclearDonut]

:O the video game that started them all.

[dhead2364]

Videos like this should be in the Smithsonian. Important part of

modern pop culture history.

[SBACRU]

Baer actually donated his hardware to the Smithsonian back in 2006

[McSick1990]

so those are the orignal gamers

[McGuywer]

hardcore gamers

[GlitchySoftware]

I think the work of these two guys have been underrated.

[retrogamer96]

True. But it was Willy Higinbotham who actually started the concept of video games- and he created "Tennis For Two" which is technically the first video game ever made.

[GlitchySoftware]

So Videogames is American's invention. =)

[retrogamer96]

Yup. The Japenese may have invented all other sorts of stuff- but at least we invented the "video game"!

[GlitchySoftware]

Yeah =P

[ezuan88]

old-gen games lol !

[Bamahut]

the 3rd nob, the cheats nob lol!

[TKGB2006]

The Brown Box was groundbreaking at the time but I don't believe that it made video games into what it is today. Regardless, Ralph Baer will forever be the father of video games.

[IWindows95I]

The brown box is the coolest game system of all times xD

[JSLegoMaster]

LOL, first video game ever what?

Imagine if you could go back in time and show up yourt PS3 there! eg. compare that pingpong to GTAIV XD

[NHmadman1]

NH rules

[bobby1829387]

its not a computer its an integrated circuit

[retrogamer96]

No, there were plenty of games before even that! The first step into the gaming world was "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", but most people that are gaming jockies would probably start with "Tennis For Two" (one from the 50's!)

[BigMacOpossum]

spacewar didnt inspire atari to make pong, the most popular videogame of all time, and make video games what they are today. anyways, spacewar is a video simulation not a video game.

[rubber4532]

you're saying spacewar didnt inspire any video games? u obviously havent played space invaders, galaga, or any of the plethora of space games obviously inspired by spacewar. And spacewar was a game, it was in arcades before under the name computer space by 1971.

[Lumotaku]

space war was too complicated compared to Pong pong started the video game craze when atari released it. The signifigance of this was the first home video game system sold as the magnavox odessy

[mukatuna]

Spacewar may have been the very first computer game, but it needed a very expensive, at the time, minicomputer to play it. Spacewar was almost never played outside of the Universities which could afford those minicomputers.

Pong didn't need an expensive minicomputer computer for a start. It was made purely using transistors, diodes, capacitors, resistors and simple logic ICs. So it soon made into the arcade and eventually the home. So for almost everyone, Pong was indeed the first video game.

[TitoCompianni]

I believe that this is not exactly PONG. In PONG you does'nt control the "ball" after you hit it. And you move only up and down, never left and right, like Ralph at the beggining of the explanation

[ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

Dude you idiot there ware almost no microcomputers at that time!!!! spacewar was not the first video game!!!! Pong was stolen from this game!!!! this was not a computer!!! this machine was analog!!!! it did use binary signals!!! but it was not truely digital!!!! know what your talking about before you pretend to be an expert!!! >:(

[mukatuna]

You appear to be the idiot for not correctly reading what I wrote. Did I say 'microcomputers'? NO. I said 'minicomputers'... I know what the difference is. Do you? Did I say what's in the video is a computer? NO.

Suggest you re-read and comprehend the comment...ergo, think before you write.

[socalkev]

ralph baer the late gunpei yokoi and ken kuturagi the 3 biggest revolutionaries in the WORLD!!!!

[leofera11]

I though they played crysis

[ForestDweller80]

Thank You, Ralph Baer,You are GOD.

[TerrorBlack]

He sounds so unconfident

[verx666]

wish i had an Odyssey....

[lightdark28]

this guy is a genius.

as a gamer I have to thank him, and so should all gamers.

if it wasnt for people like him, we would have no games, consoles, nothing.

[TWOhits6]

@lightdark28 hey gamer.. go pound yourself

[yore5]

this was actually the odyssey

[nukeboy14]

wait a second, the ball curves! OMG that has got to be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[stevieVantanna]

Jew

[fireluigi12]

wow! O_O

the actually had a video game ON a black and white movie

[doinblow]

"Watch me fake him out...ahh didn't do it." That was quite possibly the first video game review ever.

[rohitkumarindia]

historic video

[Tatoon]

and so it all beggan...

[bphutchins]

wait, another earth changing invention is american? man this is getting redundant

[leofera11]

lmao

[Flat6313609]

JDK04281980 is right respect the past, with out these guys, there would be no ps3 or xbox 360 or anything cuz these two guys made it porteble or else u would stick with pc fro gaming and i guess people didn't know anything what these guys were doing cuz this is one of the first video games.

[NOZblast2]

I'd like to see them play burnout paradise back then!

[leofera11]

I though they played far cry 2 back then

[Exotic47]

nah they played fallout 3 on their 2600's lol

[Koolkitties]

That would be so awesome then. Hell, I want an odyssey.

[ZXRulezzz]

Gosh! A drunken ball! :-)

Coolest video game of all time :-)

[marsiozo]

haha very dry humor, those guys...

[JDK04281980]

Wow, talk about Ols School. This is just awesome. Right now I am reading a book called "The Ultimate History of Video Games" and Ralph Baer is mentioned quite a bit. I don't think kids now a days realize just how revolutionary is was to play video games on a TV. People like Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell made it possible for stuff like the PS3, Xbox 360 to be here today. Respect the past

[Marekusa]

@JDK04281980 Yup, old school but it is still a nice system to own if you manage to get one, and i agree, kids nowdays only plays Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 and Nintendo DS or PSP if its handheld. If you show the kids a gameboy, they ask you waht that is, same goes to nes, still the same question, and lets not forget Dreamcast, a good console :) But its like you said, kids nowdays dont realize where it all start, they thoguht Xbox 360 and PS3 was the first consoles.

[ccricers]

Ralph Baer actually came up with the concept in the 50's but he didn't have the backing or the resources to do it...so it was actually delayed about 10 years. Imagine where video games were now if he made this in the 50's.

[nukeboy14]

mmmm ten years ahead?

[TheClassicalLiberal]

That must have been so awesome when it came out

[creatively210]

Excuse me, 1969 was NOT the dark ages 'child'! (you were just born then, how would YOU know quality then?) We did have color TV (ever see the original Star Trek series? ;-) And we had HiFi audio since the early 60s. You can hear the echo in the tiny room even.

The Odyssey 100 was my 1st videogame! :-)

[mistertitanic]

DUDE! The odyssey was really your first videogame? do you still have it?

[mistertitanic]

why the fuk would anyone fake this? and they had higher quality cameras built for this. also they probebly edited this to make it sound better.

[Antillektuell]

lol you have no idea

[sledhead250]

WOW THAT WAS FUN TO KIDS

[sephious159]

just think, there was a day when games didnt even exist yet, thats terrible :(

[izurz]

soooooooooo dame ancient

[jazzmoth]

I just met Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison at the VGL concert. Wow, what a great pair of dudes. Baer played an 8 year-old on stage... it's really hard to play because the paddles can cross the center line and the outside boundaries on the top and bottom of the screen are actually off the screen, so you can do really sneaky shots that barely even appear on screen. Awesome. :)

[shaneearle765]

This is amazing compared to the xbox 360 haha

[banga999]

yea...

[Gustavotenis]

Bether than gta 4

[1906xxx]

pew pew pew

she is really beautiful. im prettier tho! cC

[1983parrothead]

This is better than Pong, not only because it came first, but also unlike Pong, players can make the ball curve around.

[UncleDomesticAsshoIe]

Magnavox Odyssey

[rustygates]

Ralph Baer, still alive today. And recived the National Medal of Technology from George w bush in 2006.

[brtshstel]

that's probably because Bush played pong or odyssey while he was smokin a fatty the 70s. hell he was probably playing a Playstation 2 or Xbox during Hurricane Katrina

[rustygates]

LMAO!.

[themanbearpig]

"NOW WATCH ME PWN THIS No0o0oB"

[Freeze1996]

five mins after playing the console overheated thus being the first red ring of death...lol =p

[pascalbg]

That's cool how they can control the ball.

Nice video!

[VideyoJunkei]

Old magnavox pong machines are the same-YOU can control the ball 'in flight' with a third dial. I am the proud owner of to machines like this :*)

[Samura1gamer]

omg the bald guy is a PRO