Bouncing Ball cover art

Bouncing Ball

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)…

31 December 1953

Bouncing Ball is a video game, released 31 December 1953 on Legacy Computer.

Verified Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Bouncing Ball is

Bouncing Ball was released in 1953. It is available on Legacy Computer only.

The premise, in the publisher's words

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.
Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

Screenshots

All media

Quick answers

Bouncing Ball — frequently asked questions

When did Bouncing Ball come out?
Bouncing Ball was released on 31 December 1953 for Legacy Computer.