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The same tiny game, from 1977 to today.
Help the PAPITO dad and kid, the little pair from our logo, catch falling stars for 30 seconds. Then flip the year. The game stays the same; the graphics change to what a console of that year could draw. You will feel the difference faster than you can read about it.
Best for ages 7 to 14, with a parent who remembers at least one of these. Arrow keys, tap the screen, or hold the buttons.
1985: Nintendo Entertainment System
8-bit · drawn at 64 by 40 dots
What changed
Small, detailed characters called sprites, scrolling worlds, and music you still hum today. Home video games came back after a big crash.
What it cost
At launch: $179 to $199. In today's money: about $580.
Prices are the US launch price for the basic model. Where sources disagree, both numbers are shown. Today's money is rounded, in 2024 to 2025 dollars.
Dad's turn
Ask Dad: what was the first game you ever beat?
Why the pictures look different
A screen is a grid of dots. Old consoles could only change a few dots at a time and remember a few colors, so everything looked blocky. Each new generation could draw more dots, more colors, and finally shapes with depth, light and shadow. The game you just played uses the real dot counts from each era, scaled up so you can see them.
Sources: launch prices and inflation adjustments from Visual Capitalist, "Game console launch prices adjusted for inflation (1975 to 2024)", and the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, April 2025. Check any year yourself with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator at data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl. Console names are used only to describe each era; no game artwork, characters or logos are shown.