page_title: List of German inventions and discoveries
section_title: Toys and games
hierarchical_section_title: List of German inventions and discoveries / Toys and games
caption_attribution_description: The Magnavox Odyssey, the very first video game console. Released in 1972, the Odyssey was a simple and crude device that generated shapes on the television that could be controlled and interacted with. It only produced black and white graphics and had no sound, but was limited to only using discreet components like diodes and transistors. It was replaced in 1975 with the Magnavox Odyssey series, a line of dedicated Pong consoles.
context_page_description: German inventions and discoveries are ideas, objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in Germany or abroad by a person from Germany. Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
  Germany has been the home of many famous inventors, discoverers and engineers, including Carl von Linde, who developed the modern refrigerator; Paul Nipkow, who laid the foundation of the television with his Nipkow disk; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first fully automatic digital computer and the first commercial digital computer. Such German inventors, engineers and industrialists as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Otto Lilienthal, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology. Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket at Peenemünde and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket.
context_section_description: c. 1780: Schafkopf card game
  c. 1810: Skat card game in Altenburg
  1890: Plastilin by Franz Kolb
  1892: Chinese checkers by Ravensburger
  1902: Teddy bear (55 PB) by Richard Steiff
  1907–08: Mensch ärgere Dich nicht board game by Josef Friedrich Schmidt
  1964: fischertechnik by Artur Fischer
  1972: First home video console (Magnavox Odyssey) by German-born Ralph H. Baer
  1974: Playmobil by Hans Beck
  1995: The Settlers of Catan by Klaus Teuber
caption: Magnavox Odyssey
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