The classics can take you back in time — and are probably easier to recapture than you think. J. D. Biersdorfer By J. D. Biersdorfer Oct. 31, 2018 Video games hit their 60th birthday in October, if you start counting (as many do) with Tennis for Two, a rudimentary Pong ancestor cobbled together by the physicist William A. Higinbotham at Long Island’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. Games have evolved a lot since then, of course, becoming far more complicated and visual, as well as multiplayer. Yet sometimes you just want to play an old favorite. Why seek out an ancient game with rudimentary graphics and only basic actions? For some, it’s pure nostalgia, like reading a beloved picture book again. For others, old games are a way to share a link to their childhood with a child of their own. Video game companies have caught on to the urge. Nintendo sells throwback consoles preloaded with its vintage games, as do Atari, Sony and others.