From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

Bob Garfield is away this week.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week, we are rebroadcasting our special hour on video games.

Seemingly, in celebration of the occasion,

the Supreme Court, a huge O-TM fan,

struck down a California law

that would have levied fines against retailers

who sold violent games to minors.

That happened on Monday.

Speaking for the court,

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that

the basic principles of freedom of speech do not vary with a new and different communications medium.

Maybe you think video games are mostly about murder and mayhem.

Judging by sales, probably they are.

But they're also about blazing new trails and

technology and art. And I assure you, they are changing how you live, whether or not you play.

After this hour, you'll know why. But first, some history that starts, says New York Times

magazine writer and game aficionado Clive Thompson

with a simple tennis game invented by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell called Pong.

He put it in this thing called Andy Capps Saloon in a bar, and he got a call a day later saying

the machine's broken, come fix it.

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