Welcome to Ping and Echo, a daily newsletter that links to one amazing podcast episode that is guaranteed to be a great listen for kids and their families. Each newsletter includes links to articles, videos and activities related to the podcast so you can turn every episode into an adventure.
Today’s podcast episode is from Sidedoor, a wonderful podcast that takes listeners behind the scenes at the Smithsonian and shares stories from the museum’s vast collection. This episode focuses on something you might not expect to find in a Smithsonian museum… a video game. Curiously, before this video game arrived at the museum it was buried deep in the ground. To find out why, you’ll have to listen to the episode (and as a bonus we found a way for you to play the game yourself online).
Podcast: Sidedoor
Episode: The Worst Video Game Ever
Length: 25 minutes
🧐 You Should Know
I’ll always give you a heads up if there is anything in the podcast that might surprise or worry kids. Nothing to worry about here.
💡 Try This
After you listen to the episode you can play some video games and make your own ET props with the links and activities below:
You can try the ET video game for yourself
Make your own ET in a bike basket costume
Code your own video game with Scratch
🔎 Explore More
Read up on the video game history behind this episode with these links:
Check out this video game history timeline
See another version of this story as a video and watch them dig up the game here.
The name Ping and Echo comes from sonar technology which relies on sending out “pings” and receiving back “echos” to discover the world around you. You can send us pictures of the art and activities created by your kids. Email them to pingandecho@gmail.com and we’ll post all your echos on our Instagram and our Twitter page.
Thanks for lending us your ears and your inbox.
Josh, Toby, and Ruby