Video games have come a long way since William Higinbotham re-engineered an oscilloscope into a tennis game at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. In fact, video gaming has turned into a multi-billion-dollar business, and more people than ever are playing.

Game environments have become more realistic and immersive, thanks to microprocessors that can handle the complex mathematics behind shading and texture mapping. As games become more realistic, more people join in the fun. The hype behind some games even leads to disappointment when developers run out of money or have other problems that force them to abandon games before they can be released.

Video game development has led to a number of amazing innovations, such as the Nintendo Wii, which uses accelerometers and Bluetooth technology to make its wireless controllers able to sense the movements of gamers using them. Nintendo's video game development arm has added other unique controllers, including a balance board that allows players to control in-game characters by shifting their body weight. One game, Wii Fit, lets players use the balance board to walk tightropes and spin hula hoops. Some people even think the Wii helps gamers lose weight.

Believe it or not, there are real-life applications for video gaming skills -- research suggests that doctors who play games improve their surgical skills. There's a dark side to the popularity of video games, however; some think that the violence found in some titles has led to incidents of real-life violence. Video game developers adopted a voluntary code of ratings administered by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to tell parents what they might expect from a particular game. Despite these high-publicity problems, video games continue to grow in popularity every day, thanks to the developers who push the limits of the computer and console hardware for which they write.