Gnip Gnop was designed by Marvin Glass and Associates for Parker Brothers. It was originally released in 1971. The name is the backward spelling of “Ping-Pong”, the common name for table tennis.
Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth across a table using a small bat.
Marvin Glass and Associates (MGA) was a toy design and engineering firm based in Chicago. Marvin Glass (1914–1974) and his employees created some of the most successful toys and games of the twentieth century such as Mr. Machine, Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, Lite Brite, Ants in the Pants, Mouse Trap, Operation, Simon, Body Language, and the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle.
Parker Brothers was an American toy and game manufacturer which later became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883.