18 years ago Paperboy 2 was released for the very first Game Boy handheld gaming device. Along with ghosts, lawn mowers and runaway dogs, players had to dodge an 8-bit rendition of a bikini-clad sunbather. Walloping the sunbather with a newspaper racked up 100 bonus points. Now, get a look at the pixels that made bikini history.

The modern day bikini is said to have been created by French automobile engineer Louis Réard, who ran his mother’s shoe shop “Les Folies Bergéres” in Paris in 1946. Jacques Heim, a rival designer, developed a swimsuit he called the “atom” in an attempt to beat Louis Réard in the race to design and sell the world’s smallest bathing suit.

Minoan Wall Paintings (circa 1600BC) suggest the bikini is much older than previously thought. While the Minoan civilization is said to be long gone, the ruins of their stunning palaces adorned with frescos live on. Having survived earthquakes, wars and catastrophic volcanic eruptions, Minoan artifacts have shown archeologists links between their civilization and ours, the bikini being one of them.

A mosaic depicting women exercising while wearing what resembles modern day bikinis was unearthed in Villa Romana del Casale at the Piazza Armerina in Sicily, Italy. The suspected creation date of the mosaic is anywhere from 286 to 305AD.

If you’d like to contribute an article to BikiniHistory.com or a bikini artifact for inclusion in the BikiniMuseum.com, please get in touch with us via a comment form. We hope to develop this site into a rich source of information covering everything that helped develop bikini fashion.