What is Pong?
Pong is a classic video game developed by the Atari Corporation. Originally released as an arcade console game, Atari eventually manufactured several different versions for the home – including one version for the Atari 2600, the world’s first broadly popular home video game cartridge system.
Pong is a simplified, digital version of table tennis that took advantage of the simple 8-bit graphics available to game manufacturers at the time. Two players are represented by vertical paddles on opposite sides of a playing field split down the middle by a line representing a net. As in table tennis, the goal is to hit a “ball” – in this case, a small digital square – past your opponent’s paddle and off the edge of the virtual table. One marked difference from traditional table tennis is that the ball doesn’t fly off of the top and bottom of the screens; instead, it ricochets. The first player to score more than 10 points wins the game.
Pong supported both single player mode, in which the player squared off against a computer opponent, and head-to-head competition between two players.
Pong was inspired by the game Table Tennis for the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first home video gaming system. Atari released the arcade version in 1972. It proved a smashing success, earning up to four times as much as other arcade games. In 1975, the company developed “Home Pong,” a version that connected to home televisions. Atari sold the unit through Sears under the Sears-branded name “Tele-Games” in 1975, before eventually releasing its own branded version.
Magnavox sued Atari over Pong’s success, claiming patent infringement. Atari settled out of court, agreeing to pay Magnavox for licensing rights to the concept of electronic ping-pong.
Pong inspired Atari to develop Breakout, in which players used the ball and paddle to smash through a series of colored bricks. In 1986, Japanese video game company Taito released Arkanoid. Inspired by Breakout, Arkanoid sported more advanced graphics and complex gameplay, including pills dropped from bricks that bestowed special abilities upon either the player’s ball or his paddle.
Pong is a video game that was released on the Atari platform in 1972. Although other video games had been created before Pong, it was the first popular video game to be developed. Pong, which was inspired by the sport of ping-pong, was revolutionary because its graphics were capable of responding to real time reactions from the user. By today’s video game standards, Pong is a far cry from what players expect in terms of graphics and playability.
