Gimme that pong po pong pong pong ... I like it when that paddle go dun nu nu.
Let's Talk Pong
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 On 03/11/2017 at 10:51 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
Every so often, I get autobiographical and want to review my history with video games. This blog on Pong is the first in a long series I'm planning.
Ralph Baer created the first notion of table tennis on a TV screen for the first home console Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. Table Tennis seems to play even freer than Pong, which appeared that same year, with paddles that can roam the screen and put a lot of play on the "ball"; it changes speed and seems to be affected by the way you contact it with the paddle. See video below:
Pong would be conceived of by Nolan Bushnell and crafted by Allan Alcorn for Atari and made into an arcade cabinet that same year. It was a little bit different from Table Tennis. The "paddles" only move up and down and the "ball" shows limited changes in speed and direction from the way you contact it with the "paddle". Here's some gameplay:
Imagine simplifying Ralph Baer's Table Tennis, a game already extremely simple. I guess that's what made Pong even more appealing to the public. Atari's Pong became a bit hit and led the way to popularizing video games.
For me, I never played the Magnavox Odyssey and don't remember ever playing the Pong arcade cabinet, but maybe I did on some family vacation where there was an arcade. I was five when they came out.
In 1976, though, my dad got this Radio Shack Pong home console for us kids. Here's what it looked like:
I probably could've saved this console, if I'd thought of it, sometime around the late 80s when it was in my parents attic, but it ended up at a church white elephant sale instead.
I played Pong again on Xbox in 2004 within the Atari Anthology collection. I likely tried it and then went right over to the vertical take on it, Breakout and Super Breakout.
A year or two later, when it was still fun to go to flea markets, I picked up a pong console that I think had a much better look than that Radioshack one. This, by Telegames (shown below), was sold in Sears department stores in 1975:
It's a shame I don't have it anymore because it would look great on my shelf. I really like the design of it.
In 2012, Atari celebrated Pong's 40th anniversary, by putting out Pong World for iOS.
Interesting. When I get myself a decent phone, I'll have to check this out.
Pong was the first big hit for video games. It's simplicity made it immediately accessible to anyone. Where would we be without Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell and Allan Alcorn to open the door to gaming on a TV and my first experience with video games.
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