Pong
a.k.a. ポン
type: sport, action/reflex
genre: Multiplayer, Arcade, Pong
perspective: bird's-eye
player options: shared-screen
languages: eng
genre: Multiplayer, Arcade, Pong
perspective: bird's-eye
player options: shared-screen
languages: eng
3.5/5
Description
Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.
Becoro # 2023-04-06 22:26:06 - source
Becoro # 2023-04-06 22:26:06 - source
Technical specs
software: Emulated on MAME,
display: Monotone
Editor note
1500 units were made of Bushnell's second attempt. A simple two-way controlled tennis game with the immortal opening 8 words: "Insert coin. Avoid missing ball for high score." First successful video game, it made a huge amount of money for Atari.
demographic-female. In 1972, society did not completly view buying a drink for someone to show interest as an equal transacrion along male and female lines. As in, some men would be off-put having a women buy them a drink and some women were reluctant to do so. But no social norms restricted anyone from inviting a game partner to share a session they had purchased. Additionally, Bushnel was keenly aware that the local univesity was traing up its first large batch of females to graduate with business degrees. An invitation to play Pong not only avoided an outdated social issue, it was cheaper than a drink. Bushnell also knew science had dermined that females tend to have significantly better fine motor skills and would often experience the empowerment of winning against a male opponent (in addition to witnessing this himself with Spacewar).
# 2001-11-02 23:38:51
demographic-female. In 1972, society did not completly view buying a drink for someone to show interest as an equal transacrion along male and female lines. As in, some men would be off-put having a women buy them a drink and some women were reluctant to do so. But no social norms restricted anyone from inviting a game partner to share a session they had purchased. Additionally, Bushnel was keenly aware that the local univesity was traing up its first large batch of females to graduate with business degrees. An invitation to play Pong not only avoided an outdated social issue, it was cheaper than a drink. Bushnell also knew science had dermined that females tend to have significantly better fine motor skills and would often experience the empowerment of winning against a male opponent (in addition to witnessing this himself with Spacewar).
# 2001-11-02 23:38:51
Authors / Staff
Tags (8)
video game
culture
hardware
software
game genre
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prequel of
Quadra Pong (Arcade)
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was remade as
Winner (Arcade)
Winner II (Arcade)
has influenced (old)
Sport Center (Arcade)
influenced by (old)
Table Tennis (Odyssey)
parallels
Wimbledon (Arcade)
Arcade Classics (Mega Drive)
influenced by
Brown Box (custom)
has influenced
Breakout (Arcade)
Coup Franc (Arcade)
World Cup (Arcade)
Hesitation (Arcade)
Wipe Out (Arcade)
Ckidzo (Arcade)
Super Pong (Arcade)
Table Tennis II (Arcade)
TV Goalee (Arcade)
Aztec (Arcade)
has this clone
Pong Tron (Arcade)
Snoopy Pong (Arcade)
Rally (Arcade)
Table Tennis (Arcade)
Pro Soccer - Pro Tennis (Arcade)
Pong Tron II (Arcade)
Four-court (Arcade)
Olympic Tennis (Arcade)
T.T Soccer (Arcade)
Challenge (Arcade)
Club Tennis (Arcade)
Flim-Flam (Arcade)
Pong/Hockey (Arcade)
Smatch (Arcade)
Spike It! (Arcade)
Robot (Arcade)
Astro Hockey (Arcade)
PC-Tennis (MS-DOS)
Pong in a Barrel (Arcade)
Pong Fun Games (Arcade)
Paddle Battle (Arcade)
Paddle-Ball (Arcade)
Barrel-Pong (Arcade)
Champion Ping Pong (Arcade)
Computer Space Ball (Arcade)
Crazy Foot (Arcade)
Davis Cup (Arcade)
Elepong (Arcade)
Gyro-Pong (Arcade)
Hockey TV (Arcade)
Paddle Derby (Arcade)
Astrohockey (Arcade)
Handicap (Arcade)
TV Table Tennis (Arcade)
TV Ping Pong (Arcade)
TV Ping Pong (Arcade)
Tennis / Hockey (Arcade)
Pub Pong (Arcade)
prequel of
Quadra Pong (Arcade)
Super Pong (Arcade)
similar to
Olympic TV Football (Arcade)
Olympic TV Hockey (Arcade)
FastKat (Internet Only)
was remade as
Winner (Arcade)
Winner II (Arcade)
has influenced (old)
Sport Center (Arcade)
influenced by (old)
Table Tennis (Odyssey)
parallels
Wimbledon (Arcade)
Contributors (7)
AndreaD
teran01
zerothis
Air Head
Sanguine
uvlbot-1
Becoro
teran01
zerothis
Air Head
Sanguine
uvlbot-1
Becoro