- Release Date: 1972
- Genre: Action
- Style: Ball and Paddle
- Similar Games: Pong Doubles (Arcade), Pong Tron (Arcade), Pong Tron II (Arcade), Table Tennis (Odyssey)
Roots & Influences
Released in 1972, Pong was the first commercially successful arcade game. Magnavox had an earlier game on its Ralph Baer-designed Odyssey system that was very much like Pong, and the company later sued Atari over this similarity. Atari settled out of court after it was revealed that co-founder Nolan Bushnell had seen the Magnavox version at a trade show.A sequel called Pong Doubles allowed four people to play at once. The game was updated for the 3D age in 1999 in Pong: The Next Level.
~ Brad Cook, All Game Guide
Review: Overall
The first commercially successful arcade video game, Pong was created by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and refined by his employee, Al Alcorn. The cabinet housing the game has two analog rotary controllers for maneuvering vertically moving paddles located on the left and right hand sides of the screen. Pong is a two-player competitive game, allowing one player to control the left paddle while the other controls the right. The object of this immeasurably influential game is to rebound the ball back and forth across the screen, and, as the simple instructions on the cabinet dictate, "Avoid missing ball for high score." The point at which the ball strikes the paddle determines the angle of the ricocheted ball, and the longer the ball stays in play, the faster it travels. Less complicated than Computer Space, a Nolan Bushnell creation from a year earlier, Pong was immensely popular, spawning countless spin-offs, rip-offs and home renditions. The game remains a pure test of one's skill and is one of the best two-player simultaneous games of all time.~ Brett Alan Weiss, All Game Guide
Production Credits
Created by: Al Alcorn, Nolan Bushnell
~ Brad Cook, All Game Guide
