THE VIDEO GAMES GUIDE - PONG

1972 Arcade

Atari

The most simplistic video game in this whole guide and also one of the most enduring, Pong is retro-heaven.

Despite being positively ancient in gaming terms, Pong is a game that most people will have seen at one time or another – you know, it’s the one where you slide your little white bats up and down to volley a ball back and forth. The graphics are extremely basic (the background’s blank and even the ball is square), and the instructions are too; ‘Avoid Missing Ball For High Score’, is all players need to know. However, Pong’s simplicity made it the perfect gaming ambassador to greet an uncertain public. Have you ever wondered when video games first made the leap from the arcades and into our homes? Step forward, Pong.

The basic tennis game was first programmed by Ralph Baer around 1970 and was made available along with a number of other bat and ball games on the Magnavox Odyssey (the first ever home console). The Odyssey did unspectacular business (largely due to overpricing) but when its bat and ball game, now named Pong, appeared as a coin-op machine at amusement arcades, Magnavox sued. The company that had released Pong at the arcades was the newly formed Atari. Founder Nolan Bushnell had learned from his experiences with Computer Space and was banking on Pong to break the fledgling market. The following legal suit was settled with Atari paying Magnavox a one-off licence fee for the game rights, and when Pong exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations, Atari’s rise to power had begun.

Pong was the first video game I ever played, and I’ve fond memories of sitting around the old wooden-framed family TV, indulging in heated competition with my brothers. Attempts to generate a bit of slice to speed up the ball, and the wonderfully resonant ‘pong’ sound effect that greeted each hit, were all part of the charm. The addictive power of such an elementary game confirms one of life’s golden rules: simple pleasures are often the sweetest.

As well as a Pong home console, Atari also released Pong Doubles (1973) – which holds the distinction of being the first ever four-player game – and Quadra Pong (1974) – the first flat ‘cocktail table’ game – at the arcades. Many more variations on the bat and ball theme would flood the market over the next few years, of which only Breakout is truly noteworthy.