#0002 Pong

Many people, especially older crowds who were young adults in the seventies, when asked what the first video game was will immediately say Pong. And while this isn't technically true, (heck,  the first game on my list was Oregon trail, a very widely played game.) there is logic in the reasoning.

Apparently, when the game was first released by then newcomers Atari in a local bar in 1971, the owner of the bar called the game developers complaining that the game wasn't working anymore. The engineer who installed the cabinet came over to have a look at the it to find that the game was just fine,  what was wrong was in just one evening the quarter slot had been completely filled. And in that evening, in that smokey bar in Sunnyvale California, the video game industry as we know it today was born.

The game consists of a small square called a ball,  and two rectangles called paddles.  You have to hit the ball past the opponents paddle to score, and avoid letting the ball get  past your own paddle. it is an incredibly simple, and can be summed up by saying "hit the ball to score points". So simple that nearly anyone can understand the concept. This is the whole reason that the game took off in the first place, it's accessibility, it's simplicity, and it's surprising attention to detail. Yes detail, for how simple the game is, it still has a couple of quirks that make it just that more “believable” for example, when you hit the ball with the paddle, depending on how far to the edge you hit it the ball will travel at a greater or lesser angle, this is called “English” and is what gives it strategy, rather than just predicting where the ball will travel. Besides the game's “English” is the surprisingly complex AI for the computer player. They could have more easily made the paddle play the game perfectly, making all the right moves and never letting the ball past it, but it does not. In fact, the AI is actually pretty fair, not letting you win the entire time, but also not being perfect. Just the right balance for the beginner player.

It's hard to imagine just what it was like seeing pong for the first time. Imagine being 10 years old walking into a Pizza parlor in 1973, you had heard of Pong, a game played through a television. It combined two of your favorite things, games, and TV. You look over at the pinball tables and see it, for the first time. Pong. The dim light from the cabinet softly illuminating the arcade corner. You'd grown up with TV, those three channels that you could watch, but never take control of. This was different. It was TV, and you actually could control it. The game was simple, sure, but it was still mind blowing to experience something like this for the first time.

The game went on to be an international success and just like with all great games, “clones” soon popped up, stealing Atari's thunder (more on that in a later article). But without Pong, video games as we know them might not even exist. Computer games? Sure, but arcades and consoles? Probably not. The game is available for free at Atariarcade.com, everyone who considered themselves a gamer if they have not already, owes it to themselves to go play this piece of history and pay homage to the ball and paddles that paved the way for games today.

Up next: Breakout