Pong | Video Game, Arcade, Atari (2024)

FAQs

What is the Atari version of Pong? ›

Atari PONG was released in June 1972 and is the first commercially successful video game and is based on a simple two-dimensional graphical representation of a tennis-like game. Players use paddles to hit a ball back and forth on a black and white screen.

In 1974 the makers of the Magnavox Odyssey sued Atari for stealing the concept for Pong. Magnavox won the lawsuit in 1977, upholding the company's patent, but by then Atari had already licensed the patent for $700,000.

Atari Pong C-100 (1976)

If you are still lucky enough to have the original Atari Pong C-100 system for home use, it could be worth $100 to $150 if it is complete in box with the inner packing and in working order, according to Pong-Story.com.

The first arcade game, Computer Space, was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, the founders of Atari, Inc., and released in 1971; the company followed on its success the next year with Pong.

Pong was the first game developed by Atari. After producing Computer Space, Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games by licensing ideas to other companies.

Atari releases Pong Doubles to video arcades. A variation on the wildly successful Pong, Pong Doubles is the first video arcade game to include four-player gameplay. Atari releases Space Race, the first Arcade Racing game ever.

Table tennis (also known as ping-pong or whiff-whaff) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand.

Pong was the first arcade video game to ever receive universal acclaim. Concurrently, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney had the idea of making a coin-operated system to run Spacewar! By 1971, the two had developed Computer Space with Nutting Associates, the first arcade video game.

Following his success with early arcade game Computer Space, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell tricked 24-year-old computer engineer Al Alcorn into creating Pong.

Consoles first available in the late 1970s included the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Bally Astrocade, and Magnavox Odyssey². The first handheld console, the Microvision, was released in 1979. Typical characteristics of the second generation of consoles: Microprocessor-based game logic.

What company did Atari agree to sell the home version of Pong to? ›

In 1975, Bushnell made an agreement with Sears to sell a home version of Pong. This was an even greater milestone in that, for the first time home television sets became interactive. In 1976, Bushnell sold Atari to Time Warner for $28 million.

Tennis for Two (Higinbotham and Dvorak, 1958)

The game was designed by American physicist William Higinbotham and coded on an oscilloscope with a screen only five inches high. It featured a side-on view of a tennis net with a brightly lit dot representing the ball shooting back and forth.

Combat was based on two earlier black-and-white coin-operated arcade games produced by Atari: Tank (published under the Kee Games name) in 1974 and Anti-Aircraft II in 1975. Earlier in 1977, Coleco had released the similarly titled Telstar Combat!, an entry in its Telstar series of dedicated consoles.

The original arcade-style version of "Pong" came out in 1972. Three years later in 1975, Atari unveiled that play-at-home version called "Home Pong." The idea for the game came from Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.