Pong

Also known as Atari Pong

Pong is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for arcades. It was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were so surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work that they decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included on the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console; in response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

OverviewAI-generated

Pong is a video game developed and published by Atari, with additional publishing credits to Namco, Atari, Inc., Sears, and Hunter Electronics. It was released on November 29, 1972. The title belongs to the Pong franchise and features both single-player and multiplayer modes.

The game is classified under the Arcade, Sports, and Simulator genres. It has been available on various platforms, including Arcade, PC (Microsoft Windows), Game Boy Advance, Atari 2600, Atari Flashback, Atari ST, Plug & Play, and Legacy Mobile Device. The ESRB rating for the game is Everyone.

Pong holds a rating of 3.73 on RAWG and a score of 79 based on 134 ratings on IGDB.

Synthesized by Vinony from 18 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, RAWG, IGDB, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Game data

Released: 1972-11-29
User rating: 3.73 / 5
Genres: Arcade, Sports
Platforms: Game Boy Advance, Atari 2600, Atari Flashback, Atari ST
ESRB: Everyone

via RAWG

Game details · IGDB

79User score · 134 ratings

Pong is a table tennis-themed twitch arcade video game with simple two-dimensional graphics. It was the first sports arcade video game and one of the earliest arcade video games in history, helping to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that closely mimicked its gameplay.

Released: 1972
Genres: Simulator, Sport, Arcade
Platforms: Arcade, PC (Microsoft Windows), Plug & Play, Legacy Mobile Device
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Franchise: Pong
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari, Namco, Atari, Inc., Sears, Hunter Electronics

View on IGDB →

Key facts

Video game.title: Pong
Video game.image: Signed Pong Cabinet.jpg
Video game.alt: A vertical wooden structure with a visual display unit embedded in the front side.
Video game.caption: An upright cabinet of Pong on display at the Neville Public Museum of Brown County
Video game.developer: Atari, Inc.
Video game.publisher: Atari, Inc.
Video game.designer: Allan Alcorn
Video game.platforms: Arcade, dedicated console
Video game.released: Arcade Home versionOctober 1975
Video game.genre: Sports
Video game.modes: Single-player, multiplayer

via Wikipedia infobox

~25 min read

Encyclopedic overview

11 sections

Contents

Gameplay
Development and history
Home version {{anchor|console|consoles}}
Lawsuit from Magnavox
Impact and legacy
Ports
Sequels and remakes
In popular culture
References
Further reading
External links

Pong was the first commercially successful video game, helping to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that closely mimicked its gameplay. Eventually, Atari's competitors released new types of video games that deviated from Pong's original format to varying degrees; this, in turn, led Atari to encourage its staff to move beyond Pong and produce more innovative games themselves.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pong” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.