Advertisment

Wish Pong the video game on its 40th birthday

author-image
Supriya Rai
New Update

BANGALORE, INDIA: Today is the 40th anniversary of the pioneering video game, Pong, which is widely recognized as the first commercial success that paved the way for more such games and the now booming industry.

Advertisment

It is startling to note that it was designed by computer scientist and engineer Allan Alcorn, who was an employee of Atari Inc., as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell.

The classic arcade title was commercially made available in the U.S. on Nov. 29, 1972, after a prototype installed at a bar in California was swarmed by people, who were enthused by the gaming experience it offered. Bushnell, who was away soon after it was installed, returned to the bar only to find the coin compartment overflowing. It was then he decided to roll out a market release.

It is, basically, a tennis game designed with two-dimensional animation, which was preceded by some arcade video games like Computer Space, but nothing could capture the imagination of gamers like Pong did. In the game, players have to use simulated rackets to hit a ball across a net and the intensity would pick up in the later levels of the game.

After its official market launch, it didn't take much time for it to become a success story. Over 19,000 cabinets were sold, and a home version was released in 1975. Down the line, the game was upgraded and adopted to suit consoles, such as the PlayStation, Nintendo DS, and PSP.

In order to commemorate its 40th anniversary, Atari last week created an enormous version of the game at the Lights Festival in Kansas City, on the side of a 22-story building.

tech-news