Pong

History

The oldest form of an electronic play of table tennis goes back to a playable play on a Oscilloscope, by William A. Higinbotham at the national laboratory of Brookhaven in 1958. Its play was entitled Tennis for Two .

In 1966, Ralph Baer, working then for Sanders Associates, conceives a system to carry out simple plays of computer on a television. Its ideas are patented and it creates a play resembling “Pong”, except for its orders slightly more complex. In 1970 Baer shows its system of video game to the decision makers from Magnavox, who were convinced that such a device would help to sell more Magnavox television sets. Magnavox and Sanders Associates united their forces, centered on Baer and its patents, to develop an autonomous unit called Odyssey 1TL200 intended to be sold to the consumers for a use for residence.

In spring of 1972, the system Magnavox Odyssey is in demonstration in Burlingame in California where Nolan Bushnell plays play of table tennis of Odyssey for the first time. Soon, Nolan and a friend form a new company, Atari. Nolan plans to create a play of control for the rooms of arcades. It rents the services of an electronics engineer, Al Alcorn, just left the university. Understanding that the play that it considered is too complex for its new employee, Nolan first of all requires of him to make a play of table tennis. The play that Alcorn creates is if amusing that Nolan decides to sink and to launch it on the market. Since the name Ping-Pong is already under copyright, they simply called it Pong.

Atari is not conceived to be a manufacturer but only like developer of electronic game. Thus Nolan starts to show its new handset with several game manufacturers. At the beginning there is only little interest for the product, mainly because the unit had not been tested on the ground. Soon, before leaving on a journey to Chicago (Nolan had appointments programmed with the manufacturers of flipper Williams and Bally/Midway), him and Alcorn adapt a switch of coin on the unit for a test to the hiring.

The system is tested for the first time at Andy Capp' S Tavern, a bar with Sunnyvale in California. When the system is installed the first time in this bar, only two people noticed it and start to play. The next day, its popularity developed with the point where people make the tail as of the morning before the opening of the bar. However, the unit breaks, and the owner of the bar calls Al in his residence to make remove the play. When Al opened the unit to begin a play, he discovers the problem quickly: the milk paperboard that they had placed inside to recover the coins overflowed so much so that the switch of coins was blocked. Al immediately called Nolan in Chicago to speak to him about the exceptional success of the play, and Nolan decides that they should manufacture themselves Pong.

Two weeks later, Magnavox takes note of Pong and informs Atari that it has already a patent on the concept. The two companies go until the lawsuit. Magnavox could find witnesses who had seen Nolan playing play of table tennis of Odyssey' S, and they showed a gold book of the event that Nolan had signed. The judge concludes in favor of Magnavox and Atari had to pay 700.000 USD for the use of patents. This proved to be a very profitable investment. Towards the end of March 1973, Atari sells between 8.000 to 10.000 systems Pong tokens.

Many versions of Pong were produced: Double Pong (Pong with 4 players), Quadra Pong, Doctor Pong, etc Except the units of arcade of Atari, there was a group of copies of Pong. In their precipitation on the market, Atari did not have time to protect or patent their unit. In spite of the success of Atari, only 1 of the 5 model plays of Pong of arcades was really made by Atari.

The version in residence of Pong is designed in 1973 by Al Alcorn, Bob Brown, and Harold Lee. Atari makes a demonstration of the unit 1975 with THESE of summer of 1975. Because of the failure of Odyssey (its production is stopped in 1974), the networks of retail sale are not interested by the console of Atari. These systems had the marking of the score on the screen, which was absent on the other versions of Pong.

However, shortly after the exposure, Atari are contacted by Tom Quinn, purchasing of articles of sport for Sears. Tom meets Nolan Bushnell, and asks how much Atari units could produce for the season of purchases of the holidays. Nolan indicates that they could probably produce 75.000 of them. Rétorque Tom that Sears wants to sell 150.000 Pong consoles, and that they would pay the costs necessary to reach this level of production. In return, Sears wants to be the exclusive salesman of Atari Pong. Christmas 1975 is the most popular season of Pong, with customers aligned until apart from the stores awaiting the deliveries of Pong.

The systems of Pong remained popular in the United States until the end of the years 1970 and in Europe until the beginning of the year 1980. Pong is still considered today as being the play which launched the market of the consoles.

In 2004 a mechanical version of Pong is carried out and always the same year, a version of Pong in network with Gameboy S posed on a table-tennis table

Gameplay

The original concept of Pong is a simple simulator of table tennis (table tennis), taking again the name of the play. With the Table tennis, the players are held on each side of a table-tennis table and handle a racket to strike a small ball between them in the two directions. This basic concept is that of Pong. A small “ball”, moves through the screen, rebounding on the edges top and bottom, and the two players order each one a “paddle”, which slips of from top to bottom through the ends of the screen. If the ball strikes the pallet, it rebounds towards the other player. If it misses the pallet, the other player marks a point. The “ball” rebounds in various manners according to the way in which the ball touches the pallet.

Pong can be played by a player alone, with the opposite pallet ordered by the computer, or two players, each one ordering a pallet. On the terminals of arcade the pallet is usually ordered by a wheel or a button, answering with a variable speed according to the way in which the player turns it.

External bonds

Pong-Story: all on pong, of 1947 at the years 1970.
atari museum Restoration of a terminal of original arcade.
PONG! To play Pong on line.
Massive Multiplayer Pong a pong where each one can contribute.
PonGL Version freeware in OpenGL.

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