What is Pong?

Pong was the first game ever developed by Atari. It was first developed as a training exercise for Allan Alcorn by Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell was a co founder of Atari and wanted Alcorn on the development team. And while he did have a background in computer science, he didn't have a background in game design. The revolutionary yet simple concept was inspired by variations of electronic tennis on the Magnavox Odyssey, and to finish their final product, Alcorn bought a cheap black and white TV and mounted it in a wooden cabinet along with the necessary circuitry. To get their game out into the world, they had Pong installed at the Andy Capp's Tavern in 1972, near jukeboxes, other arcade machines and pinball machines. The game received instant success, prompting Atari to just manufacture the game instead of license it. And in 1975 Atari released a home version in a partnership to sell it through Sears. Pong was a rapid success and ended up shipping over 35,000 units, but this was only one third of total pong consoles, because of the sheer number of pong clones that sprung up because of it. Atari then tried to compete by introducing better versions, like a four player version of pong. That is the story of how the first ever game made by Atari became an immediate classic and well known for generations to come.