---
title: Pong
tags:
- ball and paddle
- sport
- tennis
years:
- '1972'
params:
  specs:
  - label: year of release
    value: '1972'
  - label: companies
    value: Atari
  - label: type
    value: game
  - label: media
    value: arcade cabinet
  - label: systems
    value: Arcade
  - label: number of players
    value: 2 players (versus)
  - label: staff
    value: Nolan Bushnell
  screenshots:
  - title: ''
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: Early advert (march 1973)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: Advert (june 1973)
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  - title: arcade cabinet
    subtitle: ''
    text: ''
    image: null
  machines:
  - /museum/misc-arcade-video-games
  company: /companies/misc
  oc_id: 315
  source:
    url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324052634/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=315
    date: '2023-03-24'
---

Many things can be sayed about pong. It is certainly a game which changed the video game industry.

Contrary to what most people think, Pong is not the first videogame nor it is the first arcade video game (Computer Space, 1971). It is however the first successful arcade video game which really started the videogame industry.

Instructions were simple: "Avoid missing ball for high score" and that was one of the main reason for its success.

However, the concept of PONG was not really invented by Atari. As a matter of fact, Magnavox was putting their new [Odyssey home video game console](/museum/magnavox-odyssey/) in demonstration. On 24th May 1972, Nolan Bushnell (Atari founder) went to one of these demos at Burlingame, California where he signed the guest book and played the Tennis game, a simpler version of Pong.

The genius of Atari was to understand that this was the concept that they were looking for, and to develop a new "perfect" version with sound and increasing speed.