website/content/software/table-tennis.md

title, tags, years, params

title	tags	years	params
Table Tennis	ball and paddle ping pong sport table tennis tennis	1972	image specs screenshots machines company oc_id source /media/museum/software/magnavox_odyssey_table-tennis_ss.jpg label value year of release 1972 label value companies Magnavox label value type game label value media cartridge label value systems Magnavox Odyssey label value number of players 2 players (versus) label value staff Ralph Baer, Bill Harrison, Bill Rusch title subtitle text image /media/museum/software/magnavox_odyssey_table-tennis_ss.jpg title subtitle text image documentation /media/museum/software/magnavox_odyssey_table-tennis_doc.jpg /museum/magnavox-odyssey /companies/magnavox 65 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20221204112710/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=65 2022-12-04

This is the first table tennis video game ever, and also the first tennis game, and also the first pong game, etc... This is clearly the beginning of video games. This game also inspired Nolan Bushnell (later President of ATARI) to copy this game and produce his own version: Pong. The rest is history...

No score displayed on the screen here, you have to count yourself.

The game itself is pretty basic, but the Odyssey had something quite interesting: the English control. Indeed, in addition to vertical and horizontal movements, the Odyssey controlers featured an English control knob, a kind of spin effect controled by the player. This made Table Tennis and most of the Odyssey games more interesting than they look.