yann64andClaude Opus 5.5
3eeabe9649
6,654 pages: 1,289 machines, 702 software, 460 companies, 64 history, 17 articles, 59 fun. 4,336 media files so far; references to files not downloaded yet are left out. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
60 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
60 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Pong
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tags:
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- ball and paddle
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- sport
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- tennis
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years:
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- '1972'
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params:
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specs:
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- label: year of release
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value: '1972'
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- label: companies
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value: Atari
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- label: type
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value: game
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- label: media
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value: arcade cabinet
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- label: systems
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value: Arcade
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- label: number of players
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value: 2 players (versus)
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- label: staff
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value: Nolan Bushnell
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screenshots:
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- title: ''
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: null
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- title: Early advert (march 1973)
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: null
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- title: Advert (june 1973)
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: null
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- title: arcade cabinet
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subtitle: ''
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text: ''
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image: null
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machines:
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- /museum/misc-arcade-video-games
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company: /companies/misc
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oc_id: 315
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source:
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url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230324052634/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=315
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date: '2023-03-24'
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---
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Many things can be sayed about pong. It is certainly a game which changed the video game industry.
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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.
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Instructions were simple: "Avoid missing ball for high score" and that was one of the main reason for its success.
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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.
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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.
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