Pong, the simple tennis game. In 1972, it was popular, one of the most popular games in that time. Now, Mario is more popular than everything, so Atari can just barf in a gym sock.Pong was the first game developed by Atari, founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and some other guy. Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games. Prior to working at Atari, Allan Alcorn, a colleague of Bushnell's, had no experience with video games. Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract from General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping. The project was inspired by a game included in the Magnavox Odyssey—the first video game console. In May 1972, Bushnell visited the Magnavox Profit Caravan where he played the Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis game.
Then, Alcorn did something, and Pong came out. It was popular, but the 2600 killed it off. Oh, well. Then that console version came out in 1973, so you didn't have to waste quarters to play Pong. But you did have to spend money on it, so...aw, forget this.
It is in lots of references, like in Wall-E, when he plays Pong with EVE but she is in standby mode, or in an episode of King of the Hill where Peggy and Bobby get obsessed with the game. So, Atari succeeded, but Nintendo had a far more dangerous weapon... the Color TV game. It wasn't successful, but it provided Atari's first competition. But, when Sega and PlayStation came out, Atari had to have a little funeral for making game systems. Serves 'em right for messing with the powerful, cool people, which they were not. Anyway, Pong is still cool...in a lame way.
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