pong

Pong is a 1972 arcade video game released by Atari and widely regarded as one of the first commercially successful video games. It was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise that evolved into a simplified simulation of table tennis. The game was inspired by the table-tennis scene in the Magnavox Odyssey and uses two paddles and a ball to exchange rallies. Pong's straightforward play and competitive framing helped establish the viability of arcade video games and paved the way for home consoles.

In Pong, two players control vertical paddles on opposite sides of a rectangular screen, attempting to bounce a ball past the opponent’s paddle. The ball rebounds off the top and bottom walls and increases in speed after each contact with a paddle, making rallies progressively harder. A point is scored when a player fails to return the ball. The game supports two-player play and, in many versions, a single-player mode against a simple AI.

Arcade cabinets displayed a basic black-and-white display on a CRT monitor, with a simple cabinet and coin mechanism. Pong became a popular attraction in arcades and led to a rapid expansion of the video game industry in the 1970s. It spawned numerous imitators and licensed variants and helped Atari expand into home entertainment, notably with Home Pong for the Atari 2600 console in 1977.

As a landmark title, Pong influenced game design and the business of interactive entertainment. It is frequently cited as one of the earliest and most influential video games, and its enduring name is associated with the fundamentals of digital tennis-like sports games and the rise of the arcade era.