Atari’s Pong “was officially released November 29, 1972, and was available for home gamers to purchase two years later,” Caitlin Mcgarry reports for PC World.
“Pong started the one game per quarter arcade standard that became widespread throughout the 1970s and 80s. Prior to Pong, games were three plays per quarter. At the peak of the games arcade dominance, more than 150,000 coin-operated Pong games were in circulation,” Mcgarry reports. “Pong catapulted Atari to success, and the company released its classic 2600 gaming system five years after Pongs debut. The rest is video game history.”
Mcgarry reports, “To celebrate the games anniversary, Atari on Thursday released a free iOS version of Pong called Pong®World for a new generation of gamers [iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, iPad mini]. The app is a little more advanced than the 1972 version, with different settings and paddle upgrades, but the concept is the same. Atari chose indie game designer zGames as the winner in its Pong app contest.”
Read more in the full article here.
Get the free app via Apple’s iTunes App Store here: Pong®World
I remember playing Pong at the Zayre department store in Tampa when it first hit. No one knew what to make of video games at the time. Now look at that industry . . . . it has blown up beyond belief.
I remember first seeing Pong when I was about 6. It was on tv! Was it a television program? No, you could control it! I was… in awe.
I don’t think that timeline is right at all. I played Pong on a box (I’m pretty sure it was Atari) connected to a TV in a music store that sold band stuff and some electronics stuff in South Dakota prior to Summer 1974. I know some of the time was during the Winter. We’d stop by and ooo and ahh after school (junior high). They’d have to chase us away to give others a chance.
Wow, the game looks cool.
Doesn’t look like Pong, though. More like a Pong/Arkanoid fusion.
——RM
IF you saw Pong on a tv set before 1974 it was probably a Magnavox Odyssey. the first video game console. My family had one. A ping-pong type game was its high point but it did have other very simple games.
Ohhhh. You’re probably right. That name shook some cobwebs loose. Now I gotta go wash my shirt. 🙂
I had the first Pong. Two dials and all it played was Pong. It was the best christmas ever.
Good read here:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisstokelwalker/atari-teenage-riot-the-inside-story-of-pong-and-t?s=mobile
Is Apple trying to piss me of? So I figure, I will get this game. The link takes me to the US store. I log in, my login only permits to use the Dutch store. No problem, I understand licensing. I then choose Free in the Dutch store and I log in again. Then….Apple asks me to choose 3 (no less) questions and provide an answer for security. But the questions are stupid and meaningless, because I do not have a life. At least, not the kind of life I am expected to have. I can not choose different questions, there are three sets with all different questions. I understand security and I know that it would be unwise to be able to select 3 identical questions. But this is plain stupid!
What is the first name of your best friend in high school? How am I supposed to know today who that is in my brain in a year? I went to different schools…….
What was the name of your first pet? My first personal pet or the first family pet? My point being, again, that there are answers to these questions, but some are subject to interpretation for me. Todays answers are not my answers in a year. I would then have to enter the answer 2-3 times before getting it right. Now again, I may not have had the richest of lives, but perhaps someone else has similar feelings? The worst part? I love Apple, I have all the goodies and yet I feel misunderstood. I have no clear cut answers to Apple’s questions and it makes me feel as if I really am just a wannabe Mac-boy but in reality I belong with the lowlife Windows sufferers and one day I will receive a mail from TIm asking me why I can not take a hint……..
It gets better……When I supply a rescue email address, I can not supply the .me or .mac or .icloud. So as an Apple and .Mac customer you HAVE to be abel to provide what, a Hotmail account? What is the point of going Apple aaaaaaaaaaalllll the way if you need to be able to access yet another account? This is going the MS way very quickly. Illogical crap this is….