‘Pong’ is now half a century old. Pretty much exactly 50 years ago, Atari released Pong. It wasn’t the first video game ever created, nor the original take on virtual table tennis – But in Pong, the early video game industry was born in 1972. A few years later, the home version of Pong would become an instant success. The success of Pong and Home Pong gave Atari the resources and expertise needed to create the Atari 2600.
Nowadays you can play Pong on-line on your web browser.
Did you know that Pong type games were once included in several TVs as built-in feature? And that there was once also a “Pong In A Chip“?
And there were Finnish engineers from Salora involved in the creation process of that chip?
Read more from those links:
https://www.pong-story.com/gi.htm
https://www.v2.fi/uutiset/pelit/36483/Uusi-tieto-1970-luvun-TV-pelivillityksen-juuret-ovatkin-Suomessa-paivitetty/
https://www.v2.fi/uutiset/pelit/32045/Salora-Playmaster–esitelma-suomalaisesta-pelitelevisiosta-vuodelta-1977/
Salora Playmaster Mini Peek – rare gaming television from 1977
14 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
I had it on an Odyssey which that called it tennis before 1972 when Atari released Pong if I recall correctly. You not only had to watch where you let the ball hit the paddle, but it also had a knob to control the “English” on the ball.
https://www.wired.com/2015/01/ralph-baer-al-alcorn-pioneer-award-dice/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/14/resurrecting-pong-one-jumper-wire-at-a-time/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/01/15/inside-the-atari-2600/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How PONG Works: From Schematic to PCB to Console
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF7lo0vU_WI
See Pong brought into the 21st century with a new PCB from scratch, HDMI output, USB-C input, and more modern console touches.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Let Machine Learning Code An Infinite Variety Of Pong Games
https://hackaday.com/2023/02/21/let-machine-learning-code-an-infinite-variety-of-pong-games/
In a very real way, Pong started the video game revolution. You wouldn’t have thought so at the time, with its simple gameplay, rudimentary controls, some very low-end sounds, and a cannibalized TV for a display, but the legendarily stuffed coinboxes tell the tale. Fast forward 50 years or so, and Pong has been largely reduced to a programmer’s exercise to see how few lines of code can stand in for what [Ted Dabney] and [Allan Alcorn] accomplished. But now even that’s too much, as OpenAI Codex can generate a playable Pong from just a few prompts, at least most of the time.
Infinite pong games with Raspberry Pi Pico-W
Use PicoW for connect to OpenAI Codex and generate a new game each
https://hackaday.io/project/188096-infinite-pong-games-with-raspberry-pi-pico-w
In this project I will explore the possibilities of the OpenAI API to generate code on the fly, without any human intervention.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everyone was so interested in this.
Good news! It’s available for download on world radio history!
https://worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/TAB-Books/TAB-How-to-Design-and-Build-Your-Own-Custom-TV-Games.1978-Heiser.pdf
Henry says:
Super site! I am Loving it!! Will return once more, Im taking your food additionally, Thanks. katong park tower
Henry says:
with the introduction of new technology such as online signature and there are mix reviews that can encourage people to use it. Organizations are telling about https://www.signnow.com/ask/how-to-e-sign-a-pdf-document-multiple-times-using-signnow and are providing a platform where people can give reviews. This creates an image of company in the eyes of potential customers
Henry says:
For your convenience, http://www.airslate.com/product/create-and-automate-workflows. They will not let you down. But you will like it far more than I will!
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/07/11/soviet-era-pong-console-is-easy-to-repair/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://hackaday.com/2023/09/11/atari-introduces-a-new-old-console/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Early video games like Pong were not computer-controlled. They used discrete logic to generate the TV signals. As you might expect, the market exploded when you could get all the logic on a chip. Many of those games used the General Instrument AY-3-8500-1 chip, and shows us the chip and the many different yet similar games it could play. You can check out the retro gameplay in the video below….
GENERAL INSTRUMENTS VIDEO GAME CHIP RIDES AGAIN
https://hackaday.com/2023/11/13/general-instruments-video-game-chip-rides-again/?fbclid=IwAR1yuyLaRQnJw9Wbwp5g5bFL3UQLHnCoEUUlYJbrTC3CaAt6hEOnExuB63U
taylorcurran says:
A standard iq test will usually have questions about reasoning with numbers, reasoning with logic, reasoning with words, and reasoning with space
GuauMod says:
Classic game is very popular at that time. You can play this game anytime, anywhere on your smartphone.