CHVG: 1972 - Pong

Chronological History of Video Games:
Pong becomes the first smash hit (1972)
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The original Wii Sports!

The first really big year in the history of video arcade games was 1972.  This was because one game went what today we might call "viral"... an action-sports title, the original Wii Sports, a head-to-head competitive bout to the death... Pong!  Basically two paddles, one on each side of the screen, roughly simulating a paddle sports game like ping-pong.  (Oh? So that's where they got the title?)  

But Pong didn't come out until November of 1972, so let's backup a bit and talk about events leading up to its debut.  First, in May of 1972, the Magnavox TV company was debuting in various shows its new TV video sports game they dubbed Odyssey!

The Magnavox Odyssey...  not Homer's.

The Magnavox Odyssey was a creation of Ralph Baer's, but marketed by Magnavox.  It was the first video game console.  It wasn't programmable, but had a finite number of games stored in its circuitry.  These included ball & paddle games, chase the spot type games, and a few light gun games where you shoot at a blip on the screen. To switch between games, you inserted a little card into the system (almost like a cartridge) that changed the jumpers to the game you wanted to play.

Nolan Bushnell founded Atari in July, a name he took from the traditional strategy game of Go.  Originally he liked the word "Syzygy" for his company, but that was already taken.  Because "Atari" was something similar to a check in Chess, Nolan thought it had a good strong feel to it.  I think he picked well.

So being in the video game industry, Nolan obviously attended trade shows and conventions, and was able to view the Magnavox Odyssey on display in Burlingame, CA.  He says he wasn't all that impressed with it, honestly.  Looking at the games on the Odyssey, seems like a fair assessment.  It basically just had some paddle games and the ability to shoot a video blip with the light gun.  But at some point Nolan thought the concept of a ping-pong game (similar to what he saw on the Odyssey) could make a decent video arcade game.

Nolan turned to a new engineer Atari had hired, one smart, enterprising Al Alcorn.  The concept of a ping-pong game was shared with Al, and given to him to complete to get some experience in creating games.  There were other, more difficult games in the concept phase like driving games and such, but this was a good, easy starting point.

The story has been told many times elsewhere, but although Nolan Bushnell signed the guestbook, and did see the Odyssey's ping-pong game, what Al Alcorn created was a far superior game for a few reasons:

Nolan to the right of Pong, and Al Alcorn far right.



1. SOUND.  Al found sounds that already existed in the different transistors, and basically added those to various gaming events.  The ping-pong sound of the blips helped name the game, and I think sound added to the experience without a doubt.
   
   
2. Only VERTICAL movement.  The simplicity of two paddles that could only move on the vertical plane was a limiting factor that I believe aided gameplay.  Magnavox had vertical and horizontal movement, and even a ball control knob... it was just unwieldy.  Was almost like playing a game that didn't have rules.
   
   
3. NO "english"... but different bounce angles.  Again, that ball control know which they called "English" on Odyssey was silly.  Pong made a far superior game by changing the angle of the ball return based on where it hit the paddle.  Closer to the center - more direct return.  Closer to the edges - a much steeper angle of return.  So now you had some control over the direction and angle of return if you could fine-tune where the ball hit the paddle.  Excellent!
   
   
4. SCORE.  Pong actually put the score on the screen, and let you play to a score of 11 to win the game. Seems rudimentary, but the Odyssey did not have on-screen scoring.  Had to do all that manually.
   
   
5. SPEED UP gameplay.  If the rally continued, and the angles of the return were steep a few times... the game actually got faster.  This was necessary to test the limits of players skills, and make the game more exciting.  Without this speeding up, the game would've been far less entertaining.

So there you go.. not enough credit given to Al Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell for these innovations.  Magnavox eventually sued Atari for patent infringement... and I feel there were enough changes with Pong to win the lawsuit.  But then again -- there was very little established yet around what was and wasn't protected by law.  Atari settled out of court and kept on making Pong.

About 2500 PONG units are produced before the end of the year, making as much as $40/day in their locations, an extremely high coin-drop.  It's success spreads quickly! 

For a game this rudimentary and basic, it's importance is justified.  Pong launched the video game industry by being the first big success in commercial arcade games.  Pong accompanies Dragon's Lair and Pac-Man as one of the three Video games on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

MOVIE:  A Pong unit appears in the 1974 movie 'The Parallax View' and in the 1975 movie 'Rancho Deluxe'.

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STAR TREK

What?  There was supposedly a Star Trek game way back in 1972?  Ah, but wait... it isn't really a "Star Trek" game, it appears it's just a bootleg clone of Computer Space (see 1971 article).  Apparently the Borg have already begun trying to assimilate the arcade world, making a homogenous mess.

I need to point out that this must be where Star Trek's long-standing tradition of sucking at video games begins.  It's a long streak, unbroken for many years.  Great times.   

It appears there was another STAR TREK game sort of coming into its own in 1972.  This one is a strategy/tactics game written for the computer mainframe systems of the day and mostly accessible only by college students at these universities.  The text version actually becomes quite popular, being re-created on many systems and home computers over the years.  The Borg Star Trek game... not so much.

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COMPUTER GAMING:

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HUNT THE WUMPUS (Basic)

One of the earliest text-adventure games ever created, written in basic for mainframe computers like the DEC PDP-1.  You are put into a maze of interconnected tunnels, with bats, pits, and the Wumpus beast.  You have to shoot arrows to kill the Wumpus before you die in a pit, or are eaten alive.  This simple game becomes a mainstay of early microcomputers, and gets printed in type-in listings of computer magazines.  It's a long, rich history, with many many variants and ports.

HAMMURABI: 
Another classic game that is hard to pinpoint its exact beginnings.  But certainly its worth noting here for one of the earliest versions, again pre-dating the home computer revolution.  Try your hand at managing a small kingdom for 10 years, buying & selling acreage and feeding those hungry peasants. It's a resource-management game, and will get re-imagined, and re-created on just about every platform to come for the next 20 years easily.  

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CONSOLE GAMING:

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Odyssey is commercially released in August of 1972.  Sales are struggling.  Supposedly 100,000 units are sold in that first year, but I believe its more like 100,000 units were distributed to dealers around the country, because its well-documented that sales were sluggish.  

In an ironic twist, it's the popularity of Pong that actually helps sell Odyssey systems, as people find out its the closest thing to being able to play Pong in your home.  But, since Atari didn't start shipping their production units of Pong until Nov. 29, 1972... I can't see how Pong got really popular until at least early 1973.  And that would mean Odyssey didn't start moving units faster until 1973.  Furthermore, sales figures for Odyssey were supposedly much lower in 1973, which to me indicates the dealers had to move all those initial 100,000 units before even starting to order more... and that took time.

The Magnavox Odyssey is an interesting system because it is the first console gaming system ever. I find the idea of little cartridges to trigger the right jumpers, and the fact that it even had a light gun is pretty remarkable. Unfortunately... without a CPU, there was no such thing as artificial intelligence.  Every single Odyssey game requires a 2nd person.  Whether it's moving a target, or a pong paddle pusher - nothing gets done without that 2nd player.  

Playing any 1st generation console is a challenge, as they are tough to find and can be quite expensive.  Mainly they only hold interest for a collector, a real classic game nut (who has to have them all) or a game reviewer wanting to review the oldest of all the videogames.  You can look up some pretty fun reviews of the "Odyssey 1" as its referred to on YouTube.