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50 Years of Pong!

Started by W8taminute, December 08, 2022, 10:44:04 AM

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W8taminute

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140737453/reflecting-on-pongs-video-game-success-50-years-later

Ok I remember going over to a friends house one summer when the Atari 2600 came out and we played pong all afternoon.

It was at that moment I knew I loved video games.  Happy Birthday Pong!
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

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Sir Slash

I loved Pong on our TV when I was a kid, much better than, "My Mother The Car". I can remember setting the paddles up so the pong bounced back and forth between the two faster and faster and faster.  :2funny:  I had to turn the sound down because my Mother couldn't stand the, 'blips and bloops' it made. Happy Birthday Old Friend.  O0
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Gusington

I still love Pong. It's the perfect game and really is something special if you consider the whole concept of paddles circa 1972. 'A more elegant game from a more civilized age.' And it's one of the few MP games that doesn't put me into a murderous rage.


слава Україна!

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FarAway Sooner

Man, the first computer game I ever got was a home-made Pong console.  It was upgraded, so you not only had the standard "tennis" version of Pong (the original game that everybody knows), but you could also play "squash" (where the ball moved faster but you hit it against a wall at the other end of the screen) or my personal favorite, "hockey" (where a defender knocked the ball back towards the other teams goal, the goal had walls at the top and bottom, and an offensive player could then deflect it so it would deflect but keep moving towards the same side of the screen).

Man, those were the Good Old Days.

I also didn't know that Steve Jobs worked at Pong, or that he was a dropout from Reed College.  A lot of people drop out from Reed College...

SirAndrewD

#4
Same here Sooner.

Pong was the game I grew up with.  My family was loaded so up until around '79 we had an Odyssey System with the crazy static overlays for the TV.  I think I tore a few up as an annoying toddler.

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FarAway Sooner

Wow.  I think it was an Odyssey.  Ours was a simplified version--maybe a cheaper, next-gen piece that our family got around 1976 or 1978.  No insertable copper cards and no screen overlays.  Just 3 choices of game and 3 choices of skill.

JasonPratt

Atari Pong had a ton of variants on the 2600 system!
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W8taminute

Ah the early days of video gaming, where the physical world was actually part of the digital game itself.  I.e. those crazy screen overlays representing a tennis court, shooting gallery, etc.
"You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

Romulan Commander to Kirk

Staggerwing

I first played Pong on one of the table-top arcade set ups at a Shaky's Pizza in the early 1970s in Marin County CA.
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