Essay 3 pong

Atari Pong

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Atari Pong

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Pong was the one of the most well-known video

Bushnell came up with the idea of pong when he went to

game in the 1970’s. There were two types of pong

a demonstration on

systems made which was the coin operated version that

the first ever video

people saw when they went to an arcade and the home

game console

video game

called the

console that

Magnavox

everyone wanted

Odyssey

for their home.

(Macdonald, 2014).

Not long after

He noticed that on

Atari came out

the console there

with this new game they got in trouble with another company.

But in the end they come out on top as the best-selling game console of its time.

Atari was founded in 1972 by Ted Dabney and

Atari co-founders Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell, with head of finance Fred Marincic and Pong creator Allan Alcorn.

was a game that was kind of like the

game ping-pong.

With coming up with his idea of making the game pong, he thought that he should hire someone to make the game. He hired his first engineer for Atari Al Alcorn.

Once he was hired, Bushnell described the game to him, showed him the drawings of what he wanted in the game

Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell came up with the idea for

and told him that he wanted Alcorn to build the game for

making coin operated video games from working in an

him (Isaacson, 2014). Considering it was his first game

amusement arcade. Once the idea came to life Atari

he has made it was not that bad.

became the biggest name in video games at the time.

Atari Pong

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Within a couple of weeks Alcorn came up with a

Bushnell and Alcorn wanted to test out Pong, so

prototype of Pong. In his

he decided that he would put it in a bar named Andy

prototype he incorporated a

Capp’s. After a couple of days of being in the bar they got

score board, sound when the

a call from the bar manager saying that someone needs

ball hits the paddles, when

to come out and fix the game because it stopped working

the ball hits the paddles the

and the manager knew how popular it was. Alcorn went

ball would go straight out if it

over to the bar

hit the middle of the paddle

and come to

and would go up and down if

find out the coin

it hit the side of the paddles.

box was filled

He built the coin operated

up to the top

system out of a Hitachi TV

with quarters

and hid the wires coming from the TV in a four-foot-tall

that it could not

brown cabinet that was painted yellow.

fit anymore. But

Little did Bushnell tell anyone that he had a contract to make a new video game for a firm in Chicago called Bally Midway. Once Alcorn was finished with the coin operated version of Pong he took it to Bally Midway to give them pong as part of his contract to them. They did not like it so they declined the game (Isaacson, 2014).

after a while of it being in Bally’s they decided that they did not want the game anymore even though the game was making three times as much as the average machine was (Brookey & Oates, 2015).

Atari Pong

Bushnell was thinking about all the success that

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Once the lawsuit was over they were allowed to

Pong has made when being in the bar that he would

continue selling

have Atari to manufacture the game. So they started out

the pong game,

making 12 of the machines, and decided to sell them for

they were

$900 a machine. Once they were able to open up a place

already making

to make the machines they started making around a

their next big

hundred machines two months of opening. When the

thing. Atari was

facility opened up they wanted to make the sell price to

working on

$1200 (Isaacson, 2014). By 1974 they have sold over

making the Pong

8,000 machines that were put in restaurants, arcades,

game into a home video game for everyone to buy. They

and bars (Macdonald, 2014).

thought that with making this it would help increase sales.

Atari fell into a lawsuit in the fall of 1973 with Magnavox because they had unauthorized copying of a game that was similar to Magnavox Odyssey game table tennis. This was the first ever lawsuit for the video game industry (Ford, 2012). Magnavox looked back at the guest book for the demonstration of Magnavox Odyssey

When making the game they used a custom UC chip inside of the system that would help create the graphics of the game (Goldberg & Vendel, 2012). Once Atari had a home Pong system made up they thought that they would need a major retailer to help sell their product.

In January of 1975, Alcorn flew to New York Toy

game table tennis and saw that Bushnell attended. They

Faire. A lot of company’s liked the idea in the new

used that against Atari when they were in court. In April

console, but they did not want to sell the console in their

1974 the case was settled. Atari had to pay between

store because of the issues about the company Atari.

$700,000 and become a Magnavox licensee (Macdonald,

Atari did not have any experience in consumer

2014).

manufacturing and did not have a set price the console

Atari Pong

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was going to be sold for. Alcorn decides to go to Sears

The units that Sears was selling had the name Sears

and ask Tom Quinn if sears can sell the Pong consoles

Tele-games Pong on the box but when the game came

and if they can sell them in the sears catalog as well.

itself came in shipment it had Atari’s name on the power

Two days later Quinn told them that he wants them to do

button (Goldberg & Vendel, 2012).

a demo of the product at Sears Tower in Chicago.

Alcorn went into the demo for the Home Pong

Sears purchased the Home Pong units for $55 each. The first order that Sears placed regarding the

console; Al was worried because the console was not

Atari Pong game system ended up being 75,000 game

working when he plugged it in. He was able to fix some

consoles purchased (Goldberg & Vendel, 2012). In 1975,

wires with in the box and got it to work. Once the demo

the Pong console was released, and once it came out it

was over

became a big hit. It was the bestselling item in the Sears

Sears

catalog. Since it was the most successful product at the

did not

time Sears gave Atari the Quality Excellence Award

want to

(Kent, 2001). Over 200,000 consoles were sold in the

do

first year it came out but Atari came upon a problem

business

when they created the Pong home console. They never

with Atari

trademarked the Pong name which meant that other

because

companies were taking advantage of the mistake and

of the

making their own version of the Pong game and selling it

lawsuit that they had with Magnavox. In March 1975

for a lower price. Within the next year of the console Atari

negotiations were made with Atari and Atari was

decided to make their own brand of Pong consoles. The

eventually allowed to sell their product at sears, but the

success of Pong was the main starting point for the

product had to be a Sears brand with Atari’s logo on it.

company and made it so successful (Macdonald, 2014).

Atari Pong

Atari could never measure up to what they have done when they created Pong. It made them very successful with this game alone. They never had a game come close to the sales. Once they came out with the next game after pong, they were actually on the verge and turning point of them going bankrupt. From that you can tell how much Pong truly meant to Atari and the gaming industry. It was a revolution in its own way and the game created so much more opportunity for everyone, whether it was a young kid wanting to entertain their self or a young visionary trying to make a name for himself. Pong and Atari are the reasons why Video Games are what they are today, they created a pathway and certain entrepreneurs are taking advantage of it right now.

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Recourses • • • • • •

Macdonald, K. (2014, March 20). IGN PRESENTS: THE HISTORY OF ATARI. http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/20/ign-presents-thehistory-of-atari?page=1 Isaacson, W. (2014, October 07). The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (p. 210215). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

Oates, T. O., & Brookey, R. A. (2015, January 12). Playing to Win: Sport, Video Games, and the Culture of Play (p. 1). Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University Press.

Ford, W. K. (2012, January 01). Copy Game for High Score: The First Video Game Lawsuit. http://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1340&context=facpubs Goldberg, M. & Vendel, C. (2012, September 15). Atari, Inc: Business Is Fun (p. 154-161). Carmel, NY. Syzygy Press.

Kent, S. (2001, September 6). The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon - The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (p. 94–95). New York. Three Rivers Press.

Images • • • • • • •

Cover photo: http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/dedicated/pong_logo.jpg Atari Logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Atari_Official_2012_Logo.svg/2000pxAtari_Official_2012_Logo.svg.png Atari co-founders, creator of Pong, and Atari’s head of finance: http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/03/50000413103-01-610x490.jpeg Pong coin-operated game: http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/03/365px-Signed_Pong_Cabinet.jpg Pong poster: https://www.atari.com/sites/default/files/pong.jpg Pong game graphics: http://timesillustrated.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/pong.gif Sears Pong: http://www.gooddealgames.com/articles/Game%20Consoles/2%20Atari%20Pong.jpg