Play any good games lately, collegiettes™? Angry Birds, Candy Crush and Farmville may have taken over the casual-gaming world, but there’s still an entire gaming universe to explore. For Throwback Thursday, let’s go back to the beginning. Let’s go back…to Pong.
Once upon a time there was Pong—a simple, elegant video game with just two white paddles and a small white ball that marked the beginning of video games as we know them. Defunct Atari Inc. in California released their first Pong cabinet in November of 1972. It didn’t have any color or music and had to be played standing up.
It’s hard to believe that the entire video game industry owes much of its success to such a simple game. There were other video games around, but none of them had the fun factor or the simplicity of Atari’s machine. As technology advanced, games like Pong gave way to more complex games and by the middle of the 80s, Atari closed up shop for the last time.
There are several Flash-based adaptations of Pong online which makes finding a true successor difficult. That being said, Atari has an updated version on their website that includes color, music and the same infuriating difficulty as the older models. Click here to play!
Photo Credits:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/arcade/fullsize/pong.jpg