Toni Dimaano Games 11.29.2022 11:Nov AM EST

Atari's Pong Game Turns 50: Get To Know The World's First Video Game

Released on this day in November 1972, Atari's Pong is recognized as the world's first ever video game, which revolves around the game of tennis.

With two paddles on the side and a ball that goes back and forth, Pong is an important video game that helped pave the way to the Golden Age of video games.

As the industry pioneer turns 50 years old today, here are some things you might not know about Pong's rich history:

1. It Was Not The First Arcade Video Game

According to The Gamer, contrary to what most people know, Pong was actually not the first-ever video game, but it is the first to be recognized as one.

This is because the arcade game called Computer Space, which was released a year before 1971, was never as influential or as successful as Pong.

Pong's predecessor featured a rocket facing off against saucers with missiles as weapons, and its release marked the beginning of the video game industry.

2. Players Loved The Game So Much They Broke The Prototype

When it was released in 1972, the video game's prototype was stationed at a local bar in California, but Atari did not expect it to break down so quickly.

However, while developers thought that this was a machine error, they later on found out that the presence of too many coins inside the machine prototype was what was causing the trouble.

With this, Atari was immediately fixed the machine as they saw that it was a good thing for Pong's prototype to be a money-making machine as it would be for the years to follow.

3. Pong Was Never Meant To Be Released

Gamesver writes that the engineer and developer that was hired by Atari to make the table tennis video game had no experience in making one.

But, with Atari's co-founder Nolan Bushnell, engineer Allan Alcorn was able to work on his skills with practice codes for him to improve his game developing talents.

What Alcorn did not know was that Atari kept it a secret that the codes were actually not only meant for training exercise, which led him to the Pong game everybody knows today.

4. Atari Got Entangled In A Lawsuit With Magnavox

It is important to note that Pong is also not the first table tennis video game as Magnavox's Odyssey was the first one to be developed and released that same year.

Because of this similarity between the two games, Atari was sued by Magnavox in 1974, making it the first case which was mainly concerned about video games.

Eventually, Atari chose to settle the case with Magnavox as they felt like they could not afford the legal costs that would have been around $1.5 million.

5. Pong Was A Huge Social And Cultural Success

During the peak of its success, Pong's multiplayer-only game format helped players feel comfortable around each other that it brought so many communities together.

However, this was not the only impact the game had on society, as Pong was pointed out to be the one responsible for the Golden Age of arcade video games.

Through the success of Pong, a number of more recent video games were able to make a name for themselves to this day, The Gamer reports.