History VideoGame / Pong

Received an official sequel by the name of ''Pong: The Next Level'' for the [=PC=] and original Playstation with 20 stages, each containing three variations, adding [=3D=] graphics, environmental hazards, and power-ups to the gameplay. It features a one-player adventure mode and multiplayer for up to 4 players. Naturally, it has the original game as an EmbeddedPrecursor. Another sequel, titled "Pong Quest" released in 2020. It adds a plot, unlockable costumes and modernized gameplay.

Received an official sequel by the name of ''Pong: The Next Level'' for the [=PC=] and original Playstation with 20 stages, each containing three variations, adding [=3D=] graphics, environmental hazards, and power-ups to the gameplay. It features a one-player adventure mode and multiplayer for up to 4 players. Naturally, it has the original game as an EmbeddedPrecursor.

''Pong'' is often thought of as "the first video game ever", [[OlderThanTheyThink but this is untrue]] — for one, the UsefulNotes/MagnavoxOdyssey debuted earlier in 1972 (and had been in development since 1968). Not to mention ''VideoGame/ComputerSpace'', also created by Bushnell, debuted a year earlier. Before that, it gets pretty complicated and still challenged due to varying opinions of what constitutes a VideoGame — the very first is either ''VideoGame/{{Spacewar}}'' (1962), ''VideoGame/TennisForTwo'' (1958), ''VideoGame/{{OXO}}'' (1952), ''Draughts'' (also 1952), or the ''VideoGame/CathodeRayTubeAmusementDevice'' (1947). What ''is'' true, though, is that ''Pong'' is the first video game to be put in mass market, as opposed to earlier attempts which were more like scientific experiments on computational power. It ''was'' probably the first video game to actually be ''called'' a "video game" in its time, and therefore it can claim to be the first video game in a semantic sense, if not a literal one.

The plug and play at home version of the game is notable for laying the ground work for what would go on to be the ''UsefulNotes/Atari2600''.

* CompilationRerelease: ''VideoGame/VideoOlympics'' for the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 is the oldest example in video game history, being one of the 2600's nine launch titles in 1977. It includes ''Pong'', ''Super Pong'', ''Pong Doubles'', and ''Quadrapong'', along with a few other of Atari's early arcade games.

* NoPlotNoProblem: There's no story to the game at all, which is fairly reasonable considering, well, it's a game about balls and paddles. You don't exactly need a whole lot of lore for that. [[note]]Not that it stopped this game's indirect successor done by the same development team, ''VideoGame/{{Breakout}}'' on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, from having a storyline.[[/note]]

In more detail: ''Pong'', developed by Nolan Bushnell (who would later create the Creator/ChuckECheese franchise[[note]]Oh, [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and some company called]] Creator/{{Atari}}[[/note]]), is one of the oldest video games. Simple and intuitive, it came from Bushnell wanting to create the easiest game he could think of after the commercial failure of his previous arcade effort, ''VideoGame/ComputerSpace'', which required reading a full page of instructions. It dates from 1972, making it OlderThanTheNES. The company that was founded to publish it, Atari, became synonymous with video games for years afterwards. It was also packed with many first-generation consoles, and Atari made a separate console that only played the game.