Page "Pong" Paragraph 5

Pong was the first game developed by Atari Inc., incorporated in June 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney.

After producing Computer Space, Bushnell decided to form a company to produce more games by licensing ideas to other companies.

The first contract was with Bally Manufacturing Corporation for a driving game.

Soon after the founding, Bushnell hired Allan Alcorn because of his experience with electrical engineering and computer science ; Bushnell and Dabney also had previously worked with him at Ampex.

Prior to working at Atari, Alcorn had no experience with video games.

To acclimate Alcorn to creating games, Bushnell gave him a project secretly meant to be a warm-up exercise.

Bushnell told Alcorn that he had a contract with General Electric for a product, and asked Alcorn to create a simple game with one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping.

In 2011, Bushnell stated that the game was inspired by previous versions of electronic tennis he had played before ; Bushnell played a version on a PDP-1 computer in 1964 while attending college.

However, Alcorn has claimed it was in direct response to Nolan's viewing of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game.

In May 1972, Bushnell had visited the Magnavox Profit Caravan in Burlingame, California where he played the Magnavox Odyssey demonstration, specifically the table tennis game.

Though he thought the game lacked quality, seeing it prompted Bushnell to assign the project to Alcorn.