PONG

PONG was a first generation home video game by Atari released in 1975, based on the sport of table tennis and characterised by a ball and paddle gameplay. It was developed from the popular arcade units of the same name and first marketed under the Sears Tele-Games label, selling 150,000 during the Christmas 1975 season. The Atari home version of PONG was so popular that customers queued for hours simply to sign up to be on a waiting list for the console.

Whilst the original console contained just one game with controllers mounted on the box, subsequent versions such as Super PONG and Ultra PONG Doubles included up to 32 different games, with some models having wired paddle controllers.

By 1977 the home version of PONG become so popular that it was copied by other manufacturers until the market was overrun with cloned machines, leading to the first video console crash. However, the PONG consoles remained popular in the US until the late 1970s and in Europe until the early 1980s, and the game has been remade several times, including versions for the Sega Mega Drive, Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft Xbox.