Pong, one of the earliest arcade video games, is a 2-D tennis sports game, and one of the first video games to see mainstream popularity.  Pong’s main goal is to defeat the opponent in table tennis by earning a higher score.  The game was manufactured by Atari Incorporated and created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise.

It was on this day, November 29, 1972, that the Atari company announced its release of Pong.  The game was a success and shipment to other countries began as early as 1973.  By 1974, engineer Harold Lee came up with the idea of Home Pong and designed a chip for it that became the highest performing chip used in a consumer product.

Pong is attributed with starting the video game industry and the “arcade phenomenon” that followed.  Home Pong is seen as the start of home video game consoles, and Nintendo entered as a clone of Home Pong.  The game was even included in the 2006 Game on exhibition at the London Science Museum.