Pong is simulating a simple two-dimensional table tennis game. You might be among the many people who believe that this game was the first-ever computer game. But this is a myth. It is true though that this simple video game is one of the earliest arcade video games. It was created by Allan Alcorn and released in 1972 by Atari. To read more about the history of this awesome game go to this Wiki page.
I will of course provide many more video games on this platform but I thought that Pong should be the first. If you are someone who cares about computer games you will probably agree that this platform should honor the video game that started it all. I might be a bit nostalgic but I think that is a good thing. I still remember playing games like Asteroids, Pacman, Breakout, and others. Those games were already more complex but still more simple than today’s games. But Pong stands out as the simplest game I have ever played. Let me know if there is anything simpler than a game with one ball and two bars.
The mystery of Pong
There is one more thing about Pong that you should know. You probably know that because of its complexity, today’s computer games are massive regarding the number of lines of code. How about Pong? How many lines of code do you think it required to make this simple game work? The answer will most likely surprise you. It is 0. Yes, there was not a single line of code written to create this table tennis simulation. Pong was created using only discrete logic. It is pure hardware.
I had to search quite a bit to provide you with a decent version of this game. I did not want a Flash game since Flash is soon not supported anymore by the major browsers (e.g., Firefox). I tried some downloads, but they either did not look good or provided a bad user experience. But finally, I found a browser version that looks very similar to the classic version and is easy to use. The game does come with a so-called Arcade Mode, which adds a couple of balls to the game for more difficulty. But if you want to enjoy the good old Pong feeling, you should turn it off.
Update: If you prefer a simple Pong game for the desktop, download this Pong Flash file (in the Chrome browser right-click on the link and select “Save file as..”) and proceed to this page.
