Misconceptions and Revelations:
What really happened

It all started with Pong, and now it's a 6 billion dollar industry. That's basically what many people think about the video game industry today. If you've never heard of Pong, please leave this site now. But if you want to know more, the truth even, read on...

Spacewar

It all started with... Computer Space, a game created by Nolan Bushnell for a company that eventually went out of business. This game was originally coded by a student at MIT by the name of Steve Russel. Computer Space was marketed, but did badly because it was too complex to control.

Pong, duh.

Ralph Baer is considered the father of videogames. His creation, the Odyssey, was manufactured by Magnavox and predates Pong. So who is Nolan Bushnell? He is the father of the videogame industry. After the failure of Computer Space, he created his own company called Atari. Bushnell's second programmer to join the team, Al Alcorn, was not familiar with making video games, so he was given a test. Nolan told Al that Magnavox wanted Atari to make them a ping-pong game with only simple paddles and a dot. Al did this and more. Al Alcorn created a segmented lined that would make the dot bounce at different angles, and after the game played for a while, the ball would speed up. These factors made the game more enjoyable.

Pong Arcade Machine

Bushnell loved the game so much, the one which he intended to scrap, that he helped tweak it and market it as their own game. Essentially, Atari had gone from just a publisher to a developer as well. The game was tested at a local bar and barflies were even seen waiting outside to get in and play before the bar opened.

So Pong really did start the game industry, but it was definitely not the first videogame. A few things to note about Atari though:

-There were frequent business meetings in Nolan's hot tub.

-The main office was once at an old Roller Rink, which was always full of potheads... also known as employees.

-The original assemblers that worked for Atari were taken straight from the unemployment office. Later they realized it was easier to just pawn off the TV sets.

This was only the beginning, and we haven't even gotten to the Japanese market! Thanks always to a great book, The Last Quarter, by Steven Kent. (Thanks to classicgaming.com for the pictures.)

-Hybrid