Pong is one of the best known video games of all time and also became the first to become commercially successful. It was released on the 29th of November 1972 and was the first game released by Atari, a minor company founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Both Pong and Atari eventually garnered fame in the face of gaming history.

Pong is as simple as can be: two players control two paddles across the screen, bouncing a ball between the two sides. If one of the players fails to hit the ball, a point is conceded to their opponent. By 1975, Pong was available to be purchased not just as an arcade game, but also a home console.

The game's development is shrouded with some controversy. Allan Alcon was hired by Bushnell for Atari, and his first task was to create a game with two paddles, a moving spot and a score counter. Bushnell claimed that he was inspired by previous computer games, however Alcon has said that it was due to Bushnell having attended a showcase of Magnavox Odyssey’s tennis game which would imply that Pong was a clone.

 Two years later in April 1974 Magnavox pursued a lawsuit against Atari. Considering his options, Bushnell gave up on fighting in the courts due to the expensive process and instead settled the matter outside of court with a $1.5 million licence to be paid in eight instalments & giving Magnavox full information on Atari products being released over the next year.

Nevertheless, Atari’s Pong differed to Magnavox’s own version, having features such as segmented paddles which bounce the ball at different angles and increasing speed during a match. It managed to solidify Atari’s reign in the video game industry over the next decades, and grew to become a landmark in the gaming hall of fame alongside Space Invaders and Super Mario.