Pong was created at Atari in 1972; the game was designed and programmed by Allan Alcorn under an assignment from Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, who conceived making a video ping-pong game with Ted Dabney’s involvement at the company’s start.
Key details
- Allan Alcorn built Pong as a training exercise at Atari and his implementation became the hit arcade game released in 1972.
- Nolan Bushnell, Atari’s co-founder, conceived the idea of a table-tennis video game and directed Alcorn to make it; Ted Dabney co-founded Atari with Bushnell earlier that year.
- Pong’s concept drew on earlier work demonstrated on the Magnavox Odyssey; Atari later settled litigation with Magnavox and licensed the relevant patent rights.