Do you remember playing the pong game? Did you wonder what happened to it? You are in for a surprise because the game is back! This pastime was the forerunner for the video games that everyone is addicted to nowadays. Because it was such a hit back then that people diverted their attention to video games as part of their amusement activity.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s people did not have any idea what video games were all about. Although Magnavox Odyssey came up with the first game it was not offered for wide distribution. In 70s Atari Inc. through Nolan Bushnell, the managing officer, took in Allan Alcorn an expert in electronics and computer. Bushnell instructed Alcorn to come up with an uncomplicated game so that he will be well acquainted with how the video games work.

Bushnell generally had an idea that a game would require two paddles on both sides of the screen with a ball in the middle. And that was it until Allan took the reins of carrying the idea further and was tasked to advance the idea of Bushnell. Alcorn then made improvements by making sure that the ball would go into different directions when struck by the paddle. At the same time, the ball would increase speed when hit by the two paddles. Thus the pong game was born. Bushnell was happy with the work of Alcorn that he had to look for ways to put it up for sale.

Retail stores were hesitant in obtaining the game as it was costly. Finally, Bushnell was able to land a deal with Sears just in time for Christmas. His company came up with fifty thousand of the item while Sears requested for 150,000 which Atari had to honour and confirmed that it will deliver the number of units as requested. Eventually Atari was able to comply with the agreement and Sears was able to rake in a lot of money out of the sale of the ball game.

Thus the ball game provided lots of fun for enthusiasts at the same time this type of entertainment also paved the way for other inventors to come up with their own adaptation under various names. Alcorn had to stay on top of his game despite the stiff competition and it would be useless going after the persons copying his invention. Instead he and Bushnell channelled their energy into taking the game a step higher.

For his first modification of his pong game, Alcorn added sound effects every time the ball would be hit by the paddle, people cheering and other sounds that would make the event more interesting and lively. Later on they came up with having two or four players in the game. Despite the game seen in different stages such as Sega and Atari, it still has a huge impact on people. It is now available and sold worldwide and more popular than ever in spite of the presence of other video games.