Pong

Pong was released by Atari in 1972 and is the game that literally launched the commercial era of video arcade machines. The concept is deliberately minimalist – two players control vertical paddles on either side of the screen and bounce a pixelated ball between them according to simple table tennis rules, with the bounce speed gradually increasing the longer the rally lasts.

Behind the design was engineer Allan Alcorn, brought to the project by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell as a training exercise that quickly turned into a commercial phenomenon – the first test machine in a California bar reportedly jammed with an overflowing coin box after just a few days of operation. Although the game seems extremely simple today, it was precisely this accessibility and the immediate clarity of its rules that made it a model for an entire new industry, showing that great arcade entertainment doesn't need complicated rules or an elaborate story.

Pong's success sparked a wave of clones and competing companies and laid the foundation for what we today call the arcade gaming business, as well as for home consoles, which referenced a similar principle inspired by Pong for years after its release. The game's historical significance is still commemorated in video game museums around the world, where it is often displayed as the starting point of the entire industry, and its simple rule of bouncing a ball has become synonymous with the first video game many people ever played.

Why play it: Pong is the game from which the entire commercial arcade industry is dated, and even more than fifty years later, it clearly demonstrates how powerful a simple, well-tuned idea can be.