But the golden age was destined to be a very short one. Walter Day told writer Tristan Donovan, author of the book Replay: The History of Video Games, that the industry was "off the rails by" 1981, opening more arcades and ordering more machines than its players could ever support. By early 1982, cracks were already starting to show in the newly flourishing industry: that $400 a day machine, Time Magazine reported, was often "sucker bait, dangled to obscure the dreary truths that markets are becoming saturated and that dud games... bring in no money at all."
posted by Horace Rumpole
on Jan 16, 2013 -
42 comments
The Inside Story Of Pong - On Nov. 29, 1972, a crude table-tennis arcade game in a garish orange cabinet was delivered to bars and pizza parlors around California, and a multi-billion-dollar industry was born. Here's how that happened, direct from the freaks and geeks who invented a culture and paved the way for today's tech moguls.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Nov 30, 2012 -
18 comments
Pongs (browser game, Flash) is Pippin Barr's exploration of a tiny corner of the game design universe: 36 variations of Pong.
posted by nobody
on Apr 11, 2012 -
12 comments
On the one hand, it ensures slow dancin' teens keep a safe distance apart. On the other, well, there's the sightline issue. Will it give geeks the nerve to dance with a partner? Covert Athletics presents
Pong Prom. Can
literally gettin' it on like Donkey Kong be next?
posted by GhostintheMachine
on Jan 26, 2010 -
12 comments
DoubleJeu is a simple French flash game; balance a ball on one axis while playing pong on a reversed axis. Easier to understand if you just visit the link.
posted by jonson
on Oct 27, 2006 -
40 comments
The Dot Eaters. A dauntingly comprehensive history of video games, beginning with
proto-PONG and Spacewar!. If it's difficult to navigate through Captain O's prize matrix,
use the handy timeline/scape (the dates don't work, so don't try). It's an interesting site, for sure, but if it doesn't pique your interest maybe the
links page will,
since it's the largest I've ever seen. In just minutes I found the
First Church of Pac-Man,
Super Mario Bros fanfiction (
@), and a great
Robotron shrine. Plus,
this noise (wav).
posted by BlackLeotardFront
on Apr 27, 2006 -
16 comments
Children review classic games- some more. Back in November '03,
1up.com rounded up some kids from the 8-12 age range and had them play video and arcade games from the 70's and 80's, including
Pong, Donkey Kong, and Tetris.
The resulting commentary was mostly along the lines of "Tim: They could've just as easily called this game anything—Baseball, Bowling, Escape From the Monsters. EGM: Did you score? Kirk: I bumped into a dot." In December 2004 they brought them back to review Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and the 1983 Arcade version of Star Wars, among others. "EGM: What do those TIE Fighters look like? ...Are they scary? Anthony: No. It feels like they're trying to give me flowers."
posted by Meredith
on Feb 16, 2006 -
44 comments
Guimp.com claims to be the world's smallest web site. And it probably is.
Jakob must be spinning in his crypt.
You don't have to scroll, though.
posted by Su
on May 27, 2002 -
17 comments
Pong. Starting today, you too can watch someone else play Pong, 24-7, all from the comfort of your own home. Call your cable operator today and ask for the G4 network, and
win big prizes. Or not.
The official G4 site is
here.
Flash required for official site
posted by WolfDaddy
on Apr 24, 2002 -
5 comments
"Put your hand in the box." A fun loving duo from Germany has created a version of the classic arcade game Pong that lets you punish your opponent's hand with sensations such as heat, punches and electroshocks of varying duration delivered through a "Pain Execution Unit". Remember: Fear is the mind-killer. (from
Wired)
posted by Stuart_R
on Mar 22, 2002 -
12 comments
Text Based Pong: The game doesn't keep score yet, if you want to see who's winning, write it down on a piece of paper.
A word is worth 1/1000th of a picture. And yet, somehow I find this a compelling bit o' minimalism.
posted by danOstuporStar
on Mar 13, 2002 -
15 comments
Volleyball meets "Pong" ...the creator calls it "slime volley ball" but it really is not slimy; it's actually sorta cute. It's a very, very simple game that (as far as I can tell) doesn't require plug-ins, javascript, popups, or anything special.
posted by davidmsc
on Oct 4, 2001 -
40 comments
New Addiction? You bet. 3-D Pong using shockwave. It's pretty sweet. I feel like I should be listening to the soundtrack of "Tron" while I play it.
posted by jcterminal
on Aug 21, 2001 -
19 comments
