The Ultimate 70s Collection E-Book

John Romero

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 340

Beschreibung

How do you remember the seventies? Whether it's as the "Me Decade," the heatwave of 1976, or the Winter of Discontent, you'll find something in these pages to stir up nostalgia for the pop culture that defined the decade! Cinemas were showing groundbreaking movies, from Star Wars and Suspiria to Smokey and the Bandit, and TV programming was in its golden age with children's classics like Jamie and the Magic Torch and the satirical Abigail's Party, all played out on brand-new color TV sets. Then came the first-ever videogame consoles -- the Magnavox Odyssey, or the Atari 2600 -- and along with it, Pong. In Ultimate 70s Collection, you'll read and remember (or imagine!) what life was like in this momentous decade filled with iconic toys, trends, music, movies, celebrities, and other pop culture phenomena. Filled with fascinating articles, high-quality photography, and so much more, take a trip down memory lane and rediscover the most notable developments of the seventies!

Leseprobe

CONTRIBUTORS

John Romero, Mark Bussler,

Philip Oliver, Jim Bagley,

Gary

Bracey, and Trip Hawkins

©2023 by Future Publishing Limited

Articles in this issue are translated or reproduced from

The Ultimate 70s Collection

and are the copyright of

or licensed to Future Publishing Limited, a Future plc group company, UK 2022.

Used under license. All rights reserved. This version published by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc.,

903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

e-ISBN: 978-1-6374-1281-7

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A Letter from the Publisher

R

emember the days filled with sore thumbs and hands from chaotically playing Rock

‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and Hungry Hippos? Or how about updating your closet

to better suit a light-up dancefloor? Personally, I remember the first day I left my

portable radio at home for the exciting new Walkman. Within these pages, you’ll have a

blast rediscovering all the pivotal moments that made the 70s such a significant decade.

During the 70s, we witnessed best-selling movies like

Star Wars

, that was a cinematic

breakthrough and monumental shift in the sci-fi genre. What started as a simple tennis

game became a revolutionary development and mass phenomenon in the videogame

industry, also known as

Pong

. Musical artists like Elton John, Donna Summer, David

Bowie, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, and others took the world by storm, changing music

forever—from disco, funk, and alternative to rock, punk, and pop.

While this book is a bit different from what we usually publish, it was brought to

us by the editors of

Retro Gamer Magazine

and it’s with nostalgic excitement that

we proudly present it to you. A pivotal time in history, the 70s—following up on

the international success of the Beatles—really launched the beginning of mass

culture and globalization. The world was introduced to American movies, British

games, music, pop culture icons, and more that would forever leave a mark. It’s

interesting how things had become international and shaped culture around

the world ever since. Sounds similar to what happened with the iPhone!

And this is only scraping the surface of what a defining decade the 1970s

were. So, sit back and enjoy all the wonders of the 70s! If you remember the

era yourself, you may wince, or you may be proud of the things featured

within these pages. If you weren’t born yet, I hope you have fun learning all

the things that came before.

—Alan Giagnocavo, Publisher

8

THE STORY OF PONG

16

HOPPITY HOP

18

LITE-BRITE

20

RALEIGH CHOPPER

24

GUESS WHO?

26

70 FILMS THAT DEFINED

THE 70S

40

BOGGLE

42

LITTLE PROFESSOR

CALCULATOR

44

SPIROGRAPH

46

BAER’S ODYSSEY

52

WEEBLES

54

EVEL KNIEVEL

STUNT CYCLE

56

STAR WARS

66

CONNECT 4

68

SKATEBOARDS

72

SPEAK & SPELL

74

ETCH A SKETCH

76

TOP SHOWS FROM

THE 70S

90

SIMON

92

BREYER HORSES

94

COZY COUPE

96

ATARI 2600

6

104

ROCK ‘EM SOCK

‘EM ROBOTS

106

STYLOPHONE

108

DUNGEONS

&

DRAGONS

112

PADDINGTON BEAR

114

BIG TRAK

116

HUNGRY HIPPOS

118

FASHION FEVER

126

STRETCH ARMSTRONG

128

BATTLESHIP

130

WALKMAN

132

MUSIC

7

It was 47 years ago that a simple

warm-up engineering project helped

thrust a new industry and company

into the public eye, forever changing

how we view entertainment and

becoming the digital fire for the

modern caveman. Take a behind-

the-scenes look at the history and

influence of Pong

T

hey were at a turning point in their

lives. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney

couldn’t stay with Nutting Associates

any more – that much was clear.

But what were they supposed to do

now to get their two-person game-

engineering firm, Syzygy Engineering,

out on the market?

Nolan found the answer by cold-

calling several of the ‘old guard’ arcade

game firms in Chicago. Bally, which had

purchased fellow manufacturer Midway

three years before, was interested in

their videogame technology, but not if

the duo was still attached to Nutting.

Making a calculated decision, they

gave notice at Nutting and rented a

2,000 square foot front-end office with

back-end garage on Scott Boulevard

to start up operations. Incorporating

the company as Atari, they signed a

contract with Bally to design a pinball

machine, an electromechanical

arcade game, and a video arcade

game. Money from the contract would

come in monthly, and combined with

a coin-op route of pinball machines

they had purchased from a fellow

former Nutting employee, the nascent

videogame and arcade company had

enough to get their small firm up and

running and hire some employees.

Their first employee was Cynthia

Villanueva, a babysitter for Nolan’s

PONG

a coin-op route of pinball machines

they had purchased from a fellow

It was 47 years ago that a simple

It was 47 years ago that a simple

It was 47 years ago that a simple

The Story of

8

PONG

The Story of

kids who was hired as a combination

secretary and work-mother, making sure

they’d eat during the long hours at work.

It was the second employee, though,

that has the real bearing on this story.

Al Alcorn had been part of a stable of

interns at Ampex’s Videofile division

when Nolan and Ted worked there. A

burly American football player in high

school who decided in college that his

future lay in electrical engineering rather

than the gridiron, he was on his six-month

rotation when he first met Nolan and Ted.

By the time they were starting up Syzygy

Engineering at the end of May, Nolan paid

the associate engineer a call.

“He offered me a salary – about $1,000

a month – and ten percent of the stock

in the company,” says Al. “I was already

making $1,200 a month as an associate

engineer and the stock seemed

worthless to me because I couldn’t care

less. It was a nice token, but not that

important to me. I accepted the offer

because I thought that it would be fun.”

Al had never seen a videogame

before, and Nolan got him up to speed by

plopping the diagrams for his and Ted’s

game, Computer Space, into his lap. In

between looking over the technology,

Al also had to pull his weight in the small

startup where everyone had a role. Ted’s

was to build the pinball machine, keep the

company’s books, manage the facilities,

and run the coin-op route. Nolan’s job

was to be Nolan – look over progress and,

as Al puts it, “keep bullshitting” Bally that

they were making progress so it would

keep sending checks. Al’s role, besides

engineering, was to help collect the coins

on the route that was helping to keep

Nolan and Ted afloat, since they weren’t

making a salary themselves.

“[Collecting the money] taught me

about designing things that work in a

public environment,” Al says. “When a

machine steals your money you feel you

have a right to destroy it. So it has to be

really well built, but still be cheap

to manufacture. I learned a lot

about that from collecting on

the route.”

Al’s conditions were

spartan, consisting of a

work area with a single old

oscilloscope that they all

shared. But the fun he was

seeking was just about to

really begin.

Pong begins…

It started with a challenge

to make a game. Nolan

wanted a driving game but had

decided that Al needed to warm up

with something simple. So Nolan lied

to Al, claiming they had a contract with

GE for a consumer videogame that had

to use very few chips. Thinking back

to the Magnavox Odyssey demo he

had been to that past May where he

saw a tennis game, he decided to tell

Al the game was to be an electronic

version of tennis. He then proceeded

to describe what he saw of Magnavox’s

game, aiming to have Al tweak it

further.

One thing was clear in Al’s mind:

he couldn’t make heads nor tails of

Nolan’s unorthodox schematics that

he’d been trying to study. Nolan had

to walk through the basics of the spot-

motion circuitry that Ted had designed,

explaining how the sync generators

work to draw things on the screen.

Al started out by getting a ball moving

around on the screen, designing the

circuits needed to change direction.

This process shouldn’t be lost on the

reader, who may be more used to

today’s gaming world where Pong is

commonly used as an intro to game

programming. Arcade videogames

didn’t use microprocessors at this time,

so there was no game code. In those

days, videogames were engineered – no

different to any other consumer product

like a toaster, telephone or stereo. Game

designers in the early Seventies were

electrical engineers like Al; their job was

creating a circuit for every mechanic,

a fiddly task that would later be done

entirely in software.

When Al went to work on the iconic

paddle controls for the game, several

ideas came rolling out from the creative

part of his brain. Ideas that would

become an important part of making it

the fun game it is to play to this day.

First there was how to do a simpler

version of the ‘English’ Nolan had

PONG MEMORIES

My first memories of

Pong

are from when my mum got me

a Binatone TV Master MK IV in the

late Seventies. It was fantastic

– you could actually play games

on your TV!

It may not look much by

today’s standards, but it was

bloody good fun!

So many great memories for a classic game!

Jim Bagley, Ocean Software

»

is Pong cabinet, signed by

Nolan Bushnell, now resides at

the Computer History Museum

in Mountain View, California.

»

Games in the early Seventies were

literally engineered, as they did not

use microprocessors or code of any

sort. A circuit had to be designed to

control each individual aspect of

gameplay, as seen here.

PONG

9

kids who was hired as a combination

secretary and work-mother, making sure

they’d eat during the long hours at work.

It was the second employee, though,

that has the real bearing on this story.

Al Alcorn had been part of a stable of

wanted a driving game but had

decided that Al needed to warm up

with something simple. So Nolan lied

to Al, claiming they had a contract with

GE for a consumer videogame that had

in M

in Mo

HOME-GROWN PONG

A selection of the many Pong variants that were

available on the home market

01. Magnavox

Odyssey

Ralph Baer’s influential

console was created in

1972 and featured two hand

controllers. It is the first home

example of a console featuring

a tennis game, and inspired

Atari to create

Pong

.

07. Heathkit

GD-1380

As with other systems featured

here, the Heathkit is powered

by a universal chip, in this case

the AY-3-8500. It’s a bit of an

oddity, and not just due to its

radio-like appearance. It only

works on Heathkit TVs and the

audio comes through the TV.

02. Super Pong

Wanting to emulate the success

of

Pong

in the home, Atari created

Super Pong in 1976. Unlike similar

home systems of the time,

Pong

was the only game available on it.

08. Interfab

Pong IV Kit

Another interesting model,

as it existed in three distinct

forms: fully assembled,

partly assembled or in kit

form, requiring full assembly.

Released by Interfab in 1976, it

played just two games, Tennis

and Handball.

03. Wonder

Wizard

General Home Products’ Wonder

Wizard is an interesting system,

as it features a Magnavox

Odyssey 300 circuit board in

the original Magnavox casing.

It features a number of games,

including a

Pong

-like version

of tennis.

09. VideoSport

MK2

This stylish-looking system is

one of the earliest European

variants of

Pong

, appearing in

1974/1975. Created by British

retailer Henry’s, it included

three games:

Tennis

,

Football

and

Hole In The Wall

.

04. Telstar

Ranger

The Coleco Telstar Ranger

was released in 1977 and is a

six-game variant of the original

Telstar that was released. It

came with an authentic-looking

pistol and two controllers, with

the gun games being

Target

and

Skeet

.

10. Philips Tele-

Spiel

We love the look of this, and not

just because of its bright primary

colors. It came packed with a

Pong

variant, and four additional games

could be purchased. There’s no

scoring system, meaning players

physically score games on the

actual controller.

05. Video System

This system from First Dimension

looked interesting, with the first

model being released in 1975.

The better 1976 variant, which

is the one shown here, played

relatively complex variants of

Pong

, including an innovative

four-player mode.

11. Videomaster

Home TV Game

Another early European

system, believed to have been

first available in 1974. It played

Tennis

,

Football

and

Squash

and

is notable for having a large

number of variants.

06. Television

Tennis

Does exactly what it says on

the tin. This home system was

created by a small company

called Executive Games and

was first released in 1975. It’s

notable for its chunky design

and unusual controllers.

12. Binatone

Distinctive thanks to its orange

casing, it’s another six-game

system, possibly based on

the same chip as the Telstar

Ranger. It also includes two gun

games, with the gun peripheral

having a cool scope.

Images courtesy of David Winter. Visit

www.pong-story.com

for more great information about

Pong

.

01

02

05

08

11

06

09

12

04

07

10

03

10

HOME-GROWN PONG

A selection of the many Pong variants that were

available on the home market

01. Magnavox

Odyssey

Ralph Baer’s influential

console was created in

1972 and featured two hand

controllers. It is the first home

example of a console featuring

a tennis game, and inspired

Atari to create

Pong

.

02. Super Pong

Wanting to emulate the success

of

Pong

in the home, Atari created

Super Pong in 1976. Unlike similar

home systems of the time,

was the only game available on it.

HOME-GROWN PONG

HOME-GROWN PONG

described seeing on the Odyssey.

Simply a way to make the ball volley

off the paddle in unpredictable lines, it

makes gameplay between opponents

a bit more chaotic, like real tennis. The

Odyssey uses a separate ‘English’ dial

control, but Al was able to come up with

a simpler method that proved just as

fun.

The paddles in

Pong

are 16 pixels

high, and by segmenting it into eight

sections each, two pixels high, he was

able to dictate how the ball angled off

the paddle. The catch was, the angles

were an illusion created by horizontal

and vertical speeds. The horizontal

speed was set by how many times a

volley occurred between the paddles,

a feature that Al had added to make it

more interesting.

“Nolan had told me that it had to be

a consumer product,” he explains, “so

I thought two guys could sit there and

play it forever if the ball had just one

speed. So I added the speed-up

where after a certain number of

volleys it would go faster and faster.”

Whatever segment of the paddle

was hit would then decide the

vertical speed of the ball. Hitting the

top or bottom ones would imbue

the ball with the highest speed, with

each segment closer to the center

decreasing. Finally, the middle

two segments produce no vertical

speed change. Combined with the

variable horizontal speed, players

were now able to create a much

more unpredictable, entertaining

volley.

Another ‘feature’ that Al added to

the game actually spawned from a

defect in the design. The motion of the

paddles on the screen is controlled by a

special timer chip, the 555, which uses

the motion of the spinner controllers

as part of its control. A limitation in the

chip meant the paddles were unable to

be drawn all the way to the top of the

screen, leaving a small gap that a ball

can fit through. Instead of coming up

with a fix, Al decided to leave it in as a

stalemate breaker. The bug became a

feature.

Nolan’s demand for a low chip count

made Al self-conscious through the

coming months of the design process.

At every turn and request from Nolan

to add additional features, Al kept

second-guessing how it could be done.

On-screen scoring, an on-screen net

instead of one affixed to the TV screen,

and then probably the most far-reaching

request. When Ted and Nolan came

to Al asking for the sounds of a crowd,

something had to give. There just wasn’t

a budget.

Nolan wanted cheering for scores;

Ted wanted boos and hisses for missing

a ball. They had to compromise with a

blipping sound that’s now synonymous

with early videogames and instantly

identifies

Pong

.

By mid-August of 1972, about

three months since he started, Al had

completed his ‘test game’. Nolan was

ready for Al to move on to his ‘real

project’, the driving game they’d actually

be providing to Bally. The tennis game

would just fade off into the darkness.

There was one problem, though: it was

too much fun to play. Ted thought the

game was a great finished product

and should be the one they submitted

to Bally, and Nolan wanted no part of

that. The two had what Ted described

as a “knockdown, drag-out” screaming

match in each other’s faces. The end

result was that Nolan agreed to at least

test it out.

Going to Al and presenting it as his

idea, Ted offered a plan to test out the

game at one of their locations, still not

letting on that there was no GE contract.

Al agreed, still thinking the product had

been a failure based on the cost specs

he had been given. Ted got a television

monitor ready for it, using the same

gutting process he had developed when

he first created the spot-motion circuitry

for

Computer Space

. He then built a

cabinet over the following weekend – a

half-sized, boxy design for the television

and

Pong

prototype to sit inside.

“We cut the numbers to Bally to one third.

Bally still thought we had exaggerated the

numbers”

»

Nolan inspecting rows of Pong games being

manufactured in 1973 at a roller rink. He

and Ted needed the space, and this vacant

rink that e Doors had played at several

years earlier proved the right fit.

Pong

was truly the first

casual game and the first social

game. Everyone played it. I

mean, everyone. It is ironic that

videogames after

Pong

quickly

became too complicated for the

mainstream public and that we

are only now working our way

back to mass-market casual and social games.

Trip Hawkins, founder of Electronic Arts

PONG

11

PONG MEMORIES

owner of Andy Capps called him to

say the machine stopped working and

that they should come down and fix it

because there were lines of people still

waiting to play. After heading down and

opening the coin box, Al suddenly found

an avalanche of quarters flowing out.

The only reason the game had stopped

working was that the coin mechanism,

appropriated for

Pong

from a laundry

machine, had overflowed onto the

circuit board. A simple fix, but also a

promising start.

Nolan and Ted decided to go ahead

and build another 12

Pong

machines

in more standard-sized cabinets. Ten

would go out to the other locations on

the coin-op route, and they’d keep one

at the office. The final one would be sent

to Bally to evaluate for the fulfillment of

the videogame portion of their contract.

Yes, Nolan had acquiesced after the

success at Andy Capps.

Success and

manufacturing

The numbers kept coming in through

September and they couldn’t believe

it. The new

Pong

-filled coin-op route

had almost tripled their earnings. Ted

was making enough money to look at

replacing his old car. This game was

going to be a big moneymaker for

Bally – if it ever responded.

Nolan kept in contact with Bally,

but it was apparent that it was

stalling. Ted explains: “We were

getting plenty worried because

our future was in Bally’s hands. We

decided to put together an income

report to give Bally some incentive.

As we put this report on paper, the

numbers looked impossible. We

knew that they would think that we

cooked the books.

“Since the numbers were so

damned high, I suggested that we

cut the numbers to Bally by one half.

The numbers still looked unlikely, so I

said that we needed to go to one third. A

couple of the machines were much lower

than the others, so Nolan suggested

that we not cut those ones so drastically.

I said that if we’re going to lie, we have

to be consistent so we would remember

what the lie was. He agreed.

“Believe it or not, Bally still thought

we had exaggerated the numbers. They

were still stalling, but they owned it so

we were up a creek. That’s when I came

up with the idea to get Bally to reject the

game.”

Nolan, Ted and Al were in Nolan’s

office, contemplating their frustration

and trying to think about what they

could do. Bally owned all the rights

to Pong, since the game had been

submitted as the videogame portion

of the contract between the two

companies. Even if they decided that

they wanted to try to manufacture

it themselves, they were legally and

ethically proscribed from doing so.

Ted further explains: “That’s when

I said, ‘Either we build it ourselves

or we go home. I don’t want to go

home!’ We went over what the

costs would be and Nolan and

Al agreed that we couldn’t

afford to do it. I echoed

my statement and

said that we needed

to make a decision.

I said, ‘If we decide

to build it ourselves

then we can work on

how to get it done. If

not, we go home.’”

In the end, none

of them opted for

going home. Ted

said he would handle

the TVs and cabinets,

and Al and Nolan could

work on the boards

What’s funny is that

I thought

Pong

was old-

fashioned in 1982 when

games like

Pac-Man

were

on the scene, but today I

find it a total joy to play.

Pong

is the eternal classic

that excels because of its

simplicity and fun gameplay!

Mark Bussler, Classic Game Room

All of [Andrew’s and

my] early programming

attempts were to rewrite

Pong on our brother’s ZX81.

I wouldn’t be surprised if

every games programmer

that started in the late

Seventies confessed that

one of their first games was a Pong clone!

Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games Studios

or we go home. I don’t want to go

home!’ We went over what the

costs would be and Nolan and

Al agreed that we couldn’t

Painted in a garish red/orange color

to attract attention, its size ensured

that it would have to be propped up on

something to bring it to face level. There

were no directions on the control panel,

no description of what it was about,

nothing. A box with a TV screen, two

knobs, and a coin box. There was one

thing printed on the metal control panel,

though. A single word named after the

sound of the game:

Pong

.

They decided to place it at their

favorite location out of all of them on

their coin-op route: a tavern called Andy

Capps. With seven machines there

already, they elected to set the Pong

prototype on top of a barrel next to

Computer Space.

The legend today goes that the

machine stopped working because

of overflowing coins, but that’s not

the cause of the first breakdown.

The first time was because of cheap

potentiometers, the electronic

component that the spinners are

actually made from. They’re usually

rated for a certain number of turns, and

Al calculated by the quantity of coins in

the box that it was getting far more than

what it was rated for. Probably about

100,000 turns by the end of the month.

Then, shortly after that, Al got the

call for the more famous problem. The

»

By 1973, other companies started entering the

market with their own clones of Pong, and the

market was soon overflowing. is was an ad

Atari ran in Cash Box magazine at the time to

help combat what Nolan called “the jackals”.

PONG MEMORIES

PONG MEMORIES

“That’s when I said, ‘Either we build it

ourselves or we go home. I don’t want

to go home!’”

12

owner of Andy Capps called him to

say the machine stopped working and

What’s funny is that

What’s funny is that

I thought

Pong

was old-

fashioned in 1982 when

games like

Pac-Man

were

on the scene, but today I

find it a total joy to play.

Pong

is the eternal classic

that excels because of its

simplicity and fun gameplay!

Mark Bussler, Classic Game

Painted in a garish red/orange color

to attract attention, its size ensured

that it would have to be propped up on

something to bring it to face level. There

were no directions on the control panel,

no description of what it was about,

nothing. A box with a TV screen, two

knobs, and a coin box. There was one

»

By 1973, other companies started entering the

By 1973, other companies started entering the

market with their own clones of Pong, and the

he

market was soon overflowing. is was an ad

d

Atari ran in Cash Box magazine at the time to

o

help combat what Nolan called “the jackals”

help combat what Nolan called “the jackals”.

PONG MEMORIES

“That’s when I said, ‘Either we build it

ourselves or we go home. I don’t want

to go home!’”

ANYONE FOR TENNIS?

Tennis

For Two

»

YEAR: 1958

»

SYSTEM: ANALOGUE

COMPUTER/OSCILLOSCOPE

William Higinbotham fiddled around

with one of Brookhaven National

Laboratory’s early computers for

calculating missile trajectories to

simulate a crude game of tennis.

We’re betting productivity

at Brookhaven dropped

dramatically.

Top

Players

Tennis

»

YEAR: 1989

»

SYSTEM: NES

This is the earliest example we

could find of a celebrity-endorsed

tennis game. The players in question

are Chris Evert and Ivan Lendl. It

also allows four people to play

at the same time, as long as

you have the relevant NES

adaptor.

Jennifer

Capriati

Tennis

»

YEAR: 1992

»

SYSTEM: MEGA DRIVE

There are lots of tennis titles that

focus around classic male players,

but this is the only one to be based

on a popular female tennis star.

While it plays a decent game of

tennis, there are more notable

titles to feature celebrity

endorsements.

Super

Tennis

»

YEAR: 1991

»

SYSTEM: SNES

Although it’s not the most

innovative game in our selection,

Super Tennis

definitely deserves to

be here. It’s quite simply the best

16-bit tennis game ever made, with

a masterful selection of shots

and incredibly nippy gameplay.

Nice Mode 7 court effects

as well.

Pete

Sampras

Tennis

»

YEAR: 1994

»

SYSTEM: MEGA DRIVE, GAME GEAR

This fun offering from Codemasters

featured Pete Sampras and was the

first game to utilize the company’s

J-Cart technology, allowing two pads

to be plugged into the cartridge, and

featured some fun mini-games,

including a cameo from Dizzy.

Virtua

Tennis 2

»

YEAR: 2001

»

SYSTEM: ARCADE,

DREAMCAST, PS2

Sega’s original

Virtua Tennis

was so

good that it became an extremely

hard formula for Sega to improve

on. It managed it, though, thanks

to even more players and an

improved single-player

campaign, along with a pile

of excellent mini-

games.

Pocket

Tennis Color

»

YEAR: 1999

»

SYSTEM: NEO GEO POCKET

While it lacks the structure of

Mario Tennis

, this superb little

offering remains our favorite

handheld tennis game because

it’s so much fun to play. Sublime

controls and an excellent two-

player mode make it a timeless

portable classic of the

genre.

Mario

Tennis

»

YEAR: 2000

»

SYSTEM: NINTENDO 64, GAME

BOY COLOR

Camelot’s excellent tennis game

proved that, with the right care,

Mario could work in anything. Mini-

games galore, excellent gameplay

and a motley crew of Nintendo

favorites turned

Mario Tennis

into one of the N64’s best

sports games.

Outlaw

Tennis

»

YEAR: 2005

»

SYSTEM: XBOX, PS2

An unusual tennis game, because

the only endorsement isn’t a player

but political satirist Stephen Colbert,

who commentates. While it tries to

shock with its cast – a PhD stripper,

a convict and a Jewish ninja,

among others – it plays a

rather rudimentary game

of tennis.

Wii

Sports

»

YEAR: 2006

»

SYSTEM: WII

The pack-in game for Nintendo’s

Wii featured a truly wonderful

game of tennis that really came

into its own thanks to the innovative

motion controls. The sequel in

Wii

Sports Resort

was better thanks

to MotionPlus control, but the

original remains so much fun

to play, especially with

two players.

A look at the rich and varied world of videogame tennis

PONG

13

Tennis

For Two

S

and components. Nolan and Ted then

crafted a letter to Bally as well as their

strategy for when Nolan went in to meet

with its management. In a move that

would make Obi-Wan Kenobi proud,

they convinced Bally that this wasn’t the

droid it was looking for. An incredible

feat, considering that Bally’s subsidiary,

Midway, was actually interested in

releasing the game. Nolan managed to

talk them out of it by playing both groups

against each other, claiming to each

that the other didn’t want

Pong

so that

in the end, they really didn’t. Per Ted’s

suggestion, they offered to replace it with

another game, but only if Bally formally

rejected

Pong

, returning the rights to

Atari. When the formal letter came, the

ruse had worked, but better than they had

expected. Bally had canceled the entire

contract, including the pinball machine.

Ted set about designing the now-

famous bright yellow and woodgrain

cabinet and getting the television sets

they’d need to modify to put in the

cabinets. The plan was to make 50

Pong

cabinets to sell, a modest amount but one

that would still strain the small amount

of storage space they had in which to

manufacture them.

After the design for the cabinet was

done, Ted started looking for someone to

manufacture them in bulk. After one false

start that was too cheaply put together,

he found the answer in the form of PS

Hurlbut, a local cabinet maker. Ted said

they might not be able to pay for them

all at once, but the owner said it was not

a problem because of their line of credit

through a local bank. Then, suddenly, two

weeks later, he received a call that the

cabinets were ready, to come pick them

up. There was no way Ted or Nolan had

the transportation, but Hurlbut delivered

them – all 50 at once. Atari didn’t have

the room for all of them inside the small

leased area, let alone room to do the work

to install the components.

By chance, though, the candle maker

next door happened to move out in the

middle of the night, leaving a vacancy.

Without asking permission, Ted used a

sabre saw to cut a large hole through the

wall separating the two properties. Now

they had plenty of room!

Ted also used his own money to pick

up 50 13-inch black-and-white Hitachi TV

sets that were going to be taken

apart

and used for the monitors inside each

Pong unit. Costing $3,000 in total, the

investment out of his own pocket was well

worth it in his mind. They had a chance to

make more money in the long run.

In the meantime, Nolan had a slightly

easier job getting the PCB manufacturing

going. He literally just walked across the

lot from their rental unit to another one

where a small PCB manufacturer was

located. Though he and Al also tracked

down sources for the rest of the parts

they needed, Nolan’s overall job was…

well, nobody really knew.

It was 27 November, and Ted and Al set

about assembling the units, as did a few

of the other people they had taken on.

But Nolan largely stood around, watching

while everyone assembled. Ted walked

up to him and said: “What are you doing?

We’re assembling these things; now it’s

your job to go sell them.”

With what Ted describes as a “hang

dog” look, Nolan went back to his office to

start making calls. The price had already

been decided: $937 per Pong unit. Picked

by Ted after he saw the number on the

licence plate of a car in the parking lot, it

put them in the sub-$1,000 price point

they wanted. Nolan returned only an

hour later, looking white as a ghost. After

making just three calls, he informed them

that he had sold 300 units – 50 to one,

100 to another, and 150 to the last. They

were in business!

While the Magnavox Odyssey

and

Computer Space

had been

first in the consumer and coin-op

industries respectively, it was

Pong

that would really drive the move

towards videogames in the public

consciousness and jump-start both

industries. By June of 1973, Atari had

already sold 3,500 units, which was

stellar in a time when most runs of

traditional coin-op games like pinball

were 1,500 units. At the end of its

manufacturing life, around 8,000 units

were sold. This was all in the midst

of an explosion of

Pong

clones by

other manufacturers, including Bally/

Midway.

weeks later, he received a call that the

cabinets were ready, to come pick them

the transportation, but Hurlbut delivered

them – all 50 at once. Atari didn’t have

the room for all of them inside the small

to install the components.

Without asking permission, Ted used a

sabre saw to cut a large hole through the

wall separating the two properties. Now

they had plenty of room!

sets that were going to be taken

apart

and used for the monitors inside each

worth it in his mind. They had a chance to

easier job getting the PCB manufacturing

going. He literally just walked across the

where a small PCB manufacturer was

down sources for the rest of the parts

they needed, Nolan’s overall job was…

well, nobody really knew.

about assembling the units, as did a few

of the other people they had taken on.

while everyone assembled. Ted walked

We’re assembling these things; now it’s

your job to go sell them.”

dog” look, Nolan went back to his office to

Pong

was such a seminal,

powerfully influential game

that Bill Budge’s first Apple II

high-res 6502 program was

a

Pong

ball bouncing on the

screen, and it blew him away.

Creating the original

Pong

experience himself seven years

after the original appeared was still an event of

magnitude.

John Romero, Loot Drop

»

In an effort to expand its locations and potential

buyers, Atari promoted Pong to department stores

and doctor’s offices. Seen here is a flyer for Dr

Pong and Puppy Pong, which are simply Pong

housed in a waiting-room-friendly cabinet.

PONG MEMORIES

“

Without Pong, you’d have no Coleco or

Nintendo entering videogames

”

14

and components. Nolan and Ted then

crafted a letter to Bally as well as their

strategy for when Nolan went in to meet

with its management. In a move that

would make Obi-Wan Kenobi proud,

they convinced Bally that this wasn’t the

droid it was looking for. An incredible

feat, considering that Bally’s subsidiary,

Midway, was actually interested in

releasing the game. Nolan managed to

talk them out of it by playing both groups

against each other, claiming to each

that the other didn’t want

Pong

so that

Pong

so that

Pong

in the end, they really didn’t. Per Ted’s

suggestion, they offered to replace it with

another game, but only if Bally formally

rejected

Pong

, returning the rights to

Atari. When the formal letter came, the

ruse had worked, but better than they had

expected. Bally had canceled the entire

contract, including the pinball machine.

Ted set about designing the now-

famous bright yellow and woodgrain

cabinet and getting the television sets

a problem because of their line of credit

through a local bank. Then, suddenly, two

a problem because of their line of credit

through a local bank. Then, suddenly, two

The press jumped on the new

medium, whose name still hadn’t

been defined yet. It could be regularly

seen labeled as TV tennis, TV games,

Space Age games, video action games,

electronic games, television skill games,

video skill games, Space Age pinball

and just plain videogames.

But Atari’s

Pong

and

Pong

-

flavoured follow-ups were

most assuredly in the front.

Pong

reached such iconic

status that it has influenced

pop culture as well,

becoming a recognizable

symbol of the Seventies,

with appearances in movies

and television shows from

that decade onward.

The impact of

Pong

on

the industry simply cannot

be dismissed or diminished.

It launched Atari, the

company that was then synonymous

with videogames and high technology,

solidified and trumpeted the home

videogame industry, and launched

entire genres that branch from it, like

the

Breakout

/

Arkanoid

style of games.

Pong

, in all its simplicity, completely

revolutionized the way we look at

interactive entertainment. It created an

acceptance of the amusement industry

at a time when it was associated with

organized crime and back-room bars,

and it showed the promise of the future

of high technology as it was just entering

the public consciousness.

Pong Doubles

(September

1973)

The first follow-up to

Pong

.

Pong Doubles

moves the

game into a four-player

variant by re-creating the

doubles tennis format.

Four staggered paddles

controlled by four separate

spinners create a unique co-

operative version of

Pong

.

Super Pong

(February

1974)

This adds three paddles to

the player’s spinner and

random starting points

for the ball’s serve. The

three-paddle horizontal

format was later leveraged

vertically in games like

Atari’s

Avalanche

and

Activision’s

Kaboom!

.

Quadrapong

(March 1974)

This is another move by

Pong

into the four-player realm.

In this version, each player

guards their own goal with

their individual paddle. The

player can only miss four

times before their goal

closes up and they’re out of

the game.

Pin Pong

(October 1974)

The first pinball videogame,

done

Pong

-style. It was still

just a ball and paddle, but in

this case the flippers were

the paddles. There are no

real flippers on screen; an

image of a paddle angled

to the real horizontal one is

quickly substituted to create

the illusion.

Tournament

Table (March

1978)

This is a collection of all

of Atari’s paddle-and-ball

games in a single cocktail-

style arcade cabinet.

Breakout

,

Quadrapong

,

Foozpong

,

Handball

, and

multiple variants of

Soccer

,

Hockey

and

Basketball

.

PONG

SEQUELS

»

e inside of the first Pong. A simple

wooden shelf with a standard 13-inch

black-and-white Hitachi that Ted

picked up. e prototype Pong sits in

the bottom of the cabinet.

Pong

was probably my most

desired toy that I never actually

got. I loved the game – used to

play in arcades – but it was always

that little bit too expensive for us

to buy. You can imagine my awe

when I actually got to meet and

subsequently become friends

with Nolan Bushnell! Life is funny sometimes.

Gary Bracey, Ocean Software

PONG MEMORIES

PONG

15

Without the impact of

Pong

, you’d

have no companies like Coleco or

Nintendo entering videogames, both

of which started with clones of the

game. It was Atari’s Japanese coin-op

division, which started out making

Pong

machines in Japan,

that was sold to Namco to

become its own videogame

division. Likewise, jukebox

company Konami was

inspired to enter the

videogame industry after

the success of

Pong

. There

are also the legions of

game programmers, on

just about every platform

imaginable, who cut

their teeth programming

versions of

Pong

as their

‘Hello world’ beginner’s

app.

Pong

or versions of

it have been ported to any system you

care to mention precisely because of

this, and the principles of the game

are still used to this day to teach

programming skills.

With its recognition in museums

and archives around the globe,

Pong

’s

importance to industry and culture has

come to its highest level. Without its

astonishing popularity, many companies

would not have invested time and

resources building affordable home

consoles. And now, here we are, 46 years

later, paying homage to the game that

started as a warm-up and truly warmed