Pong Launches: Bushnell Starts the Video Game Revolution
Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn installed their Pong arcade cabinet at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California, on November 29, 1972. The game was a simplified electronic table tennis: two paddles and a ball, controlled by knobs. Alcorn had built it as a training exercise; Bushnell never expected it to become a product. Within days, the machine stopped working because the coin box was overflowing with quarters. Bushnell founded Atari to manufacture Pong cabinets and sold 8,000 units in the first year. Home versions followed, and by 1975 Pong had launched the video game industry. Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for $28 million. The technology was primitive, but the insight was revolutionary: interactive electronic entertainment could be as compelling as passive television. That insight is now a $200 billion global industry.
November 29, 1972
54 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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