Happy birthday Atari pong.....Atari's 1st commercial success

[carmel_andrews]

Linky only

 

 

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/how-atari-s-pong-started-the-video-game-revolution-40-years-ago-165259921.html

 

 

Ah, the 40 year old dinosaur rears it's head again

 

How many times has that game been emulated, cloned, ripped off or copied....even if Atari did pirate the game from something magnavox built into it's tv game system

 

Interesting that the game was originally a demo that wasn't really intended for release

 

Anyone know what happened to the driving game (and pinball game) that NB was supposed to be designing for bally, or could it be that NB couldn't bother himself to finishing it

[astrp3]

In Games at Work by Morgan Ramsay, Nolan Busnhell said that the pinball game was called Transition and was going to feature a 3-level playfield based on heaven, hell, and earth. (whether that's accurate or not, I don't know) Ted Dabney worked on it but I don't think it was ever finished.

 

Several years back, Al Alcorn told me that from what he could remember the driving game was "...some big arcade piece which would be a 20 player game like those mechanical race car games where you bounce balls into a box and your car advances."

In Atari Inc. Goldberg and Vendel indicate that the contract was just for the video game and the pinball game and don't mention a driving game (and they may well have seen the original contract).

 

 

Keith Smith

http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/

[Retro Rogue]

In Games at Work by Morgan Ramsay, Nolan Busnhell said that the pinball game was called Transition and was going to feature a 3-level playfield based on heaven, hell, and earth. (whether that's accurate or not, I don't know) Ted Dabney worked on it but I don't think it was ever finished.

 

Several years back, Al Alcorn told me that from what he could remember the driving game was "...some big arcade piece which would be a 20 player game like those mechanical race car games where you bounce balls into a box and your car advances."

In Atari Inc. Goldberg and Vendel indicate that the contract was just for the video game and the pinball game and don't mention a driving game (and they may well have seen the original contract).

 

 

Keith Smith

http://allincolorfor...r.blogspot.com/

 

 

Keith, I think there's a bit of confusion there. There were only two games in the contract, a pinball and a "video game." Nolan originally wanted to do a driving game to fulfill the video game portion and fully intended to have PONG as a warmup, having Al move on to the driving game. That of course changed when Ted talked him into giving PONG a chance instead and they did the Andy Capps test, then decided in October to go into manufacturing on their own. The pinball part got sidetracked, and it never got further than what was described in the book (Ted hiring the mechanical engineer and starting to plan things out).

 

And Nolan did eventually get a version of his big multi-player driving game, it's the large Gran Trak-10 trailer we have a photo of in the book.

[astrp3]

Thanks.

 

I think Al Alcorn must have been getting his facts confused when I talked to him.

 

He thought there were three games in the contract, including an electromechanical driving game that involved rolling rubber balls into holes.

(a "roll up"/"roll down" game where you move mechanical cars around a track - kind of like Pokerino or those horse racing games etc.)

 

I don't have the book with me but I'm guessing that the Gran Trak 10 trailer was not electromechanical and did not involve rubber balls.

Was it just a trailer full of Gran Trak 10s or were they networked (I remember plans for a 20-player version of Gran Trak)? BTW - Elcon industries copied the whole "game trailer" concept, like they did with many Atari cabinet variants (the game booth and the theater kiosk, for example). I don't know if they licensed them or not.

[Retro Rogue]

Thanks.

 

I think Al Alcorn must have been getting his facts confused when I talked to him.

 

The problem is Al wasn't involved with the contracts, they were negotiated before he was there; and remember that he was pretty much kept isolated from the business dealings at that time, Nolan even had him thinking the PONG warmup was for a contract for GE.

 

He thought there were three games in the contract, including an electromechanical driving game that involved rolling rubber balls into holes.

(a "roll up"/"roll down" game where you move mechanical cars around a track - kind of like Pokerino or those horse racing games etc.)

 

I thought that at first as well (because I had also heard it), but Ted was very clear it was only for two games. There was no third game. In fact he was shocked that anyone would think there was, his tone was like "Where on earth did you get that idea?"

 

I don't have the book with me but I'm guessing that the Gran Trak 10 trailer was not electromechanical and did not involve rubber balls.

Was it just a trailer full of Gran Trak 10s or were they networked (I remember plans for a 20-player version of Gran Trak)?

 

It was just a bank of about 26 games (under the namme Atari Mini-Speedway) that included Gran Trak/PONG/Space Race games built into the side of the trailer. It wasn't networked.