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Widely known as the first commercially successful video game, Pong needs no introduction. Atari’s ability to market the simple tennis-style game in way that took the world by storm. The inspiration behind Pong, however, is slightly lesser known.
In the late 1960s, inventor Ralph Baer developed a series of prototypes for a video game console that could be connected to home television sets. His seventh and final attempt – known as the “brown box” – laid the groundwork for what became the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s very first home video game console that barely predates Pong’s release. Even Atari’s co-founder Nolan Bushnell admits the “brown box” prototype is what inspired Pong‘s creation.
In 1969, Ralph and his colleague Bill Harrison recorded a short video of the “brown box” in action as the two shared a game of video tennis. Perhaps knowing how the next several decades play out is what makes this clip so interesting; it provides a fly-on-the-wall perspective of one of the most important moments in the video game industry.
Note from Ralph Baer:
“While the B&W movie of Bill Harrison and me was indeed taped in 1969, we played the first ping-pong games in December of 1967 in preparation for a January 1968 visit by Teleprompter execs whom we had invited and considered as possible licensees. We then thought that videogames would best fit the cable business. Teleprompter was one of the biggest cable networks in the 1960s.”
