Anyone remember the very first 'Pong' video game?

[kayakjohnny]

Anyone remember what happened when you set it to 'pro' level?

Anyone remember what happened when you set it to 'pro' level while you were ripped on THC and a few beers at a bar in Cocoa Beach on a surf trip in the mid seventies?

I do.

It was a streak of light that resembled a firefly doing 150 mph.

And there was no way anyone was hitting that thing back.

Yes, the damn game won.

Handily.

Every single time.

[cwydro]

1. I do remember it.

But my favorite thing was that brick breaking thing...remember that?

[kayakjohnny]

3. Yes I do.

Also the Space Invaders. I just couldn't believe how fun it was to shoot while you were spinning and sliding around like that.

And remember, these dang things were mostly just black and white.

Well, white on a black screen.

How archaic, huh?

[cwydro]

7. They were awesome and I would play them again

if I could only find them.

But I'm a simple sort.

[cwydro]

9. I thought the bricks had color lol!

Maybe that was my imagination...

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Ah yes, I remember it well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sISWPzEqHLQ

Best $400 my husband ever wasted.
:banghead:

[merh]

4. I had the table game, it was tossed out (still working)

and I had recovered it. My friend's brother sold it and some of my other furniture that I had in their "family" storage. I was bummed and never found where it went.

It looked like this

[arenean]

12. Cocktail cabinets

Yes, arcade games came in two styles of cabinet: uprights (where you stand) and 2-player sitdown "cocktail cabinets".

If you had an original arcade game at home they go for silly money now, or you can buy them new from various companies with lots of games built in (>$1000)....or, you can build one yourself. I found the plans to build a Pacman cocktail cabinet, so I used an old wardrobe for the cabinet itself, an old monitor and PC (running MAME - 'Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator') and a 'MiniPac' joystick/ arcade button interface for the PC MiniPac

I now have a fantastic arcade cabinet running 3472 games!

[merh]

15. I would love to have an arcade cocktail table.

I wish I had my old pong table, I can only imagine how much those go for now.

Thank you for the link and welcome to DU. :hi:

I'm envious of your arcade cabinet. Does it have centipede? Don't tell me, then I will really want it.

[HopeHoops]

5. We HAD one.

[valerief]

6. I remember playing it a few times in bars. Very Jetsonsy. nt

[woo me with science]

8. I think I've seen both games advertised as available online.

Nostalgia is big. I don't know where you get them or how safe the downloads are.

[astral]

10. yep.

[TZ]

11. I remember the little pong console you attached to the TV

Seemed so high tech at the time. LOL

[MorningGlow]

13. Wait...is this a conspiracy to collect and ID all the old people in one thread?

If so, I qualify. :hi:

We had one of the Pong knockoffs that attached to the TV--purchased from Gold Circle or some other ancestor of Target and Wal-Mart. There were three games--"tennis" (bip bip against another person or against the game), "handball" (bip bip against a wall), and one other I can't remember. I never was able to conquer it (okay I was 9) and I got really frustrated.

And I remember my mom getting all freaked out and making us detach it all the time because she heard somewhere that if we left it attached it to the TV it would burn the image into the screen. Or something. She waited till the initial interest wore off and then quickly squirreled it away in the basement. I think it's still in her attic of her most recent place, though, along with my brother's Jarts set and my Lite Brite.

[LiberalAndProud]

17. Othello (the third game)

The secret was to capture the corners. It was a board game first.

[TrogL]

27. It burned in my best friend's father's brand new colour TV

He was furious especially because it voided the warranty.

[ElboRuum]

14. Anyone ever see/play Computer Space?

It predates Pong.

[JCMach1]

21. I remember one called Space War...

[driver8]

16. I was 11 and my Little League team from Adak had traveled to Anchorage to play baseball.

The first night we were there, we were at a Pizza Hut with another team from Kodiak.

They had a Pong game, there -- it was the coolest thing we had ever seen!

We didn't have Pong on Adak...

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. I was like 6 then, so no I never tried playing it that way. LOL

[SwampG8r]

19. yup

we looked at it
laughed
and went back to playing pool and pinball
what a bunch of dumbasses we were

[kentauros]

20. Cocoa Beach, huh?

What else did you see there while in that mental state? :P

[Bennyboy]

22. Oddessy was the first home TV model.

had one. Pong, Skiing etc. Man when I think back on that...

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. I was 14 and in Hawaii on vacation --

when I encountered it for the first time in the hotel lobby. I had no idea what it was. I was very taken by it and sat down with a girlfriend for a game. It turns out I was pretty good. Pretty soon this guy in his 30s sits down to play me and we went game after game for over an hour, with a crowd standing around us.

We met every evening I was there to continue playing against each other. He provided the quarters. :D

It is still one of my favorite games I ever played.

[jmowreader]

24. Of course I remember it

I also remember reading about the first troubleshooting call ever made on a Pong game--in fact, it was on the very first one. They put it in a bar and it ran for a couple of days, then shut down. The bar owner called him up: "It's not working, come fix it." The inventor (who made it by hand) came over, tested it...all the electronics were working. Then he opened the coin box to find it completely full.

[begin_within]

25. My sister gave me one in March 1976

I remember because it was a birthday present. I don't recall any "pro" level though. I don't think I have it any more, but I'll look around. It was a fun game.

[qnr]

26. TBH, no. I've been using Atari computers since 1979, but I never touched a non-computer

Atari game until 1999.