Back to Pong

Yesterday I was sidetracked from my memories of video games past. Today I'm coming back around to the topic.

My mental wanderings have taken me from Play Station and Wii, back to the original Nintendo, and further back still to the technological marvel of Pong.

Pong, the original home video game, came to market when I was working my first ever job in Wanamaker's department store. The game was basic - use a controller to slide a "paddle" vertically along one edge of the television screen to hit a ping pong ball back to the opponent's side of the screen. That was it - virtual ping pong.

But what a draw it was - more so for the store employees than the customers. If an employee on break needed to be located, the first place we looked was the television department where there would be a crowd of folks waiting for their chance to unseat the reigning Pong champion.

Who would ever have thought that such simple entertainment would have led to the amazingly realistic golf and bowling video games we play today?