Pong
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Pong Pong and many other games of its ilk are nothing special.
Its simplicity means someone, at some point, would have made it.
It has no special place in video game history as it was always going to be invented.
I banish it.
Its simplicity means someone, at some point, would have made it.
It has no special place in video game history as it was always going to be invented.
I banish it.
> Pong and many other games of its ilk are nothing special.
> It has no special place in video game history as it was always going to be invented.
Every new technology has to start somewhere, and as the article mentions, it was not the first but rather the first successful videogame. I played Computer Space when it first came out and the world was not ready for it, the world would need to get used to something simple and work it's way up to Computer Space. (it only took a short time to get to being ready for Computer Space, Space Wars was effectively the same game)
> It has no special place in video game history as it was always going to be invented.
Every new technology has to start somewhere, and as the article mentions, it was not the first but rather the first successful videogame. I played Computer Space when it first came out and the world was not ready for it, the world would need to get used to something simple and work it's way up to Computer Space. (it only took a short time to get to being ready for Computer Space, Space Wars was effectively the same game)
but its place in a darwinian model is clear
pong - breakout - space invaders
breakout took pong as a vs a brick wall
space invaders bloke took a look at break out and thought "wouldnt it be good if the bricks fired back" (he is quoted on tatio legends as saying something like that)
wouild break out have worked if it wasnt for consumer familiarity of the paddle
whats the game about?
i dunno you just hit the bricks
that sucks
or
its like pong but with bricks
pong ok cool
a gaming world without space invaders?
edit:
and as in the late 70's graphics were shite and cpu's not much better its all to easy to say
"but look at it its got no 3d or bla bla bla"
but without these "shite" games we wouldnt have had a videogames revolution (and crash) so where would your beloved high polly 3d rts mmorpg fps omgwtfbbq's be now then puki
edit:
its like saying shakespear is crap cos he wrote for the stage and you want movies
well shakespear's stories have been rewritten countless times for the movies and rarely as a shakespear movie
forbidden planet = tempest (bizzare but its what ive been told)
any comedy about 2 sets of twins separated (a few of those movies) shakespear (comedy of errors?)
or saying black and white (and silent) movies suck because they dont have large amounts of explosions and CGI ... no they had to rely on STORY TELLING
pong - breakout - space invaders
breakout took pong as a vs a brick wall
space invaders bloke took a look at break out and thought "wouldnt it be good if the bricks fired back" (he is quoted on tatio legends as saying something like that)
wouild break out have worked if it wasnt for consumer familiarity of the paddle
whats the game about?
i dunno you just hit the bricks
that sucks
or
its like pong but with bricks
pong ok cool
a gaming world without space invaders?
edit:
and as in the late 70's graphics were shite and cpu's not much better its all to easy to say
"but look at it its got no 3d or bla bla bla"
but without these "shite" games we wouldnt have had a videogames revolution (and crash) so where would your beloved high polly 3d rts mmorpg fps omgwtfbbq's be now then puki
edit:
its like saying shakespear is crap cos he wrote for the stage and you want movies
well shakespear's stories have been rewritten countless times for the movies and rarely as a shakespear movie
forbidden planet = tempest (bizzare but its what ive been told)
any comedy about 2 sets of twins separated (a few of those movies) shakespear (comedy of errors?)
or saying black and white (and silent) movies suck because they dont have large amounts of explosions and CGI ... no they had to rely on STORY TELLING
I agree with both points. Some things would have been invented anyway. However, the success of it i think would have varied if invented later maybe.
if pong came out after break out and space invaders it would have tanked
but as both games are based on pong (see my last post) would we be years behind regarding 70's 80's gaming?
Mr Alcorn was a young electrical engineer when hired by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. After the commercial failure of Bushnell's first game, Computer Space, he decided his next needed to be so simple that "any drunk in any bar could play" and commissioned a simple tennis game.
"Pong was intended as a throwaway project to get me practice," Mr Alcorn says. "However, Nolan didn't tell me this as he wanted me to put some real effort into it."
computer space was a commercial failure
pong so simple even a drunk could play wasnt
without all those quaters comming in to bars and arcades who knows
would gauntlet have been commissioned?
which would lead to smash tv (iir atari too although its now owned by midway) and its dual joystick set up
perhaps you CANT take something as simple as pong out of the equation without drastically altering the road map of modern day gaming
same as without doom we wouldnt have the modern day fps
yes wolfenstien was older and so were a few other games
but compare the cultral significance of doom vs wolfenstien ... whos the daddy
if doom tanked no doom2 no quake
edit:
i first typed modern gay daming ... perhaps thast one of those japanese games ;)
also wolfenstien could be seen as a top down ww2 game whose name i forget (unless that was also called wolfenstien) that came out afaik after gauntlet (i think it was for apple II) without quick cash cows like pong and break out where do you get the R&D dosh for the later games?
it could have delayed guantlet and with that perhaps the guys who made the apple II game may not have been 'inspired' (perhaps they would have made it anyway and it just LOOKS like a gauntlet clone) and as such wolf3d and its evolution into doom might have been somewhat different or delayed
edit:
in short (too late):
its like saying your great great grand father was good for nothing and might as well have not been born
well he was good for one thing and if he wasnt where would you be ;)
but as both games are based on pong (see my last post) would we be years behind regarding 70's 80's gaming?
Mr Alcorn was a young electrical engineer when hired by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. After the commercial failure of Bushnell's first game, Computer Space, he decided his next needed to be so simple that "any drunk in any bar could play" and commissioned a simple tennis game.
"Pong was intended as a throwaway project to get me practice," Mr Alcorn says. "However, Nolan didn't tell me this as he wanted me to put some real effort into it."
computer space was a commercial failure
pong so simple even a drunk could play wasnt
without all those quaters comming in to bars and arcades who knows
would gauntlet have been commissioned?
which would lead to smash tv (iir atari too although its now owned by midway) and its dual joystick set up
perhaps you CANT take something as simple as pong out of the equation without drastically altering the road map of modern day gaming
same as without doom we wouldnt have the modern day fps
yes wolfenstien was older and so were a few other games
but compare the cultral significance of doom vs wolfenstien ... whos the daddy
if doom tanked no doom2 no quake
edit:
i first typed modern gay daming ... perhaps thast one of those japanese games ;)
also wolfenstien could be seen as a top down ww2 game whose name i forget (unless that was also called wolfenstien) that came out afaik after gauntlet (i think it was for apple II) without quick cash cows like pong and break out where do you get the R&D dosh for the later games?
it could have delayed guantlet and with that perhaps the guys who made the apple II game may not have been 'inspired' (perhaps they would have made it anyway and it just LOOKS like a gauntlet clone) and as such wolf3d and its evolution into doom might have been somewhat different or delayed
edit:
in short (too late):
its like saying your great great grand father was good for nothing and might as well have not been born
well he was good for one thing and if he wasnt where would you be ;)
Heh... I don't even think that Pong deserves to come back into the high-definition era, either. Even tho I have indeed tried to bring a variant/clone of that with flashier technology in 720p/1080i. I really don't think that'll make the game play any better, imho.
i dont think anyone has sugested bringing it into hidef
a few years back and i would include pong in a how to code games book
mostly due to the pong-breakout-space invaders link
but also giving the coder/reader pointers in using mouse input and collision early on
some books ive read or skimmed over take for ever to say nothing and some code never hints towards practical game use ... yes they can be reused but the authour never really says how what where and when
but with a simple concept of pong you get the idea to breakout and then akranoid and anything else that might need 'bat and ball' type of interaction
just as you cant just jump into making a fps (unless using fpscreatordx10) without playing around with mouselooks and wsad movement
its all baby steps till you know what you are doing
a few years back and i would include pong in a how to code games book
mostly due to the pong-breakout-space invaders link
but also giving the coder/reader pointers in using mouse input and collision early on
some books ive read or skimmed over take for ever to say nothing and some code never hints towards practical game use ... yes they can be reused but the authour never really says how what where and when
but with a simple concept of pong you get the idea to breakout and then akranoid and anything else that might need 'bat and ball' type of interaction
just as you cant just jump into making a fps (unless using fpscreatordx10) without playing around with mouselooks and wsad movement
its all baby steps till you know what you are doing