14 Facts About Super Pong

1.

Super Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972.

FactSnippet No. 609,661
2.

Super Pong was the first commercially successful video game, and it helped to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey.

FactSnippet No. 609,662
3.

Atari released several sequels to Super Pong that built upon the original's gameplay by adding new features.

FactSnippet No. 609,663
4.

Super Pong is a two-dimensional sports game that simulates table tennis.

FactSnippet No. 609,664
5.

Super Pong went on to create his own designs based on his knowledge of transistor–transistor logic and Bushnell's game.

FactSnippet No. 609,665
6.

Super Pong divided the paddle into eight segments to change the ball's angle of return.

FactSnippet No. 609,666
7.

Super Pong made the ball accelerate the longer it remained in play; missing the ball reset the speed.

FactSnippet No. 609,667
8.

Bushnell had difficulty finding financial backing for Super Pong; banks viewed it as a variant of pinball, which at the time the general public associated with the Mafia.

FactSnippet No. 609,668
9.

In Japan, Super Pong was officially released in November 1973 by Atari Japan, which would later become part of Namco.

FactSnippet No. 609,669
10.

Bushnell felt that Super Pong was especially significant in its role as a social lubricant, since it was multiplayer-only and did not require each player to use more than one hand: "It was very common to have a girl with a quarter in hand pull a guy off a bar stool and say, 'I'd like to play Super Pong and there's nobody to play.

FactSnippet No. 609,670
11.

The sequels feature similar graphics, but include new gameplay elements; for example, Super Pong Doubles allows four players to compete in pairs, while Quadrapong— released by Kee Games as Elimination—has them compete against each other in a four-way field.

FactSnippet No. 609,671
12.

Super Pong initially titled it Snoopy Pong and fashioned the cabinet after Snoopy's doghouse with the character on top, but retitled it to Puppy Pong and altered Snoopy to a generic dog to avoid legal action.

FactSnippet No. 609,672
13.

In 2012, Atari celebrated the 40th anniversary of Super Pong by releasing Super Pong World for iOS, which was developed by zGames.

FactSnippet No. 609,673
14.

In 2020, a new game titled Super Pong Quest was developed by Chequered Ink and released by Atari on Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

FactSnippet No. 609,674