Pong: The Foreplay of Video Games

Ah yes, Pong. The primordial soup of video games. A time before graphics, before storylines, before morality systems that let you kick dogs for fun. Back in 1972, Atari handed humanity two rectangles and a square dot and said, “Here, figure it out.” And like a civilization marveling at fire, we lost our collective minds.

Let’s be real, Pong is the gaming equivalent of missionary sex: functional, mechanical, utterly lacking in flair, but undeniably effective. Two paddles, one ball, zero plot. It’s the ultimate metaphor for life: you hit things back and forth until someone eventually drops the ball, and then the scoreboard of existence ticks up by one. Congratulations, you win at futility.

The graphics? Stark black and white lines, as if Atari knew we weren’t ready for color. No distracting vistas, no immersive world-building… just the cold, hard truth of existence: bounce or perish. The sound design consists of two bleeps that would later inspire every fax machine and microwave in existence. Avant-garde minimalism or auditory terrorism? Depends on how much LSD you took beforehand.

Controls? Move up. Move down. That’s it. Even cavemen could play it, assuming they weren’t busy inventing fire or clubbing each other to death. And yet, in this skeletal simplicity, Pong forged the foundations of an industry that would one day let us roleplay as mutant raccoons wielding chainsaws. So yes, Pong is boring by modern standards. But it’s also sacred. Without it, your favorite 120-hour, lore-drenched RPGs wouldn’t exist. The next time you boot up some AAA monstrosity that requires a 40GB patch on day one, take a moment to honor Pong. It walked so every bloated franchise could run, straight into microtransactions.

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