One thing leads to the next, as they say.
In this case, it is true. I’m sure I’ve probably made note of this event over the course of these nearly 13 years of bloginess. But here it is again, for anyone watching.
It was on this day, November 29, 1972, that the first commercially successful video game, Pong — yes, Pong — was released in Andy Capp’s Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.
It would take three more years before the home version became available. I’m pretty sure that is when it made its way under the Christmas tree in the Kronenberger household.
And. It was magic.
Our main TV sat atop the buffet in the dining room. As we didn’t dine much in the dining room, that became our main TV-watching area. The set was not that large, but it was a color set. We had another TV, too, though. It was much older, a large bulky thing that had its own wooden cabinet. A black and white dinosaur. I don’t think Mom and Dad knew what to do with this old clunker, so it gathered dust in the alcove of our living room. Until Pong came along.
Dad, or Ed or someone, hooked up Pong there. And that TV set became the Holy Grail of TV sets.
We would sit cross-legged on the floor in front of that set and play Pong until Mom and Dad made us turn it off.
Blip. Blip. Blip. The white ball skidding across the screen between the two paddles. It was Nirvana for an 11-year-old kid.
But truthfully, it was the first time that I had a participatory taste of an alternate reality.
Sure. I guess playing make-believe Batman and Robin, or the Browns vs. the Chiefs, with my sister was our own version of making up another world. We pretended we were something we were not. But with Pong, we were participating in a world where someone else made up how things went, and we had to “survive” in that world.
Magic. That is the draw of video games. I think it truly is. People become enthralled with video games because the game challenges their ability to survive in an alternate reality. It could be you are stealing cars in Grand Theft Auto or fighting wars in Halo. Or then there are the other worlds where you play happily to survive. Like Candy Crush or Mahjong. But they are all games where you try not to die and come out on the other side.
Many people love this. The overall total consumer spending on video games in the U.S. totaled $60.4 billion in 2021. It continues to rise from year to year. That’s a lot of dough on playtime.
Back to Pong and its numbers. Initially, the game was only available through Sears. That first TV console version would cost you $99 back in 1975. That first holiday season, Sears sold 150,000 Pong units. This made Pong, at the time, Sears’ most successful product.
That’s 15 million dollars if my math is right.
At any rate. I’m thankful that Paul and Lucy decided to fork out the 99 bucks that Christmas for Pong. The memory has lasted a lifetime. It might have had something to do with why I am such a geek today.
If Zuckerberg could have his way, we’d all be walking around with headsets on, conducting our lives in an alternate reality. I don’t think his version of the Meta will ever fly. Most people don’t want a cartoon version of online banking or ordering pizza. And more.
But. In truth, our lives are a lot like Pong. We move through our years, going from one point to another. Sometimes in a straight, speeding line, and other times, our trajectory bounces around a bit before it gets to the next point. But we go from one thing to the next.
And then, when we’re not quite ready for it, that little ball skids past the paddle and into the dark abyss. If we are lucky, we’ll have yet another chance to have another turn at things.
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“It’s funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
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“One person’s craziness is another person’s reality.”
― Tim Burton
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“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
― Albert Einstein
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Oh. We bounce around the little white ball. We do.
