May

  At the Magnavox Profit Caravan press event in New York, the Magnavox Odyssey is revealed to the world, the final version of the Brown Box prototype. The press is abuzz about this new mystery product; since nobody in attendance has seen anything quite like it, those present are given the chance to play the system’s games hands-on. One particular name in the guest book for the event stands out: Nolan Bushnell. Although Bushnell claims he is not impressed, the system’s table tennis game clearly leaves some kind of impression on him.

Ralph Baer and Nolan Bushnell talk about the event.

June

  Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck set up a second version of Galaxy Game, this time with a way to run multiple sessions of the game at once. Although it isn't unpopular, it doesn't match the crowds of the first version, and Pitts and Tuck never find a way to make the machine profitable enough for a wide release.

  Bushnell & Dabney aren’t happy with Nutting’s handling of Computer Space, but they still want to try making video games using the technology Dabney had designed, so they make the decision to leave the company. They sign a contract with Bally, an arcade game manufacturer, to make two games: one pinball game, and one video game (the first known use of the phrase). They go to incorporate as a company, but find that the name Syzygy is already taken in California, forcing them to find a new name. The one they land on, taken from the game Go, is “Atari.” For the time being, though, they’re still doing business as Syzygy.

Link to: the articles of incorporation for Atari, dba Syzygy. It is the first company founded specifically to make video games.

The first step for Syzygy’s next game is to actually figure out what to make. Bushnell bounces around an idea for a driving game, and pitches a hockey game to Bally, but after they’d already copied the design of Spacewar!, there isn’t much else to take inspiration from. Dabney is an engineer, not a game designer. While he’d been hired as an engineer, Bushnell is, above all else, a businessman. So, for the time being, Bushnell decides to replicate the Magnavox Odyssey’s Table Tennis game, as nothing more than a training exercise, until they came up with something better.

Dabney is put on to make the pinball game, so for the video game, they take on Al Alcorn, an old office mate from Ampex, as hired help. Alcorn isn’t told he’s working on a training exercise- as far as he knows, they have a contract with General Electric (who aren’t really involved at all) and need the game done within six weeks.

Alcorn and Bushnell recount building the first prototype of the game.

August

  Alcorn gets the prototype complete and playable, adding a few touches. The game now automatically keeps score, with two huge numbers on the top sides of the screen. The physics have been altered as well; a feature in Magnavox Odyssey Table Tennis letting the player “add some English” to throw curveballs is gone, but the direction of the ball can still change based on how close to the center of the paddle players hit the ball. The game has sound now, too. Bushnell asks if Alcorn can reproduce the cheering roar of a crowd- the best Alcorn can manage is a couple of short beeps.

Dabney and Alcorn are excited to move ahead and release it. Bushnell pushes back, wanting to move on and make the driving game he had in mind instead, but the group are having so much fun with the game they convince him to release it. So, Syzygy install their prototype at a test location, the nearby Andy Capp's Tavern, and give it the name Pong.

A day after the unit is installed, they’re called back in to fix a technical problem. Upon investigation, Alcorn finds the issue: so many people had played the game that the coin box had filled up with quarters, to the point that no more would fit into the machine.

Alcorn and Bushnell talk about Pong’s installation at Andy Capp’s Tavern, and show off the first prototype.

 A clip of interviews about the Pong prototype’s technical issue.

September

  The Magnavox Odyssey is rolled out for wide release in the US, making it to the UK and Europe the next year. In order for the machine to be cheap enough to mass-produce, its capabilities have to be very limited, and the only images it can produce are two dots and one line. However, the console squeezes as much gameplay as it can out of those dots. It comes with 11 different “game cards”- similar to ROM cartridges, but not quite- which let the console play different games by simply changing the behavior of the dots and line. The game count was inflated further with the included overlays, plastic sheets with images of things like sports fields, which would be placed on top of the TV screen to give the illusion of better visuals. Sometimes, different games would use exactly the same game card but use a different overlay, requiring quite a bit of imagination, but plenty can be played without any overlay at all.

The base set of the Magnavox Odyssey, with the Tennis overlay set up on the TV behind it.

A clip showing Ralph Baer playing the Odyssey and its peripherals.

The Magnavox Odyssey’s manual, including all the base games of the American version.

The vast majority of the Odyssey’s games attempt to adapt pre-existing games, generally board games or sports games. Some of them are fairly original, though, and a plethora of different home console game genres find their beginnings here. The Magnavox Odyssey is the first home console, but considering its age, it’s surprisingly sophisticated. Hard-wired into the console are two controllers (or “player control units”), with a simple control scheme of two dials, similar to an etch-a-sketch.

• Table Tennis uses Game Card #1, without any overlay. As the console releases, Syzygy is busy developing their clone of this game.
• Tennis, Hockey, and Football uses Game Cards #3 and #4, with different overlays. Along with Table Tennis, these are the first sports games on a home console.
• Haunted House uses Game Card #4, with a special overlay, as well as a set of extra physical cards used as peripherals. This is the first horror-themed game on a home console, although much of the game takes place without the console itself, and it’s hard to call it particularly scary either way.

Thanks to the console’s ability to play different game cards, Magnavox is able to sell more games separately, outside of the base set. Most require multiple players, but the first single-player experiences are sold this way. Several different versions of the console are produced, often with different sets of games, adding up to a total library of around 30 games.

• Wipeout, using Game Card #5 and a special overlay, is the first racing game on a home console. Only a single player controls the “car” (a dot), although another player is needed to act as referee, since the console has no way of telling when the player runs off the track.
• Invasion uses several different game cards, requiring a few extra peripherals as well. Most of the game is played on the peripheral game board, but it is the first strategy game and the first tactics game to involve a home console.

Game Cards #9 and #10, each with several games, use a separate light gun peripheral, based on a fairly common type of electro-mechanical arcade game. These games were popularized in part by Periscope, the first successful arcade game produced by the Japanese-American arcade company Sega Enterprises, a few years earlier. According to some sources, however, Magnavox collaborates with a particular Japanese toy company on the Odyssey peripheral. A designer named Gunpei Yokoi had recently designed a light gun toy called the Kôsenjû SP, and so Magnavox recruits the company, called Nintendo, to design and manufacture the peripheral. The games using the Odyssey’s light gun are the first ones on a home console to involve shooting.

The Odyssey’s base set with all its overlays.

A commercial for the Magnavox Odyssey, advertising its family-friendly fun.

  The same month as the Odyssey’s release, the 1972 Music & Amusement Machines Exposition is held, one year after Computer Space had been revealed at the same show. Nutting Associates is present at the show, presenting Computer Space again. Nolan Bushnell is also present, and tries to bring Nutting on board to manufacture Pong, with no luck.

October

  Back in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Project building, a group of students hold the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics. Spacewar! players from all over show up to compete, making it the first formal video game competition.

Bruce Baumgart grinning after winning the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics.

  Syzygy gears up to release Pong, aiming to build 50 cabinets for release. To ramp up production, they bring on Ted Dabney’s brother Douglas to help build the machines, and their old Ampex officemate Steve Bristow is brought on part-time as a machine servicer.

November

  Around the 15th, Pong formally releases in North America, with Syzygy selling twelve cabinets to distributors around California. The game starts selling much more quickly than Computer Space ever did, taking orders for 300 units of Pong by the end of the month, several times more units than the company had in stock. To ramp up production, Syzygy takes out a loan from the bank and starts hiring people to build cabinets. Needing extra floor space to house the cabinets, Bushnell knocks down the side wall into the neighboring space without asking permission from their landlord.

Pong is not the first video game by any means, nor even the first arcade video game. But, it is the first one to be truly, globally popular, and its success paved the way for the arcade video game industry, and eventually the home console industry, to take off.

This success stems from the simplicity of its design. Where Computer Space had been much better suited for computer labs than the arcades, Pong is just the opposite. As Table Tennis on the Magnavox Odyssey, it had lacked the depth and longevity to be rewarding as a home console game, but in the arcades, it has a kind of mass appeal which attracts players and gets them hooked on the game nigh-instantly. Nolan Bushnell sums up this takeaway as the aphorism “Bushnell’s law,” describing the ideal video game as “easy to learn, difficult to master.”

Pong in play.

Circuit-accurate Pong emulator. For more info, please check the original source here.