Serve and Return: Pong Turns 40!

On November 29th, 1972, Atari — only 5 months old itself — first introduced Pong to the world.

They’ve been building to this anniversary for some time. Back in February, they announced the Pong Indie Developer Challenge, a contest where developers could submit their own re-inventions of the classic title. Though not without controversey, the contest did received a number of submissions, eventually announcing the winners in August.

More recently, Atari celebrated the 40th anniversary by creating a huge Pong game on the side of a building in Kansas City (video above).

Happy birthday, Pong!


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — Philips, an electronics giant, has faded from its former glory

Wearables — Capture sounds

Electronics — Audio amplifier advice

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: MicroPython Pico W Bluetooth, CircuitPython 8.0.4 and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Boxing Glove Tracker, Disconnecting Smart Appliances, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProducts 3/15/23 Feat. Adafruit CAN Bus FeatherWing – MCP2515!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



1 Comment

  1. It was an exciting day when the first Pong came to “The Pizza Hut” (a little mom & pop joint, not the chain of the same name) on Main St, in Farmingdale, NY.

    At the time, people were ambivalent about it- sure it was neat, but most of the kids I hung with still liked the mechanical pinball machines better, which took a lot more skill to operate the flippers than Pong’s paddle-pots, at least until you got good enough for the ball speed to increase.

    It took a few more years for video games to catch on with most folks. For this old-timer, the venerable vector-graphics “Asteroids” was the high-water mark!

    When Pong came out, I was in the 6th grade, and you could buy a slice for 15 cents!

    Time flies like an arrow!
    (and fruit flies like a bananna)

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.