The first ever successful video arcade game was in 1972, a simple electronic tennis game called "Pong".

Pong had been invented 14 years earlier by William Higinbotham. Higinbotham, who was then head of instrumentation design at Brookhaven National Laboratory, developed the game to amuse visitors touring the laboratory. The game became so popular, however, that visitors would stand in line for hours to play it.

Higinbotham dismantled his game in 1960. He did not consider it important enough to apply for a patent (a government document that gives an inventor the sole right to manufacture his or her invention for a certain period of time). Twelve years later interest in Pong was rekindled. Atari released the arcade version of Pong, while at the same time Magnavox released Odyssey, a home-television version of the game.

Posted under Amusement Facts