Chris++ Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 It's great to get an opportunity to plug one's own articles. http://www.ataritimes.com/arcade/reviews/pong.html Thanks to Greg. Site's looking better every time I visit, by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
povlok1 Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 10% just curious.. are you old enough to remember 'before pong'? I so remember the first time I heard that 'bleep'.. god.. you could not imagine how emeresed one could be with just that simple concept.. I say at least a 50% Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Yeah, I certainly remember what it meant at the time. But that fascination hasn't remained with me, since it was almost immediately overshadowed by what followed. It just blows my mind that people still play Pong today and act like it's fun. (The article was largely written in a humorous tone; I'm not dead serious about hating Pong or anything.) To answer your question, I was born in 1972, but I do remember not having any Pong at home until I was 5 or 6. I can understand the old-school fascination. That was why I tried to write something "objective." I could probably write another full article on why Pong was so mesmerizing when it came out, and how younger people take moving images on TV screens for granted, since games have been around all their lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 It's great to get an opportunity to plug one's own articles. http://www.ataritimes.com/arcade/reviews/pong.html Thanks to Greg. Site's looking better every time I visit, by the way! NP. I always did think that score was a little low, but to each his own. (More proof that I don't want/need everyone to think like I do! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Well, it's your site if you want to change the scoring. My intention was definitely not to get anyone riled up. I just thought it was high time for a renewed perspective on the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Objective: Uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices. I'm not sure "objective" is the correct word for your article. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course. This article is yours. Some of us actually do like to play Pong now and again, and belive it or not, we aren't pretending. -S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 The article's precisely objective. If you played Pong for the first time in 2004, you wouldn't think it was worth your time. Either way, "objective" necessarily means the author's attempt at taking a step back, looking at something with detachment and reporting what he sees. He does not seek to guess what every potential reader might see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 I enjoyed reading your write up, even though I disagreed with most of it. Pong on the Odyssey did indeed blow chunks. There was no speed or direction variation and all the angles and karoms were very predictable. You could literally set the two pong controllers across from each other, start the game, leave the room to get something to eat, and come back only to find that the "ball" was still going back and forth when you got back. Enter Nolan Bushnell's Pong with variated speed, unpredictable karoms and different difficulty and score settings. All of a sudden you have a challenging game. I am one of the many who does enjoy playing Pong and many of it's derivatives such as Video Olympics. Despite the extremely simple graphics, non-Odyssey versions of Pong can be very challenging and addictive even to this day. Believe it or not the 2000 upgrade is actually fun and somewhat challenging. There are different types of paddles, different perspectives, different challenges and yes, different things you can do with the paddles. The 2000 upgrade does have it's hokey parts, such as animating the paddles and giving them their own personalities, and I'm convinced that the programmers were taking healthy doses of LSD was they were working on this game. Nevertheless, I recommend picking up a copy when you get a chance. You can probably get it used for $5.00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 The article's precisely objective. If you played Pong for the first time in 2004, you wouldn't think it was worth your time. Either way, "objective" necessarily means the author's attempt at taking a step back, looking at something with detachment and reporting what he sees. He does not seek to guess what every potential reader might see. What makes you so sure of that? Objective generally equated to unbiased. Anyone reading that article will definitely pick up on your biases as a writer. While the historical aspects of the article are objective, your review of the game, as with any review is subjective. It's not possible to write an objective review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Well, I could retitle it "As Objective as Possible," but it just doesn't have the same flow. I suppose it's fun to split semantic hairs, since that's what they're there for, but while we're at it, I should inform you that the possesive "its" is spelled without the apostrophe. Thanks for the thoughtful Pong write-up. It's not as funny as mine, but much more useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sku_u Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 Well, I could retitle it "As Objective as Possible," but it just doesn't have the same flow. I suppose it's fun to split semantic hairs, since that's what they're there for, but while we're at it, I should inform you that the possesive "its" is spelled without the apostrophe. That's what happend when typing quickly. (What's wrong with the previous sentence? ) When writing an article, I will generally edit it at least 20 times before submitting it. As I said, I definitely enjoyed your take on the article. I like your writing style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted April 23, 2004 Author Share Posted April 23, 2004 Thanks. I'm like that as well...a compulsive revisionist. None of this, of course, changes the fact that I seem to have spelled "possessive" wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisbid Posted April 23, 2004 Share Posted April 23, 2004 you know something, with high speed and angles turned on, two player pong can be quite fun. honestly speed seems to be the key to whether or not a classic game is still playable in this day and age. An old game that moves slow makes you pay attention to how bad it looks (ex - miner 2049er on 2600). Kaboom is awesome because at it can own virtually everyone pretty quickly, but it gives you the feeling that you can do better with practice. While im not comparing Pong to Kaboom, it still is hardly the worst game of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted May 4, 2004 Author Share Posted May 4, 2004 Oh, I totally agree with you. The worst game of all time is in fact Frogs & Flies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 Man, if I had read this without knowing the author, I would have thought it was either Mrozek or Seanbaby, noting the ill-informed tone, bad humor, and disrespect for history. Pong, or at least quality Pong (the 2600 version does suck, my personal favorite has to be the Sears Home Arcade or whatever it's called) is a great game. Breakout, I don't care much for, and didn't until Arkanoid came out. Yeah, you couldn't sell Pong in 2004 . . . Are you asking for a CHAAAAAAAAALLENGE? I bet I can make a Pong that would impress even the most jaded gaming yuppie. Is there a PC clone of the Nights into Dreams controller? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted May 7, 2004 Author Share Posted May 7, 2004 None of that matters, though, because your user name is "Cootster." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maibock Posted May 7, 2004 Share Posted May 7, 2004 I'm going to have to disagree with your assumption that "If you played Pong for the first time in 2004, you wouldn't think it was worth your time. " Pong is what it is, a simple game of eye hand coordination. Most people like to challenge themselves while challenging someone else and Pong is it, in it's most simplest fashion. I experiment with gaming on my kids all the time and yes they do in fact enjoy playing pong vs me, vs each other and more importantly vs their firends. I can only sight a recent sleep over with seven 11-12 year olds in which we had the Xbox, GC, NES and the Atari hooked up and I can confidently say that Pong on the 2600 took a significant chunk of enjoyable gaming time from them. Yes it's a simple game, but it includes the root of simple enjoyment, and that's competition versus a friend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilpetty Posted May 21, 2004 Share Posted May 21, 2004 you can play pong on the worlds smallest website http://www.guimp.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atarilovesyou Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 Oh, I totally agree with you. The worst game of all time is in fact Frogs & Flies. 601199[/snapback] WHAT?!??!...Frogs n Flies is the friggin BEST!!....man, we had soooo many damn laffs at that crummy 'game'...this was back in 92!!!...but really, there were many worse games....STARSHIP, anybody?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted May 16, 2005 Share Posted May 16, 2005 <Stinkoman K mode> Are you asking for a CHAAAAAAAAALLENGE? </Stinkoman> 603195[/snapback] 20X6!! Stinkoman is awesome. Glad to see another homestar runner fan. Pong on the Odyssey is indeed sucky. I should know, I got an odyssey 200-500 in the box. Even the coleco Telstar was better than the odyssey I still want to get an Atari pong unit though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Famicoman Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 There will always be one PONG question unansweres...Why not PING? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted May 17, 2005 Share Posted May 17, 2005 There will always be one PONG question unansweres...Why not PING? 856465[/snapback] So JoustPing could be made Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 http://www.ataritimes.com/arcade/reviews/pong.html The word is "opthamologist", not "optomologist". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
candiru Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 ophthalmologist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZylonBane Posted May 20, 2005 Share Posted May 20, 2005 Even better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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