Pong

Pong was originally desinged in 1951 by Ralph Baer a young and conscientious engineer who worked for Loral a TV company. It was when his boss approached him with the task of 'creating the best tv in the world' did Ralph come about this idea of 'Pong'. Baer wanted to create something different, because designing a tvwas such an easy process to him. Instead he came up with the idea of playinga game on the tv, therefore the video game was born. Sam Lackoff, the chief engineer at the time refused the idea and saw it as pointless and costly. So in 1966 Ralph Baer came back to his original concept, and built the first video games prototypes which there are only a few around today. The first playable video game was a Chase Game: two squares chasing each other. The last prototype built in 1968 (also known as Brown Box) played Ball & Paddle games, Target Shooting games, and more. After several demonstrations to TV manufacturers, Magnavox signed an agreement in 1971 and the first video game system was released in May 1972: Odyssey. The history of PONG games and derivates just started, would spread all over the globe, and die in the early 1980s.
Pong will always be a game in which designers and historians alike can revert back to for inspiration. Just like noodlebox, it was a concept.. an experiment, which inevitably became the birth of video games as we know it.