Object Details
- Atari, Inc.
- Sears, Roebuck and Co.
- Description
- Pong is an electronic game that simulates on a two-dimensional screen the play in table tennis (Ping Pong). The California firm of Atari originally introduced it in 1972 as an arcade game (see 1984.0890.01). Seeking a larger market, Atari designers soon were working on a smaller device that could be played at home, with a television set as screen. A home version of the game was distributed from late 1975 by Sears, Roebuck and Company. This is a slightly later version of that game, sold as "Super Pong" from 1976.
- Two gray controllers fit into the brown plastic game unit. Each controller is marked: Sears. The unit played four games. Text at the center top of the game unit reads: SUPER PONGTM (/) TELE-GAMESTM. Atari filed for a trademark for PONG in 1975, and it was registered November 28, 1978. Sears applied for a trademark for TELE-GAMES in 1977, and it was registered April 11, 1978. A Sears catalog from 1976 and 1977 advertised Tele-games Super Pong (indicating trademarks). Hence it seems likely that the game dates from between 1976 and 1977. By 1978, Super Pong was offered on cartridge.
- .
- References:
- [Advertisement], Hartford Courant, April 5, 1978, p. 30
- [Advertisement], Los Angeles Times, Apr 6, 1978, p. G25.
- [Advertisement], New York Times, March 29, 1978, p. C4.
- Henry Lowood, “Videogames in Computer Space: The Complex History of Pong,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, vol. 31 #3, July-September 2009, pp. 5-19.
- Sears, Roebuck and Company, Wish Book for the 1976 Christmas Season, pp. 390-391.
- Sears, Roebuck, and Company, Catalog, Spring, 1977, p. 1044. The game is priced at $78.95. Games played include electronic versions of catch, basketball, handball, and (as with the original Pong) table tennis.
- Sears, Roebuck, and Company, Catalog, Fall, 1977, p. 1262. The game costs $39.95.
- Sears, Roebuck, and Company, Catalog, Spring, 1978, p. 1060. Doesn't include this form of Super Pong.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Collected by Jon Eklund
- 1976
- 1976-1977
- ID Number
- 2006.0132.31
- catalog number
- 2006.0132.31
- accession number
- 2006.0132
- Object Name
- Electronic Game
- Physical Description
- plastic (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 7 in x 11 in x 6 in; 17.78 cm x 27.94 cm x 15.24 cm
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Computers
- Computers & Business Machines
- National Museum of American History
- Subject
- Entertainment
- Record ID
- nmah_1303665
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-212f-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
