English practice 3
The Birth of the Video Game The last decade had saw1 increasingly sophisticated video gaming consoles that allow players to compete at great distances, control characters through body movements, and much more. The possibilities of video gaming, taken for granted today, were mind-blowing in 1972 when Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney introduced the public to their new creation: Pong2.
There had been other video games before Pong, of course. The necessary technology had been developed as early as 1952, and Pong were3 preceded by several other games, such as Tennis for Two, Spacewar!, and Computer Science. However, it was not until Pong, with its simple interface and addictive nature, that the concept of home video gaming systems really took off.
[1] Looking back on Pong today, it seems ridiculously old-fashioned, so it's easy to contrast it with modern games. [2] It's not that Pong was the most advanced game of the era: Several earlier games, in fact, were actually more technologically advanced4. [3] Pong's strength7 was its combination of novelty and accessibility. [4] The other games, sophisticated as they were, simply proved too difficult for the average consumer or person considering making a purchase8. [5] However, it was groundbreaking in in it's9 own way10.
The history of the video game becomes more understandable when it is remembered that the creators of early games were primarily engineers and mathematicians, developing these games for their own amusement, they11 paid little attention to popular marketing. These pioneering developers saw the games they created as "doodling," more or less. Even when they introduced their products to the public, they usually did so as part of a showpiece, on a temporary basis12.
So just think of how far video game technology has come, and don't forget that the technology continues to advance every day. In Pong, a player uses a single knob to send a "ball" back and forth across the screen, gaining points and trying to prevent the ball from slipping past the "paddle," a bar at the bottom of the screen. Compared to high complex13 games like Super Mario Galaxy and Halo, Pong may seem laughable.
But anyway, I still think Pong is fun to play sometimes14.
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