Summary

Pong Doubles arcade video game made by Atari in America, circa 1976.
The protective case was made in Australia.

Pong Doubles is based on the original Atari Pong that began life as an arcade video game in 1972. It was the second arcade game to be invented after Computer Space.

In 1975 Atari released Home Pong, a simple but extremely successful and influential computer game based around playing tennis. It was the second ever home computer game in the world and the first commercially successful. (Magnavox Odyssey was the first home computer game, released in 1972.)

The huge success of Pong inspired about 75 clones by 1976, TV+4 being one of these clones. Several hundred thousand Pong type games were sold by the mid 1970s, the majority being sold by imitator companies. By around 1978 Pong and other early, simple computer games were largely redundant, being replaced by more powerful graphics based games that made playing computer games more interesting.

Physical Description

Housed in a wooden upright console, with 17 inch C.R.T. mounted at a 45 degree angle. The C.R.T. associated circuitry is mounted on a TV style chassis around the neck of the tube. Game circuit board is mounted low in console and consists of single board of 80 integrated circuits (mostly 74XX TTL) and 78H05 5 volt regulator. Board is 17 inch by 10 inch and electromechanical tally counter also near board. Console painted black with plastic protective screen over C.R.T. face. Input coin slot (20 cents) at front of console with elementary slug detection system.

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