Electronic Game, Telegames Super-Pong
date: label: Date made
content: 1976
label: date made
content: 1976-1977
name: label: maker
content: Atari, Inc.
label: Maker
content: Sears, Roebuck and Co.
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: .
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>Hartford Courant</I>, April 5, 1978, p. 30
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>Los Angeles Times</I>, Apr 6, 1978, p. G25.
label: Description
content: [Advertisement], <I>New York Times</I>, March 29, 1978, p. C4.
label: Description
content: Henry Lowood, “Videogames in Computer Space: The Complex History of Pong,” <I>IEEE Annals of the History of Computing</I>, vol. 31 #3, July-September 2009, pp. 5-19.
label: Description
content: Sears, Roebuck and Company, <I>Wish Book for the 1976 Christmas Season</I>, pp. 390-391.
label: Description
content: Sears, Roebuck, and Company, <I>Catalog</I>, 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.
label: Description
content: Sears, Roebuck, and Company, <I>Catalog</I>, Fall, 1977, p. 1262. The game costs $39.95.
label: Description
content: Sears, Roebuck, and Company, <I>Catalog</I>, Spring, 1978, p. 1060. Doesn't include this form of Super Pong.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Entertainment
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
label: See more items in
content: Computers & Business Machines
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collected by Jon Eklund
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.0132.31
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0132.31
label: accession number
content: 2006.0132
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Electronic Game
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 in x 11 in x 6 in; 17.78 cm x 27.94 cm x 15.24 cm