Allan Alcorn is an American pioneering engineer and computer scientist best known for creating Pong, one of the first video games. In 2009, he was chosen by IGN as one of the top 100 game creators of all time.
Alcorn in 2007
Pong consoles and clones were common in the mid-1970s.
Allan Alcorn with Ralph Baer at GDC 2008
Pong is a table tennis–themed twitch arcade sports video game, featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released on 29 November 1972. It was one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.
An upright cabinet of Pong on display at the Neville Public Museum of Brown County
Atari engineer Allan Alcorn designed and built Pong as a training exercise.
The Pong prototype that was used in the tavern
The former site of Andy Capp's Tavern in 2023, which was replaced by the Rooster T. Feathers comedy club in 1984
