[1]https://spectrum.ieee.org/pong


   In 1971 video games were played in computer science laboratories when
   the professors were not looking—and in very few other places. In 1973
   millions of people in the United States and millions of others around
   the world had seen at least one video game in action. That game was
   Pong.

   Two electrical engineers were responsible for putting this game in the
   hands of the public—[2]Nolan Bushnell and [3]Allan Alcorn, both of
   whom, with [4]Ted Dabney, started [5]Atari Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif.
   Mr. Bushnell told Mr. Alcorn that Atari had a contract from [6]General
   Electric Co. to design a consumer product. Mr. Bushnell suggested a
   Ping-Pong game with a ball, two paddles, and a score, that could be
   played on a television.

   “There was no big contract,” Mr. Alcorn said recently. “Nolan just
   wanted to motivate me to do a good job. It was really a design
   exercise; he was giving me the simplest game he could think of to get
   me to play with the technology.”

   The key piece of technology he had to toy with, he explained, was a
   motion circuit designed by Mr. Bushnell a year earlier as an employee
   of Nutting Associates. Mr. Bushnell first used the circuit in an arcade
   game called Computer Space, which he produced after forming Atari. It
   sold 2000 units but was never a hit.

References

   1. https://spectrum.ieee.org/pong
   2. http://nolanbushnell.com/
   3. https://spectrum.ieee.org/al-alcorn-creator-of-pong-explains-how-early-home-computers-owe-their-color-to-this-one-cheap-sleazy-trick
   4. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/obituaries/ted-dabney-dead-atari-pong.html
   5. https://www.atari.com/about-us/
   6. https://www.ge.com/