On November 29th, 1972, Pong (Copyright 1972, Atari Inc) made its test market debut at a venue in Sunnyvale, California. Though not the first video game to see a commercial release (that honour goes to Computer Space (Copyright 1971, David Nutting Associates) released the previous November), it was the first game to see commercial success which lasted 6 whole years until something better came along... So yeah, had it not been for Pong, many of us would not be here today and you wouldn't be playing X Box or Playstation. I'm just sayin'. Anyhoo, please stop what you're doing and take 5 seconds joining me in wishing Pong a happy 47th 

Happy 47th anniversary, Pong! Special thanks to Mr Nolan Bushnell for giving the world sheer brilliance

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~Photo Courtesy of the good people at Atari-History (special special thanks for keeping the overlooked history of this amazing marvel of a company alive, Atari-History admins. Keep up the good work my friends)

 ~All copyrights acknowledged where necessary 

And for any of you interested, since giving the unknown retro its long overdue acknowledgement is one of my specialties, I at some point plan on doing a History of Atari as a Company article eventually. That company really set the bar high with many milestones not many know about: Steve Jobs (dude who invented Apple Computers) worked there for 5 weeks back in 1974, Atari released the first adult video game (google Atari Gotcha for reference), Namco bought out their floundering Japan branch and focused their shift on the video market making Namco's mascot Pac-Man (Copyright 1980, Namco/Bandai) Atari's Japanese cousin in a way, even the first Chuck E Cheese opened through Atari in 1977. The point is, they had so much going for them at the end of the day, and today, they're only remebered for their one hit wonder console the Atari VCS/2600 (Copyright 1977/1982, Atari Inc/Copyright 1986, Atari Corporation) which is just sad. 

Oh well, good thing I came here to remedy that lol

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~All copyrights have been acknowledged where necessary 

Celebrities who loved playing Pong (Copyright 1972, Atari Incorporated) back when it was all the rage:

Fay Dunaway

Neil Schon of the American  Progressive Rock later turned Arena Pop Rock band Journey

James Hetfield of the 1980's and 90's Metal band Metallica

Bill Murray

Billie Jean King endorsed it in 1975

Les Claypool of the 1990's American bizzaro Rock band Primus

Dan Aykroyd

Michael Jackson

And several more...