This game needs some credit, if it wasn't for Pong you probably wouldn't be on Gamespot right now.
Space Wars was a game where two players fought against each other in a space looking playing field. Space Wars was a fairly complicated game with precise physics that even gave the sun a gravitational pull on you and your opponent. Space Wars, because of its complicated nature most people never gave it a chance when it was released in select bars, starting in New York. A man named Nolan Bushnell happened to see one of the Space Wars cabinets and instantly saw a potential gold mine.
Soon after, Bushnell got a loan and founded Atari to help him create the simplistic arcade game we all know as Pong. If Bushnell didn't fallow through with this, he would lose everything. There were a few talents that showed up at the request that Bushnell had placed in the paper. These men, venturing into a new technology, managed to create the first Pong Arcade machine. The most genius part of Pong was the 8 segment paddles that allowed players to angle shots, which helped Pong fight off literately thousands of imitators that tried stealing some of the game's glory when it became a hit.
It worries me to see gamers forgetting what this industry has gone through just to give you the enjoyable experience of Halo 2 or anything else. The story behind the start of the video game industry is just amazing, there have been so many close calls it's almost unfathomable that it's still well and alive as it is today. Though Pong is obviously outdated now, it has spawned what we know as the gaming industry and deserves much credit for its efforts.