Chapter 3Rendering Novelty Mundane:Technical Manuals in the Golden Age of Coin-Op Computer Games
Carly A. Kocurek
The earliest and most visible commercial success of the computer game industry was the launch of PONG (Atari, 1972) as a coin-op machine. Atari founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney placed the first prototype of PONG in a local tavern; within two weeks, the owner had called claiming the machine was broken. When Al Alcorn opened the machine to try to fix the problem, he found it stuffed to choking with quarters. PONG’s immediate popularity among bar patrons encouraged Atari and facilitated the sales not only of PONG but also of other coin-operated computer games. Atari’s first product was followed into the market by the company’s ...
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