Yup, we just hit an important gaming anniversary, 50 years of the game Pong!
Pong was not the first video game, but the first commercially successful video game.
There are some vintage beings lurking on this forum who will remember their beloved Aquarius pinball machine being pushed aside to make way for a hulking black and yellow box with a couple of knobs, a TV screen, and a hungry maw that would soon be devouring a healthy hunk of adolescent's allowances for years to come. It was a precursor to other consoles, like Gunfight, Breakout, Centipede, Galaxian, Space Invaders, Joust, etc. invading the arcades.
Arcades became video arcades, and the video games started to evolve with better graphics, soundtracks, and more complex gaming dynamics. A couple of years after Pong came to the arcades, a console was released so that it could be played in the convenience of your own living room.
Just think, video games have come a long way from 8 bit graphics, and scratchy modem like music tones, taking up just a scant handful of bytes, to the 100+ gb fully voiced, soundtracked, movie-like masterpieces we have today.
So, if it wasn't for Pong, we would all be sitting at the kitchen table playing analog games like Hungry Hungry Hippos, instead of basking in the glory of our Alienware.
Check out the write up on Kotaku. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/11/pong-is-50-years-old-today/
Happy anniversary Pong!