In November 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn wheeled a strange apparatus into Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, Calif. Bushnell, the founder of a new company called Atari, and Alcorn, Atari's first engineer, set up the cube-like device on a barrel and switched it on. Two dials were set below glowing rectangles on a screen. The instructions read: "1. Insert quarter. 2. Ball will serve automatically. 3. Avoid missing ball for high score." Curious patrons began to follow step one.

Before long, the thing stopped working. Alcorn returned to the bar to check it out. Opening it up, he saw that the side-mounted coin mechanism (from a laundromat) was jammed-brimming with quarters. Pong was already on its way to being the first commercially successful video game.