1st Generation Game - The Magnavox Odyssey - Table Tennis

This was one of the very first arcade games to ever exist. The game consisted of 2 vertical paddle that move vertically across each other, using the Odyssey's controller.

This game was first released on the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, and you can play it using game card 1 without using any overlay. There were no graphics no sounds, just game-play , using 2 controllers, one of each moving a separate paddle vertically.Table tennis was initially designed so to help the proud owners of this console to manipulate the controllers of the Odyssey. The aim of the game is was the pass the ball in the middle behind your opponent's paddle and out of the screen. To start the game the player must first serve the ball by pressing the reset button on the Odyssey which will initialize the first horizontal movement of the ball across the screen. There was no score system so player had to use a separate sheet and write down the scores themselves. 

When you got used to the fast pace of the game, you could have increased the speed of the game even further by twisting the speed-control clockwise. The game was very simplistic using only black and white color, but it became a hit mainly because it was the new unique thing to do at the comfort of your own home.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia, (2015). Video game console. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console#First_generation [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Pong. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong [Accessed 6 May 2015].

Scratch.mit.edu, (2015). Scratch - Magnavox Odyssey Revisited: Game 1 (Table Tennis). [online] Available at: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/10035538/ [Accessed 6 May 2015].