A brief history of Pong: The game that made the video game industry

The video game industry as we know it got its start on November 29th, 1972, when Atari officially announced the release of the "Pong" arcade machine.

Nolan Bushnell had an inkling that video games were going to be big, so he recruited coworker and friend Ted Dabney to create what was essentially the first Silicon Valley startup — the pair invested a whopping $250 each to bring the company to fruition in June of 1972.

But while Bushnell understood the mechanics and circuitry, his real talent — and the real reason video games ultimately succeeded — was in his deal-making ability. He convinced Bally to pay Atari to create a new racing game that could be licensed, and they brought in engineer Allan Alcorn to help develop it.