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Pong, the electronic ping-pong game invented by Atari in 1972, was the first really successful video game.

In Britain, 'pong' was also slang for a nasty smell, and I remember reading somewhere, a long time ago, that Atari became aware of this and had a discussion about what if anything to do about it, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the conclusion was, nor can I find any mention of it on Google.

What was the game called when it was released in Britain? Did they just keep the name Pong, or did they change it to something else?

rwallace
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    As an aside, perhaps I could mention at this point the Wireless World "Tele-Tennis" design from about 1975, made up almost entirely of 555 timer chips. – Mark Morgan Lloyd Dec 22 '20 at 15:33
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    rwallace, for some reason I always assumed you were a Brit. May I ask where you come from? – Omar and Lorraine Dec 22 '20 at 16:19
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    What a cool side note ... guess that's the GB equivalence of the VC20 vs. VIC20 urban legend. Didn't happen but sounds like people would love to believe. – Raffzahn Dec 22 '20 at 23:41
  • @OmarL from his posting times he's either nocturnal European or lives on the other side of the pond :)) – Raffzahn Dec 22 '20 at 23:42
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    @MarkMorganLloyd - an awe-full thing & thanks for the steer to it: 12NE555, 16SN7400, 6 PCBs, from Practical Wireless Jul-Oct 1974, available https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Practical/Wireless/70s/PW-1974-07.pdf onwards – Tom Goodfellow Dec 23 '20 at 09:52
  • I have a weird feeling I've heard it was named "PANG" somewhere but I've never seen it, and I'm far too youthful to have been around when it came out. – John U Dec 23 '20 at 15:14
  • @OmarL I live in Ireland. And yes, am quite nocturnal :) – rwallace Dec 23 '20 at 17:44
  • @JohnU --- Pang was a later game, in which players shot balloons with a harpoon. – Ian Thompson Dec 23 '20 at 22:15

3 Answers3

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Pong.

I've lived in the UK for many years and never heard it called Ping! That is news to me. Now, when talking about the video game called Pong, we call it Pong.

Omar and Lorraine
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According to Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Pong was marketed as "Ping" in the UK. He said so in this 1982 BBC interview ("because evidently Pong is not a good word in England"), and repeated it 16 years later in this interview with German online magazine Telepolis. If nothing else, Bushnell is probably the source of the story you heard.

Also, Pong is indeed a British informal word for "an unpleasant odor" (Merriam-Webster) or "a disagreeable or offensive smell; stink" (Collins), lending credibility to Bushnell's claim.

On the other hand, several people in this thread have stated that Pong has always been Pong in the UK, whereas no-one can remember it being called Ping. So Bushnell may be misremembering (perhaps this was discussed at Atari, but never implemented?), or Atari may have reverted to Pong after a couple of machines. Or Bushnell is playing a really long-time prank.

Michael Graf
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    Excellent, thanks! What search term did you use? Perhaps my Google-fu needs sharpening. – rwallace Dec 22 '20 at 07:34
  • "atari pong britain" - 7th hit – Michael Graf Dec 22 '20 at 10:36
  • I think this was either a joke or a misunderstanding on Bushnell's part. – Dancrumb Dec 22 '20 at 15:32
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    This answer has been accepted, but it is incorrect. The UK version of Pong was called Pong. UK citizens are familiar with Ping Pong (table tennis) and there was no scope for confusion about the name. Bushnell must have been joking. – jsm Dec 22 '20 at 15:53
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    We had some such device in the early 1970s, but I couldn't tell you what it was actually called. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't called "Ping". FWIW, "pong" as a synonym for "smell" isn't a particularly bad word. It's not like naming a chocolate bar after the noise a horse makes. – dave Dec 22 '20 at 23:24
  • As a 39-year-old, I've only ever heard it called Pong. – spikey_richie Dec 23 '20 at 09:20
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    @another-dave I've never heard a horse say "marathon". Seriously though, while I'm not old enough to have seen Pong when it came out, everything I have seen in the UK called it Pong (or was a clone) – Chris H Dec 23 '20 at 09:33
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    In defence of this answer, it should be pointed out that the clip of Bushnell making the claim is from the very much British BBC, 10 years after the game's release, and doesn't appear to be challenged in either the original clip or the Twitter feed, also run by the BBC, that re-posted it. If people want to challenge, it would be good to have stronger evidence than people's memories 40 years on. – IMSoP Dec 23 '20 at 11:10
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    @spikey_richie Your memories of what it was called nine years before you were born are unlikely to be all that accurate. It seems entirely plausible to me that, like the Marathon/Snickers example given earlier, it was initially marketed as Ping, but then became sufficiently famous internationally that calling it Pong everywhere made more sense than localising it. – IMSoP Dec 23 '20 at 11:21
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    Anecdotally, & speaking as a 60-year-old who has lived in the UK my entire life - though I never owned the original as a child (only in later compilation versions), I cannot recall any instance of it ever being referred to as 'ping', only ever pong. Being about 14 at the time, it would have been the perfect age to compare it to 'a bad smell' but I can't recall anyone considered that particularly amusing either. – Tetsujin Dec 23 '20 at 11:35
  • Just a more recent example, people were laughing at the name "iPad", because they were thinking of the feminine product "pads". That wasn't an issue and the rest is history. – Nelson Dec 23 '20 at 15:25
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    @IMSoP It being "very much British" is why this is likely to be dry humour, rather than a literal answer. – Cody Gray - on strike Dec 24 '20 at 08:23
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It was marketed as PONG (note the capitals) and can be seen (subject to current restrictions) at British retro preservation venues like the Centre for Computing History.

http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/4007/Atari-PONG/

Stacker Lee
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    That's an American box. It says "color TV" on the side. Also "D batteries", which would have been "U2" in Britain. – dave Dec 23 '20 at 22:38
  • more likely "HP2" as I remember them, @another-dave – scruss Dec 24 '20 at 01:59
  • @scruss - Per Wikipedia, HP2 was an Ever-Ready designation for a zinc-chloride U2 battery, with SP2 for the cheaper zinc-carbon U2. – dave Dec 25 '20 at 16:16
  • yes, @another-dave — just I don't think I ever saw a battery in the UK that actually said "U2" on it, just SP2 and HP2 from several brands, not just Ever Ready. Though they did exist. – scruss Dec 25 '20 at 18:46
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    That's the 1975 Pong home console. Given the 1972 reference in the question, I thought the OP was referring to the 1972 arcade machine? – Michael Graf Dec 25 '20 at 20:56