What If?

Our hypothetical history lesson examines what would happen if Pong, the 1983 industry crash and the Game Boy had never happened.
11/4/2008 5:30 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

It's sometimes comforting to think that the way things are is just the way they were meant to be -- that events were simply fated to turn out the way they did. But any honest look at history shows that changing just a few small decisions at key moments would have had a profound impact on the state of the world today. This is no less true in the 40-odd-year history of the videogame industry, which has already had its share of truly momentous moments. In this feature, I examine what might have happened if those moments had turned out just a little bit differently.

For each hypothetical here, I tried to imagine a semi-plausible situation that could cause these seminal events to turn out differently. While not all of these situations are entirely believable given the state of the industry history, I tried to give each "What If?" at least a minimal grounding in reality. These stories are meant to be entertaining thought experiments, not definitive historical takes.

With that, let's take a trip into an alternate universe where nothing is quite as we know it.

What if Atari never released the arcade version of Pong?

Undeterred by the commercial failure of the overly complex Computer Space (the first coin-operated videogame), Nolan Bushnell bullheadedly pushes on with the release of Computer Space 2 in late 1972. The sequel runs on more powerful hardware, which Bushnell puts to work towards more realistic physics modeling for the game's black-and-white spaceships. CS2 is even more complicated that the first game, with new buttons and switches added for directional retro-thrusters, multiple missile launchers and even a limited-use cloaking device. After an amazingly successful test run in a bar frequented primarily by M.I.T. physics students, the game goes on to receive an incredibly poor reception at coin-op trade shows. Less than a dozen units are eventually ordered and produced, and none of them grosses more than $10 in its original location.

Magnavox, meanwhile, starts to find some niche success with its Odyssey home videogame system, thanks primarily to intense, focused holiday marketing. In February 1973, an enterprising young bar owner in Lansing, Michigan, struggling to attract new patrons, brings in the Odyssey he got for Christmas and hooks it up to an old, underused black-and-white TV in the corner of his bar. Word of mouth starts to attract lines of curious, thirsty players to the end of the bar. The drunks seem especially taken with the Odyssey's simple, built-in Tennis game. The bar owner starts charging 25 cents a play just to keep the crowds manageable.

Other Lansing bars quickly start to emulate the play-and-drink idea. The micro-trend leads to a major lifestyle story on the front page of the Detroit Free Press, which then gets picked up by the New York Times. Spurred by the article, bars nationwide experiment with their own corner Odysseys. Magnavox, intrigued by this totally unintended use of its hardware, quickly creates and markets a set of "do-it-yourself" instructions for installing an Odyssey system and a TV in a free-standing wooden "cabinet," complete with a coin slot and money box to free up busy bartenders. The idea is a smashing success, not just in bars but convenience stores, doctors' waiting rooms, airport terminals and other open areas where people congregate. The success of the 25-cents-to-try cabinets drives demand for the home system, which quickly becomes hard to find at retail. Magnavox creates an Odyssey division that quickly grows to rival the size of its venerable TV production unit.