November 29, 1972: Pong is released.

Atari’s simple two-dimensional tennis game was one of the earliest arcade video games ever created. Although the oldest video games were developed decades earlier, Pong was arguably the first mainstream, widely-accessible video game; its success caused many companies to subsequently produce copies and knock-offs of the game, but it is the original that is considered “one of the most historically significant” titles in the history of gaming. Pong was quickly made obsolete, eventually replaced by games with more sophisticated graphics and gameplay, such as Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Pac-Man. Incredibly simple even for the time it was released, Pong still marks a milestone in video game history.