Atari Wants To Reinvent Pong 180
mikejuk writes "Atari is offering up to $100,000 in a contest for a new version of Pong, the classic game that launched video games 40 years ago, for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. The judges for the contest include Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who came up with the original idea for Pong. So, what does a 21st century Pong look like? How does it play? And what role does touch have in this, the simplest of games?"
o like plasma pong (Score:5, Insightful)
plasma pong...except atari had the creater take it down because of property rights
Re:o like plasma pong (Score:5, Interesting)
plasma pong...except atari had the creater take it down because of property rights
There are doubtless countless clones, derivatives and clever variants of Pong. The fact that the current "Atari" (i.e. owners of the name/IP) will bless one as official probably makes little difference. It's common for such companies to produce numerous "official" sequels to famous arcade games over the years. Those are generally forgotten when they want to sell the *next* pointless update of the original.
It's like Space Invaders. That's a very simple game- you can tart it up or add gimmicks, but they're either going to end up as (a) Space Invaders with shiny graphics, bells and whistles that just exaggerate how simplistic the core game is or (b) something so modernised and far from the original that it's an "in name only".
The "truest" sequel would be a game that started from the same basic concept as Space Invaders, retaining what made it work, but moving it on and enhancing it, making the original look slightly staid in the process. But Namco basically did that (unofficially) already... 30 years ago with "Galaxian" and then "Galaga".
Tetris is probably *the* uber-example of a simple game that works well *because* of its simplicity and absolutely doesn't need bells or whistles- the game was probably perfected with the Game Boy version. However, that hasn't stopped them making countless official sequels and spinoffs that add nothing but gimmickry to justify the sale of a game we've already bought many times. I appreciate that Alexey Pajitnov got shafted on the rights early on, and probably wants to make some money from his creation, but it doesn't change the fact that it's all pointless.
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Noooo! Danny, remember Bill Murray .. (Score:5, Funny)
"Be the ball!"
It's all about different perspective!
I want a pong where game play is I'm the ball and I choose the amount of english on the spin
I want frogger from a first person view. I want an turn based "defender" where I control a massive army against an overpowered computer AI player.
Dammit, I want a lunar lander where I am fucking gravity......
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I want frogger from a first person view.
It's not exactly first person, but they did do a somewhat 3D version of Frogger [youtube.com] in the late 90s.
I remember hearing about Hasbro's 3D version of Centipede [youtube.com] at the time and thinking "typical gimmicky attempt to 'update' a classic", but having looked it up, their 3D Frogger appears to have done something interesting with the idea, even if it's more of a sequel that expands on the idea (see my comment on Invaders/Galaxians above) than the remake of the original it presents itself as.
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I want an turn based "defender" where I control a massive army against an overpowered computer AI player
Back in high school, a friend and I drew up designs for a game called "Offender", where you played the aliens trying to steal the humanoids from the planet. We got as far as designing sprites, but never coded anything.
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What I don't get is why they gotta rehash the SAME ones over and over AND OVER
Here's why... you said it yourself. It's to exploit...
some sense of nostalgia
And even though
anybody that played any of the originals are probably just as damned sick as i am of these rehashes
you have to realise that it's in the nature of entertainment corporations that they're going to exploit the heck out of any IP that has made them a lot of money previously, so long as they think they can make a bit more money out of it. They won't stop until long after this has stopped paying off.
Then after some time someone else will think they can exploit the "franchise" again, and given how the media reports (and people perceive) thin
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Go ahead, punk.
Touch my Pong.
Oh, oh, I know this one! (Score:5, Funny)
It needs to be first person, it needs to have blood, also needs to have dubstep music.
Oh, and don't forget DLC with new tennis balls and racket designs.
You can't deny it Atari, this is the only way to go.
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And bonus levels! Don't miss the pong faq [musenet.org]!
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It needs to be first person, it needs to have blood, also needs to have dubstep music.
Oh, and don't forget DLC with new tennis balls and racket designs.
You can't deny it Atari, this is the only way to go.
Add in a pointless MMO element, and make the ball "angry" too!
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- Quick Time Events, check
- Muscle covered generic American protagonist with dry wit, check.
- Cliche'd sidekicks, check.
They could just go all the way and call it Pong of Duty.
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Maybe the cats who are working on the Battleship movie [imdb.com] could work on it?
Atari contest? Reminds me of this. (Score:2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWltQ9UN5vE [youtube.com]
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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and at the 7th level, Kafka says hi
Ms. Pong (Score:5, Funny)
They should call it Ms. Pong, and it should be essentially the same game, except the ball has a ribbon in its hair.
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I still can't get over that Agent Smith and Elrond were in that movie.
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Curveball (Score:4, Informative)
already been done... http://www.addictinggames.com/sports-games/curveball.jsp
Air Hockey for iOS (Score:2)
Huh (Score:2)
Didn't they already do a kind of modernized pong.
I actually remember it not being too bad. Remember playing it on the playstation (back when I actually liked Sony as a company). Had powerups and a 3D camera system that was actually pretty impressive for it's time. Was a good party game.
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Ah yes, "Pong - The next Level" I love that version, still play the original disk thanks to emulation (and a BIOS dumper). Each board was a different variation of pong. There were themed worlds. The first level even had Penguins. [youtube.com]
Spoiler alert! After you beat the game you could play the original Pong game in the stars... The last level on the side of the Atari Symbol was a bit frustrating and NOT very pong like. [youtube.com]
What's in a name? (Score:5, Interesting)
Apparently everything, as it turns out. Atari is nothing but a name, bought and sold like something found at Best Buy, and now brandished by a company with no resemblance or heritage to the company that defined the name.
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Apparently everything, as it turns out. Atari is nothing but a name, bought and sold like something found at Best Buy, and now brandished by a company with no resemblance or heritage to the company that defined the name.
There seems to be some respect for its heritage. From the summary: "The judges for the contest include Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, who came up with the original idea for Pong."
To be fair, even if never sold companies change over time. Apple run by founder Steve Jobs in 2010 was quite different than Apple in 1980.
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It's now a company in another country so far away that it's across an ocean and with employees that speak a different language.
That is not only stupid, it's manipulative and misleading. Everyone might know that certain trademarks like 'Memorex' are a scam, but I doubt the same is true (yet) of this one.
Re:What's in a name? (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently everything, as it turns out. Atari is nothing but a name, bought and sold like something found at Best Buy, and now brandished by a company with no resemblance or heritage to the company that defined the name.
Yep- the current "Atari" is really just the company formerly known as Infogrames, who bought the name from Hasbro Interactive around a decade back.
The original- and most famous- Atari Inc. was split in 1984. The computer and home division became Jack Tramiel's Atari Corp. (legally separate, but an obvious successor in interest) which fizzled out in the mid-90s and merged with a second-rate hard drive manufacturer that went bankrupt soon after. The arcade division (Atari Games) was sold to Midway who dropped the "Atari" name in the late 90s, and closed it altogether a few years later.
IMHO that's where anything resembling a true continuation of the original Atari ended.. Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames were/are connected in name and rights only, but obviously it serves Infogrames', er... *Atari's* retro-credibility better if they get to present themselves as the "classic" Atari and present Bushnell as- or at least imply that he was- their founder.
Re:What's in a name? (Score:4, Insightful)
Bushnell is and was a whore.
That fact alone makes the "new" Atari like the old one in the most important way possible. Except this one has sustainable ideas on how to structure it's business.
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Just like Commodore.
Maybe like ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Arkanoid?
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Arkanoid is breakout, not pong.
I see... (Score:3, Funny)
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I see something more along the lines of https://xkcd.com/117/ [xkcd.com]
Paddles sustain damage (Score:2)
1. Have the ball transmit damage to a paddle on each successful return so that divots are taken out of each paddle. As each paddle becomes more fragmented, a player's ability to successfully return the ball decreases.
1a. Introduce a healing ball that appears at random intervals headed from the middle of the pong field toward the outside. Capturing this healer would restore some portion of sustained damage.
2. That's all I got for now.
Never give them free ideas. This is a scam. (Score:2)
If they won't hire you as an employee why would you help them?
Instead of a contest for $100,000 why not offer employment? I know a programmer for Atari working on Pong will make $100,000 a year+. They want to get you to do all the hard work of designing the game so they can come along and give you $100,000 to steal it.
Know what your ideas are worth. They are cheap and this is a complete scam.
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Know what your ideas are worth.
Assuming that the ideas are original, most peoples ideas are worth about $0.00 dollars, many even less than that.
Do you remember that old advice: never work with an idea man? There's a reason that still rings true today.
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Because I do not want to work for Atari but still think it'd be neat to see an idea of mine implemented. Also because I have lot and lots of ideas (except in this one case, heh), and giving this one away doesn't really matter to me.
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Read the rules. First, this isn't just an "idea". You have to submit a final game to them if they like the idea. So really you're just a contractor.
Now, the rules. You don't get $100k in cash. You get $50k in cash:
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This was my first thought. And it's only that good if you win. If you don't win, you get nothing. How many entries might you be competing against? 100? 1000? More? Might as well play the lottery.
Maybe Atari is also looking for more people and is using this as a way to find those who are interested and talented? Odds of that aren't good either. If they are searching for people, they can't hire but a handful even if they wanted to hire more.
Contests leave me feeling cold.
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Some rough calculations. Let's say Atari sells your game for $2.99. $3 to make it easier.
$3.00 x 70% = $2.10. That is the profit after Apple takes their cut.
$2.10 x 2% = $0.042. So Atari's generous 2% profit share nets you about 4 cents off of every app purchase. 4 cents!
Okay, so how many app purchases would it take to make that other $50,000?
1,190,476. Almost 1.2 million. Huh.
And how much does Atari make from those 1.1 million app purchases?
$2,449,999. Yup. You get $50,000, they get $2.4 million. Seems f
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If you are "lucky" enough to be one of the 10 finallists, go on to develop your idea into a full game, and don't win one of the top 3 prizes, you only get $5000 and Atari still own everything you've submitted.
You'd have to be either desperate or stupid to enter.
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2. That's all I got for now.
Sounds like you need to level up, ideasman.
Get on our level. [youtube.com]
Related article (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.indiegamemag.com/slicing-the-industrys-atari-just-how-offensive-is-the-pong-indie-developer-challenge
No further comment. Just read it!
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The good answer won't be forthcoming ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Atari is offering up to $100,000 in a contest for a new version of Pong ... So, what does a 21st century Pong look like?
You realize that the people with the really good ideas are not going to answer your question given the prize money at stake? You are going to have to wait for the end of the contest to get your answer.
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On the other hand, success is not guaranteed, and this way at least they won't have to give $30,000 of their money to Apple.
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On the other hand, success is not guaranteed, and this way at least they won't have to give $30,000 of their money to Apple.
And on the gripping hand, getting to keep 70% of the retail price while spending nothing on an online store, downloads, credit card processing, etc is pretty amazing compared to previous distribution methods where a developer was lucky to see 10-15%. Apple actually greatly leveled the field for the small developer and provides them far more opportunity than anyone else.
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On the other hand, success is not guaranteed, and this way at least they won't have to give $30,000 of their money to Apple.
And on the gripping hand, getting to keep 70% of the retail price while spending nothing on an online store, downloads, credit card processing, etc is pretty amazing compared to previous distribution methods where a developer was lucky to see 10-15%. Apple actually greatly leveled the field for the small developer and provides them far more opportunity than anyone else.
It's so cute you believe that.
But awaken from your dreamy state and look at who really publishes games on the App Store. It's the same big publishers so developers are no longer lucky to receive 10-15% of 100% of revenue, they are now lucky to receive 10-15% of 70% of revenue.
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On the other hand, success is not guaranteed, and this way at least they won't have to give $30,000 of their money to Apple.
And on the gripping hand, getting to keep 70% of the retail price while spending nothing on an online store, downloads, credit card processing, etc is pretty amazing compared to previous distribution methods where a developer was lucky to see 10-15%. Apple actually greatly leveled the field for the small developer and provides them far more opportunity than anyone else.
It's so cute you believe that. But awaken from your dreamy state and look at who really publishes games on the App Store. It's the same big publishers so developers are no longer lucky to receive 10-15% of 100% of revenue, they are now lucky to receive 10-15% of 70% of revenue.
Wrong. Prior to digital distribution the small independent developer could not do it themselves. They could not get brick and mortar shelf space so the only option was to publish through an established big publisher. Today with digital distribution the small independent developer is on more equal footing. Indies show up right next to Electronic Arts and Activision on search results.
MMOG PONG is an idea I had (Score:2)
Warlords (Score:2)
AR (Score:5, Interesting)
Life size pong (Score:3)
Use the accelerometers such that the entire phone is your paddle.
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note warranty does not cover use of phone as paddle.
Great, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Eligibility:
"The contest is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columba, eighteen (18) years of age or older as of the date of their entry who have an Apple developer ID and have published a valid and proper Apple iTunes U.S. App Store game prior to the date of their entry...."
I was semi-excited there for a minute.
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I wonder what platform they're planning to target.
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No, Sir ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Beer Pong (Score:3)
Hah! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hah! (Score:5, Interesting)
What I really like is that the rules say that Atari becomes the owner of your entry. So if you don't win, you can't even throw your game on the app store and see it makes a few bucks there instead.
You'd have to be some kind of moron to enter this contest.
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They've restricted the contest to people who already have an Apple Developer ID, so they be used to this kind of abuse.
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Naturally they reject any obscene entries, but if you did submit something that was owned by someone else, you indemnify them against any claim the actual right holder makes. So they get to use it and you get to pay for the infringement. Great deal, right?
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Seriously, anyone entering this should read the rules very carefully. First of all, it isn't a straight 100k. It's 50k with POTENTIAL for 100k depending on how well it sells. Also, they take all rights for anyone who even enters the contest. Why is that? That's because they aren't going to just sell a new Pong. They're selling a Pong Pak (c) according to the rules. So they're going to take all the entrants that are decent and create a PAK of Pong games and sell that for pure profit.
Oh, and bonus, the whole
Misleading Title (Score:5, Insightful)
"Atari Wants To Reinvent Pong" is incorrect. It should be:
"Foreign company that owns the Atari trademark wants someone else to reinvent Pong for them, because they blew it trying to reboot a few of Atari's classic titles themselves."
Re:Misleading Title (Score:5, Interesting)
Doubly so considering Atari didn't invent Pong, they stole it from Magnavox [wikipedia.org] and the original developer Ralph Baer [wikipedia.org].
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But HEY lets bitch about the people bitching about the name atari....
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Self-parody. Brilliant!
A nice way to steal our ideas and profit millions. (Score:4, Insightful)
I have had ideas for new versions of pong and for many games but I damn sure am not going to give my idea to Atari or any game company. Atari if you want my idea for pong hire me for $100,000 a year and I'll even help you code it.
Otherwise fuck off :)
a 21st century Pong (Score:2)
Would be Wii Sports tennis game.
Or if they can make a kinnect responsive enough.
They already made that game (Score:5, Informative)
What does 21st century pong look like? (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine a man in an orange jumpsuit with black lettering that reads "enemy combatant." He's wandering around a cell at Guantanamo Bay, alternately bumping into a U.S. military judge, a civilian judge and an official from his home country, who keep shoving him back toward the others.
It's accurate, but not much fun.
Don't enter this contest. (Score:2)
It's been done again and again (Score:2)
Duh! Any modern tennis (or table tennis) video game is a modern Pong!
Ping (Score:2)
Atari? (Score:3)
Don't you mean the people who bought the name/rights after the real Atari quietly disbanded and had its "brains" scatted among silicon valley, to be absorbed into the gray corporate goo? ( http://www.atarihq.com/othersec/dthomas/100496.html [atarihq.com] )
This is just another investment firm trying to profit off the past of others. Just say no.
Ya, i'm still resentful, even after all these years.
Minecraft pong! (Score:2)
I just implemented a pong game in Minecraft.. 21st century = you implement games inside other game worlds.
They already remade Pong on PS1 and it was great! (Score:2)
I didn't think it was possible, but they already made a great pong remake. It was on the PS1 and had a ton of different tables/variations. They ever had a four player (2 vs 2) coop option!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se5gYQ8wURQ [youtube.com]
Ob. link: Pong: The Next Generation (Score:2)
Looks like this [maniacworld.com].
For the love of all that is holy.... (Score:2)
Don't just make it classic pong + AI because then this happens. [irancartoon.com]
This contest is bad for the contestants (Score:3, Informative)
Gamasutra covered how much of a scam this contest is [gamasutra.com].
The executive summary: Atari gets full ownership and rights to every submission, winning or otherwise, and you'll never earn anywhere near $100k even if you win the top prize.
All of this is rather unsurprising, given the dirty tricks Atari Legal have been playing lately. [slashdot.org]
Think about your intellectual property before you (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not exactly sure how you'd revolutionize Pong. (Score:2)
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Make it like the Atari DnD Game I just bought (Score:2)
It was cheap, like 15 bucks, which is why I got it. Autorun did not wok, installer crashed 3 fucking times, had to sign in to steam, installer crashed, uninstall, crash crash, fuck this copy disc to hard drive, uninstall, actually installed and got notice that a update HAD to be installed, thats 400 megs larger than the fucking game on the disc ... 4 hour download. So to sum up, 2 hours after I bought the stupid thing I got to wait 4 more hours before I can even play it ... and according to the reviews its
In case anyone is interested in knowing: (Score:2)
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that new chip is just a micro running software, not a dedicated thing that someone sat down and designed at the silicon level JUST for pong, though its probably masked so you cant reprogram it
Augmented Reality (Score:2)
A tablet game where you look through the tablet and see the ball.
There's NO good reason to reinvent Pong, it still works fine. And the only worthwhile reinvention has already taken place, and it is called Arkanoid. You may notice that this occurred quite some time in the past.
But AR is a fad right now so you could probably SELL a Pong game based on AR, which is why I think it's a "good" idea... for them, not for a game.
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But yeah, as I said in my comment near the start of this discussion, most "new" versions of classic games are just pointless-bells-and-whistles adding would-be-nostalgia-exploiting bull****.
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Arkanoid wasn't a direct reinvention of Pong, it was a reinvention of Breakout, which- while quite obviously descended from Pong- wasn't the exact same game.
yeah I meant to say the "last" iteration but failed.
what does a 21st century Pong look like? (Score:2)
Pretty much like a 21st century buggy whip.
I have an idea (Score:2)
Each of you has a paddle shaped object, and you use a physical ball, see, and... oh never mind.
Take my idea and run with it (Score:2)
Pong is tired because it's a flat the game needs to evolve.
At the start screen you first choose a character, like baseball player, karate guy, lacrosse player, soccer player, etc.
- Stage 1: classic pong, that looks nearly identical to the classic. Only some minor variation based on your character choice. For example, the baseball player may have a little longer paddle, and the soccer pla
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I did made a Pong "clone" 2-3 years ago. Got some new mechanics, online multiplayer support, achievements and six different scenarios (if you can believe that). Pretty much unpublished only for an early version that I put on a national contest. The catch is: I`m from Brazil so I can`t submit the damn game to Atari. It would be nice to have the visibility.
Submit it to Nolan Bushnell.
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You only need the lead "developer" to be in the US. If you know someone in the US already, you could have them submit it for you and pass the money to you; obvious logistics (tax considerations) and trust rules would apply.
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SMALLER PADDLES!
Viagra.
Shatter (Score:3)
One of the best, recent pong/breakout/arkanoid style games I've seen as of recently is just as you describe - Shatter. www.shattergame.com and http://store.steampowered.com/app/20820/ [steampowered.com] for more info. It has many levels that spherical/circular in design, sometimes in different "stages" - stage one is against the "front hex" , stage 2 is the "back hex" stage 3 is inside the sphere against the "second-tier front hex and then third-tier front hex" followed by your ship going deeper inside until fighting th
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And that would work rather well on a finger tracking touchscreen too... interesting indeed!
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I've got a better name for it...
PARANOID!
The story about a scared little ball, out to break trough the bricky bastards!
Imagine being round, dreaming of squares, would scare the bajeezus outta any sin & cos shape any day!