Released through Sears for just under $100 in 1975, the Home Pong console proved to be a great success and is credited as launching video games as a mainstream product. It was released late in 1975 but still managed to sell over 150,000 units during Christmas.
The console was very similar to other PONG variants which followed by having two paddles attached to the system itself. Although some other systems had added sound, Home Pong was the first to have on screen scoring and more importantly, the Atari PONG name which everyone came to recognise due to the success of the arcade machine.
Specifications
Home Pong was different from other systems which were brought out that year as the game was powered by a single chip (developed by Atari themselves).
This allowed on screen scoring and sound. Two features which other systems at the time had to add more circuitry to achieve. Because of this, costs were kept down but the system was still feature rich.
Unlike most other systems, Home Pong was powered by an ac adaptor rather than batteries.
