Doctor Pong

Doctor Pong
Machine at the National Videogame Museum
Developer(s)	Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Atari, Inc.
Designer(s)	Allan Alcorn Nolan Bushnell Steve Bristow
Series	Pong
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release	1975-1977 (NA)
Genre(s)	Sports

Doctor Pong, also known as Puppy Pong, is an adaption of the original arcade Pong for use in a non-coin-operated environment. It was conceptualized by Nolan Bushnell, Steve Bristow, and a marketing firm to move their arcade video games into a non-arcade environment—in this case, to help occupy children in pediatricians' waiting rooms. Originally designed to be a model of Snoopy's doghouse with Pong built into the side of it, when Charles Schulz declined Atari the use of Snoopy, the model was changed to a generic doghouse with a puppy looking over the top. Puppy Pong saw a limited production run and was tested at Chuck E. Cheese's early locations.^[1]

Development

The original Snoopy Pong cabinet was designed by Regan Cheng of the Atari Industrial Design group. The follow-up Puppy Pong cabinet was designed by Regan's manager, Chas Grossman.^[1]

Both cabinets consisted of a doghouse housing a Pong board modified to not use a coin drop as a start trigger. The original Pong automatically starts several seconds after a coin is inserted. In Doctor Pong and Puppy Pong, a "start button" was instead wired up to start the games, set under the vertically mounted television in the dog house "roof." Instead of a traditional control panel, spinners are mounted directly on the roof, as well.

References

External links

• A photograph of the original Snoopy Pong version.
• Doctor Pong at the Killer List of Videogames

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This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 22:14