User:Maxeto0910/Home Pong

Home Pong is the brand name of a series of 21 dedicated first-generation home video game consoles. There are a total of 21 models released in the series, 8 of which are marketed by Atari and 13 by Sears.

Development
In 1973 or 1974, Atari engineer Harold Lee suggested a home version of the then popular game Pong that could connect to a television set. Atari started working on a home version of Pong (codenamed "Darlene") in 1974. Alcorn worked with Lee to develop the designs and prototype and based them on the same digital technology used in their arcade games. The two worked in shifts to save time and money; Lee worked on the design's logic during the day, while Alcorn debugged the designs in the evenings. After the designs were approved, fellow Atari engineer Bob Brown assisted Alcorn and Lee in building a prototype. The prototype consisted of a device attached to a wooden pedestal containing over a hundred wires, which would be replaced with a single chip designed by Alcorn and Lee which provided sound effects and a digital on-screen scoring system which was something not many consoles had around that time; the chip had yet to be tested and built before the prototype was constructed. The chip was finished in the latter half of 1974, and was, at the time, the highest-performing chip used in a consumer product. The system was ready for presentation on trade shows in early 1975.

Marketing
The first model was presented to the public at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Summer 1975. In a cooperation with Sears, 150,000 consoles should be manufactured by the Christmas season. Bushnell and Gene Lipkin, Atari's vice-president of sales, approached toy and electronic retailers to sell Home Pong, but were rejected. Retailers felt the product was too expensive and would not interest consumers. Atari contacted the Sears Sporting Goods department after noticing a Magnavox Odyssey advertisement in the sporting goods section of its catalog. Atari staff discussed the game with a representative, Tom Quinn, who expressed enthusiasm and offered the company an exclusive deal. Believing they could find more favorable terms elsewhere, Atari's executives declined and continued to pursue toy retailers. In January 1975, Atari staff set up a Home Pong booth at the American Toy Fair, a trade fair in New York City, but was unsuccessful in soliciting orders due to high price of the unit. It was sold under the Sears Tele-Games brand and initially exclusively available through Sears stores for a list price of US$98.95 in the Sears Christmas catalog.

Success
All of the produced 150,000 units were sold after the Christmas season. The console became Sears' most successful product around that time, which made Atari earn a Sears Quality Excellence Award. Due to this success, Atari decided to make its own Home Pong console in 1976.