In Atari’s 1972 arcade game Pong, what sport does the game simulate?

Atari’s 1972 arcade game Pong simulates table tennis.

Pong was designed by Allan Alcorn as an early training exercise assigned by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Its simple display shows two paddles, a moving square ball and a central dividing line. Players move their paddles vertically to return the ball and score when an opponent misses.

Although often casually called a tennis game, Pong’s visual design and scoring concept were based on table tennis, commonly known as ping-pong. It was one of the first commercially successful arcade video games and helped establish Atari as a major early game company. The original cabinet was released in 1972, and Pong’s success encouraged many companies to produce similar paddle-and-ball games.