Many Canadians would say the most sigificant event to happen in the summer of 1972 was Team Canada defeating the Soviet Union in the eight-game Summit Series.
But while the hockey stars of Team Canada and the Soviet Union celebrate the 40th anniversary of that amazing series the computer industry celebrates another type of game: Pong.
Yes, Pong was released during that magical time in the summer of 1972.Atari marked a milestone of sorts with its release of the first arcade game for the home. Pong, which has two game modes, hockey and tennis, revolutionized entertainment for families.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Atari and the upcoming launch of Internet Explorer 10, Atari is releasing Atari Arcade that features a modern take on eight classic Atari games like Pong, Centipede and Missile Command.
Atart will be making these games free online and with multi-touch, multi-player capabilities.
These classic Atari games have been reimagined for touch from scratch with new game design, graphics, gameplay features and code with Internet Explorer 10 in HTML5. Over the next few months, Atari said it will release new games to the Web regularly on the site from Atari’s library of over 100 classic games like Breakout and Asteroids.
In addition, Atari’s new platform will grant developers access to a suite of tools for creating cross-browser, cross-device HTML5 games and media experiences. This new offering will give developers a platform to publish games with the ability to utilize features like Facebook integration.
Lets hope one of those 100 games will be Ice Hockey for the Atari 2600 gaming system so that we can relive Paul Henderson’s shot heard around the world goal.