Enlarge / Look around this image and you'll know fairly quickly whether a Strong Museum visit is worth your time or not. (credit: Strong Museum of Play)
Most of my friends in upstate New York, when trying to entice me into a return visit, send pictures of chicken wings, summer days at human-tolerable temperatures, or houses that don't cost more than their parents might have made in their lifetimes.
Recently, however, a friend sent a picture that had me idly checking my vacation balance for the fall: a framed prototype chip for the home version of Pong. It was given as a gift to original programmer Al Alcorn, and it now lives at the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester.
(credit: Steve Poland / Strong Museum of Play)
Alcorn, who made the game that would establish video games as a training exercise, fought terrifically with Atari founder Nolan Bushnell over the at-home version of Pong and the custom chip required to make it work on TV-ready hardware. After the home version hit Sears in time for the 1975 US holiday season, the chip was given to Alcorn as a gift. And now I must be in its presence.
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