Tag Archive: pong


Six games honored as inaugural class in World Video Game Hall of Fame

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
July 6, 2015

The Strong National Museum of Play has announced the 2015 class for the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

The six games to make the cut were DOOM, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and World of Warcraft.

The Strong Museum, located in Rochester, New York, is well known for its International Center for the History of Electronic Games and already houses the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame was designed to “recognize individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general,” said a press release from The Strong.

Games were picked based on four key criteria: icon-status, longevity, geographical reach, and influence. The six that make up the inaugural class were chosen from a field of 15, and were chosen by a committee of journalists, scholars, and individuals familiar with video game history. The games that were not inducted this year were Angry Birds, FIFA, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokémon, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders.

This year’s winners will be on permanent display at the museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit and nominations for the class of 2016 are now being accepted through March 31, 2016.

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EGM Buzz: I, Computer

Filed under: EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly), Written — Leave a comment
September 6, 2011

Originally Published: August 30, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM

THE BUZZ: IBM’s working on a new type of “cognitive computer chip” that not only performs preprogrammed functions, but can also learn and recognize elements in its environment and react to them—including play videogames—in a way similar to the human brain.

WHAT WE KNOW: IBM says their research team set up two prototype chips that “successfully demonstrated simple applications like navigation, machine vision, pattern recognition, associative memory, and classification.” One of the highlights came when they pointed out one chip in particular “taught itself how to play Pong,” which served as one of their first tests for cognitive recognition.

EGM’S TAKE: In terms of real-world applications, these chips could provide “smart” traffic signals, water-supply monitoring, or natural-disaster prediction. On a more personal note, imagine these chips in your iPad—or even your videogames—as they learn from your daily interaction. Developers could guarantee that no two gamers would have the same experience, as these smartchips could change a given game to challenge you specifically. Personally, I’d like to be the first to welcome our new computer overlords, as this is how a lot of apocalyptic science-fiction novels start: Computers that can think like humans then start to out-think humans. In all seriousness, I don’t know if it will ever get to that, but the applications for a chip like this are intriguing…if a bit frightening.

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