9 Video Games That Got Away With Being Total Rip-Offs

2. Pong

What It Ripped Off: Tennis (the game). Yes, even the game that created the industry is a rip off, proving that developers have been stealing ideas for as long as there have been ideas to steal. Tennis was one of the games available for the Magnavox Odyssey - the world's first home console. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell had seen the tennis game in action for himself at a demonstration in 1972, and asked a new recruit named Alan Alcorn to duplicate it as an exercise. Bushnell suggested that a score was added to the top of the screen, but Alcorn went all out and made several other tweaks as well, adding in angled shots and making the ball speed up during rallys. After Alcon had created a prototype, Bushnell decided to see if there was a market for the game. And of course the rest is history. Pong was a massive hit for Atari and turned video games into a thriving industry. Its popularity came at a price, though as Magnavox later successfully sued Atari. There really wasn't much Bushnell could say in his defence, as Magnavox had his signature proving that he was at the Tennis demonstration that took place prior to Pong's release.