Ash Ketchum and Link, otherwise known as ArachnidianDream and Lennart Jansson, arraigned music from Mario, Kirby, Tetris, Zelda, Pokemon, Halo, and yes...Pong, for Seattle's Marrowstone in the City program. The Nintendo-themed tunes are nicely done, but once you get to the stirring Halo solo you'll need a tissue to soak up the happy tears. Then, once you've recovered from Halo and feel as if you're in the clear, Pong sneaks up behind you, tackles you to the ground, and stuffs wads of melted awesome into your gaping maw. Don't try to scream; it's already too late.

Stop Playing Homework and Do Your Video Games - A Video Game Quintet [YouTube via Destructoid]

Tech Know: Kinky boot that whips [BBC]

Bushnell has been out of the game making business for quite awhile, but he's coming back with Battleswarm, an online PC game that allows players to switch between the roles of strategic commander and front line fighter, much like S2 Games' Savage. Instead of having different roles on the same team, however, one side plays the RTS-controlled alien bugs, while the other team is tasked with their extermination in first-person format.

The inspiration for the genre-mixing title comes from wanting to play games with his five sons.

They're all avid gamers and like first-person shooters. The problem is, as you get older, you lose some reaction time, and as a result, I'm getting slaughtered by them. A real-time strategy [RTS] game, however, is more my [preference], a good resource game is what I love. Battleswarm is both an RTS and a shooter, a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers, if you will. You can switch sides, too, if you feel like an RTS instead of a shooter, or vice-versa.

It actually sounds like an interesting solution to bridging the age gap, giving those of us slowly losing our reflexes a fighting chance against our young nephews...or whatever. Not that I am losing my edge or anything. It's just that kids these days can see forever, and might have psychic powers.

'Father of electronic games' on his next project, the state of the industry [USA Today]

The results are as you'd expect. It's Pong, except there are Ikaruga ships in the middle of the screen to blow up, and the ball changes colour between black and white, forcing you to - like Ikaruga - change the colour of your paddle to survive.

There's even an authentic Ikaruga soundtrack and menu screen in there to keep things faithful. You can download and play the game from the link below if you're interested. Though why you wouldn't be interested is a mystery to us.

Pong-Karuga [Odd Man Out, via Dtoid]

But as game site Multiplayer quickly found out, the ordering system was buggy, drinks didn't show up and the games kept crashing. "The meal started out entertaining enough," Multiplayer writes. Both "[We] were entranced with the touch-screen interface and the ability to peruse our lunch options as though we were playing with a giant iPhone or Nintendo DS. We were both giddy over the high-end concept behind uWink, but it all went downhill after we sent our order away." You know what would be a great idea for a restaurant and bar? Here's the pitch: Imagine an establishment with every retro Atari arcade game, greasy food and booze. Oh, and add some animatronics. Why do people always have to mess with things?

Our Disastrous Visit To Atari Founder’s High-Tech Restaurant [Multiplayer]

Tennis for Two was created by Drs. William A. Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y. on Oct. 18, 1958. The lab, also the scene of six Nobel-winning discoveries, is currently honoring the achievement. It can be played with a replica controller on a simulation of its original oscilloscope screen, all of five inches. Future versions of the game allowed it to be played in alternate gravities, such as the Moon's or Jupiter's.

The New York Times went there and spoke to one of the developers' son, Robert Dvorak, Jr., putting together another chapter on the very early days of video gaming.

Higinbotham got the idea reading the instructions for one of the computers at the lab. It could simulate the trajectories of bullets, missiles, or bouncing balls — why not create a tennis game? It was conceived as an attraction for a laboratory open house to be held later. Of course, when word spread of the new game, a long line snaked out the door waiting to play it. Next time you're outside a game store waiting in line for a new AAA-release, remember you're a part of a phenomenon now half-a-century old.

Dvorak's son, who is now 57, fondly recalls playing the game. He's an electrical engineer now. And he's still a gamer.

“Games are great,” Robert Dvorak Jr. said. “You a learn a lot about strategy, you interact with people, you use tools and creativity. I’m a gamer, period.”

Brookhaven Honors a Pioneer Video Game [New York Times, and NYT photo]

Pong, the classic table tennis video game, has been "ported" to just about everything. Tables, clocks, dresses, slot machines, t-shirts, watches... it seems there are few things that haven't been Pong-ed. Today we can add one more: whiteboards, a mainstay of corporate meeting rooms and cubicles. It may be painfully slow, the opportunities to cheat rampant, but still... ooh, aah! Our new president elect is gonna love it.

Barack Obama is a politician. He's running for president! In a probing interview with Entertainment Weekly, the publication has a hard-hitting and probing interview with Obama. Things like what Obama thought of Shrek 3, his favorite sitcoms and what's on his iPod. Here's the obligatory video games question:

What's the last videogame you played?
Pong. That gives you a sense of my age. I loved that game.

So there ya go, one of the guys running for president used to play Atari's Pong. Somewhere Nolan Bushnell is doing fist pumps and going yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssss.

Barack Obama: My Pop-Culture Favorites [EW via GamePolitics] [Pic]

I think the Wii by Nintendo is getting games that once again are fun for people who don’t want to make a career out of figuring out how to run a 47-button controller... I think that the business right now should be much, much bigger than it is. If it were evenly spread over all demographics and age groups, it'd be huge. But it’s not. It's basically an 18 to 28 year-old male dominated business of about 15 million. That’s where most of the traffic is. Casual games on the net add to that, but they're all network-based.

Wait, wait, wait. Back up, Bushnell! A 47-button controller? Oh man, would we love to see that! (Playing it, well, that's another matter.)

Bushnell Interview [Next-Gen]

And Bushnell estimated the number of games he'd be able to serve through uWink at 600 trillion games across 100,000 restaurants Ambitious - but hey, it's Nolan Bushnell, right?

When we covered Bushnell's recent talk at Wedbush Morgan's annual management access conference, we heard him say that he misses the idea of gaming as a social activity, since the decline of arcades, and that part of what he hopes to do with uWink is to revive that group spirit and keep multiplayer that's actually in-person alive.

In the GameDaily interview, he cited an example - Pong used to be a hot tool for chicks to pick up guys at bars?

"What's the essence of that game experience?" Bushnell asks, pausing before answering his own question. "The essence of that game experience is the social experience."

And there's a precedent for such things. "Pong was highly social," he reminds us. Bushnell recalls the early days when the game was introduced to bars. "It was okay for a woman to pull a guy off the bar stool to come and play with her, because it was only a two player game. And so it was like a constant girl's choice in a bar. And it was right at the point of women's liberation...and the number of people who said they've met their husband or wife playing Pong over the years, you know, I bet over a thousand people have said that."

Interview: Nolan Bushnell's 600 Trillion Games [GameDaily]

The Hollywood Reporter describes "Atari" as drawing on themes of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and "Tucker: The Man and His Dream." I was hoping it'd be a movie adaptation of "Space War" — just two ships drifting to the center of the screen, shooting each other. Maybe a love interest. Somewhere. Maybe not.

Wherever the story ends up, it sounds like it's getting very serious treatment, and the outlook sounds favorable for a well made biography. Plus I love period pieces, even if I've lived in the period described.

Leonardo Di Caprio to Star in 'Atari' [The Hollywood Reporter, via ComingSoon.net, thanks reader D Elfman]

Created by German designer Moritz Waldemeyer, Pong Effect uses 2400 LEDs and two track pads to essentially recreate a game of air hockey. The best part, it looks like it was created for 4-year-olds. Oh, I know how absurd that is, but does it sound like I care? It doesn't.... for those of you who can't detect the waves of enthusiasm rippling off my keyboard right now.

Pong Updated for the 21st Century [The BBPS]

One of the best parts of the Choose Your Own Adventure series was hunting through the book for the page where you "win" the story and then backtracking the choices, so that you could read straight through without choosing and thus defeat the purpose of the book (because 10-year-olds are just that ungrateful). If anyone wants map out this one, please do post it in the comments. I'm wondering if match point is one of those slice returns or a tight angle shot right into the corner.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention you could buy a hard-copy version to play when your power goes out. Or you could get a PSP, which is smaller, lighter and more, like, fun.

Paper Pong[Paper Console]

Earlier this week I found Pongout — which actually has some replay value as you can't accept losing to such a ridiculous concept. And then TechEBlog discovered "Tresling," (left) a version of Tetris played by slamming an arm-wrestling opponent's arm into a controller. I like the video, complete with "Eye of the Tiger," but that was the theme to Stallone's "Rocky III" not his arm-wrestling vehicle "Over the Top" of 1987.

Here's the combo game I want to see: NCAA Hitman 08. As Agent 47, you begin as a top defensive back prospect in high school. Before the big rivalry game, you garrote the other team's star receiver, steal his uniform, line up at his position and nab 6 interceptions for TDs, winning the Heisman in the process.

Pongout [All Games All Free]
Tresling - Tetris and Arm Wrestling [Hacked Gadgets via TechEBlog]

Tetris Forever [via Gizmodo]

Reader Jason spotted a row of the new machines on the floor of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, testing his Pong skills and sending us potentially drunken pics. The skill-based slots are slowly being approved in states that permit legalized gambling, with manufacturer Bally promising a follow up with a Breakout based slot machine.

If only they had one based on the arcade game Shinobi and not that horrid PlayStation 2 abomination I'd be a 7% richer man.