Pong, not Programs
On Earth 2 history took a slightly different course. Computers, as we know them, were never invented. There was no analytical engine, no IBM, no Xerox PARC, and no Macintosh. But all that changed on a sunny day in 1972, when Alan Alcorn revealed his invention to the world - a machine he called Pong: a person-to-person electronic tennis system. Pong was a large box about 5 feet tall, containing some silicon & wires, a television screen, and a few buttons & dials. Pong, he explained, was a “video game” - a kind of electronic sport you could play with friends. ...