Bill -

I do not mean to diverge too much from the Pong topic, however I would like to add a comment based on the discussion you guys have been having here.

Steve said a few things with his post about the e-mail from William Higinbotham's son that I would like to use to make my point about "video games" - There are many times when a discussion/debate/argument can stem from a disagreement based on classification (i.e. Is NASCAR a "sport?" Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?). So then the question "what is a video game?" has to be answered before a topic can be debated (i.e. Who is the "father" of video games?).

I personally do not believe "video game" is something that specifically means an interactive form of entertainment whose visual information is communicated via a raster display. While that might be something to serve as a differentiation among different types of screen-based games from years ago, I believe the term has evolved and is now quite accepted by the masses as a game played with a controller (also loosely defined) with some sort of visual information communicated to the player. I am a bit crude with words in my own definition. That said, I believe your average joe gamer would consider vector games, Virtual Boy, Tiger handhelds, and Sega's "3D hologram" game Time Traveler to all be lopped into the comprehensive term "video game." I imagine a scope game would be welcomed into this definition as well. The term has grown to encompass a group of several different types of screen-based games. Even using the term "screen-based" could create an argument. Thus, the term "video games" has become a very loose and inclusive term for this genre of entertainment.

Perhaps those of us that would post on armchair arcade would tend to separate those games mentioned above into different classifications outside of the term "video game," but the masses would most likely disagree in a very condescending manner.