A closer look
In modern gaming, if your controls stop functioning before the edge of the screen, you demand a patch. In 1972, it was just brilliant game design. Atari engineer Al Alcorn realized the circuitry he used for Pong literally prevented the paddles from going all the way to the top of the monitor. Instead of fixing his shoddy wiring, he realized this created a tactical blind spot that prevented endless, boring volleys. He claimed it made the game more competitive, establishing the time-honored developer tradition of passing off broken code as a strategic feature.
