Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master: Pong, Atari, and the Dawn of the Video Game

David Kushner

Softcover | 15.24 x 1.14 x 22.86 cm | 112 pp

Bold Type Books | 2022 | 9781568588766

A deep, nostalgic dive into the advent of gaming, Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master returns us to the emerging culture of Silicon Valley via the medium of the graphic novel.

At the centre of this graphic history, dynamically drawn in colours inspired by old computer screens, is the epic feud that raged between Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and inventor Ralph Baer for the title of "father of the video game."

While Baer, a Jewish immigrant whose family fled Germany for America, developed the first TV video-game console and ping-pong game in the 1960s, Bushnell, a self-taught whiz kid from Utah, put out Atari's pioneering table-tennis arcade game, Pong, in 1972. Thus, a prolonged battle began over who truly spearheaded the multibillion-dollar gaming industry, and around it a sweeping narrative about invention, inspiration, and the seeds of digital revolution.

'This litle book offers for the story of Pong what the coin-op did for games: the most
dense, lucid, and delightful version of itself.' Ian Bogost, game designer and author of Play Anything

'This fascinating graphic novel unearths a forgotten and bizarre history that produced a multi-billion dollar industry. A great book for anyone interested in video games, or the history of modern times.' Julian Zelizer, outhor of Burning Down the House

'Easy lo Learn, Difficult to Master brilliantly depicts the epic story behind video games,
between two very different inventors who changed the world with virtual paddles. If this book were an arcade game, l'd lose all my quarters replaying it.' Steven Levy, author of Hackers and Facebook