A 2022 article titled this ‘At 50: The Video Game ‘That Changed the World’’ also said ‘it may be ‘the most boring… game of all time.’
Jeopardy’s November 6 2025 episode ended with a Final Jeopardy clue from the category Fun & Games, pointing contestants toward a video game that turned fifty in 2022. The clue referenced a headline marking its anniversary and quoted a line describing it as possibly the “most boring… game of all time.” The contrast between its simple gameplay and its enormous cultural impact has become a common theme in coverage of this early video-game milestone. The clue asked: “A 2022 article titled this ‘At 50: The Video Game ‘That Changed the World’’ also said ‘it may be ‘the most boring… game of all time.’”
The title mentioned in the clue belongs to a retrospective published by The Week, and the correct response pointed directly to one of the most influential games ever made.
What is Pong?
The correct Final Jeopardy response was What is Pong? The article referenced in the clue, Pong at 50: the video game that ‘changed the world’, was published by The Week in November 2022 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Atari’s breakthrough title. It described Pong as the first commercially successful video game in history and credited it with embedding the medium in the public imagination. Even though the game is often described as extremely simple, its impact on gaming is universally acknowledged.
Pong debuted in 1972 and was created by Allan Alcorn, an engineer who had never played a video game before joining Atari. He built the game as a training assignment, which he later learned was never intended as a fully fledged commercial contract. The project’s basic form — a pixelated table tennis court, two paddles, and a bouncing square “ball” — became a defining image of early digital entertainment. Despite its simplicity, the game quickly proved itself in the field. When a prototype was installed in Andy Capp’s Tavern in California, the coin machine overflowed because players lined up to try it.
The game’s unexpected popularity changed the direction of Atari itself. Manufacturing costs and retail pricing allowed the company to grow rapidly and expand into home gaming. The 1975 release of Home Pong became another milestone, bringing the game into living rooms through a Sears partnership and selling hundreds of thousands of units. The article also noted that by the end of the 1970s Pong had been overtaken by newer titles such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders, but its foundational role in shaping the industry had already been established.
The Week’s retrospective highlighted Pong’s ongoing relevance in research and technology. The article described how Pong continues to be used in artificial-intelligence experiments, neural-network training, coding education, and even biological computing studies. One cited example involved a cluster of lab-grown brain cells trained to play the game, demonstrating emerging possibilities in the intersection of computing and biology.
The often-quoted description of Pong as potentially “the most boring video game of all time” came from IEEE Spectrum and reflects its minimalist structure by modern standards. Yet many players remain drawn to it for its historical significance, nostalgia, and the novelty of interacting with such an early example of interactive entertainment. The article’s framing — that a game so simple could also “change the world” — captures the heart of why this clue worked so well within Jeopardy’s Fun & Games category.
By anchoring the clue to a specific anniversary article, Jeopardy guided contestants toward a cultural touchstone rather than a complex gaming reference. Pong, now more than fifty years old, continues to hold a defining place in the history of video games, making it the fitting and only correct response for this Final Jeopardy round.
