Atari
In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded a small engineering company, Syzygy Engineering, that designed and built "Computer Space", the world's first commercially available arcade video game, for Nutting Associates. On June 27, 1972, the two incorporated Atari, Inc. and soon hired Al Alcorn as their first design engineer. Bushnell asked Alcorn to produce an arcade version of the Magnavox Odyssey's Tennis game, which would be named Pong. While Bushnell incorporated Atari in June 1972, Syzygy Company was never formally incorporated. Before Atari's incorporation, Bushnell considered various terms from the game Go, eventually choosing "atari", referencing a position in the game when a group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent. Atari was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972.
In 1973, Atari secretly spawned a competitor called Kee Games, headed by Nolan's next door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market virtually the same game to different distributors, each getting an "exclusive" deal. Joe Keenan's management of the subsidiary led to him being promoted president of Atari that same year.
Rebound (video game)
"Rebound" was developed by Atari, Inc. beginning in late 1973; the final schematics are dated November 31, 1973, and use the code name "Volleyball". 1973 was near the beginning of the start of the arcade game industry; after the success of Atari's "Pong" (1972), the first game by the new company and fourth arcade game ever produced, the nascent industry was largely composed of variations on the concept, called "ball-and-paddle games". While Atari created games with other gameplay types in 1973 and 1974, such as "Space Race" (1973) and "Gran Trak 10" (1974), it also created several "Pong"-like games. "Rebound" was a variation on that theme, featuring controls and gameplay similar to "Pong", with the addition of gravity arcing the ball and both paddles moved to the bottom of the screen. "Rebound" was released by Atari in February 1974, with a release announcement on February 16. Other Atari ball-and-paddle games from 1974 include "Superpong" and "Quadrapong", both of which were variations on the original "Pong" gameplay.