From RetroTech, the online museum of 20th century technology.
Tank was the first video arcade game to incorporate Read-Only Memory (ROM) microchips. It was released by Atari Inc. of Sunnyvale, California in 1974. Two years earlier, Atari had released the first successful video arcade game,
Pong. The ROM microchips int
Tank allowed the game to store much more information, and therefore it has much more advanced graphics than Pong. Tank still does not incorporate a microprocessor chip, which would enable much more sophisticated game play. Atari distributed Tank under the Kee Games name to get around exclusive licensing arrangements common in arcades at the time. Due to the popularity of video games, these arrangements were discontinued and the Kee Games name was not used again.
