Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Here’s a ‘Tiny Game of Pong’ for your Apple Watch

We’ve seen a supersized version of it on the side of a skyscraper, now check out this miniaturized effort on the screen of a tiny smartwatch.

Yes, folks, the classic paddle-and-ball game that kicked off the whole video game circus in the early 70s has just landed on the Apple Watch.

Called, appropriately, A Tiny Game of Pong, this delightful creation is the work of developer Matt Wiechec, and is available from the iTunes store now.

The tiny game features a tiny paddle controller in the form of the watch’s fairly tiny Digital Crown, so you’ll need to hone your twisting technique to have a chance of chalking up multiple wins.

Two playing modes are offered: Arcade, a “fast-paced…endless game with an unbeatable opponent,” and Classic, where you can pit your wits against an AI opponent in a first-to-three-points match. The latter costs 99 cents as an in-app payment, which also gets you 10 custom theme colors “to match the style and color of your Apple Watch band,” Wiechec says.

Certain to generate a warm fuzzy feeling for nostalgic types old enough to remember Atari’s popular game when it landed on the scene all those years ago, A Tiny Game of Pong plays standalone on the Apple Watch, though pairing it with an iPhone brings additional functionality.

The original Pong was created by Atari’s s Nolan Bushnell back in 1972. Repurposing it for the wrist brings the game slap-bang into the 21st century, and its simplicity and retro-infused fun could even win it a whole new generation of fans (among Apple Watch owners, that is).

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Apple Vision Pro gets three more surprise launch games
Synth Riders on Apple Vision Pro.

Ahead of the Apple Vision Pro's launch tomorrow, three surprise launch titles have been revealed: Kluge Interactive's Synth Riders, and new versions of Illustrated and Patterned from BorderLeap

Synth Riders is a VR rhythm game where players dance as they interact with notes flying toward them and dodge obstacles to the beat of popular songs. Kluge Interactive has redesigned Synth Riders for Apple Vision Pro, using its spatial reality features to include a mode that makes it look like the notes are flying right at you in your own room. At release, over 73 songs will be included, with Kluge sharing the whole track list on Spotify. Kluge released a gameplay video to give people a better idea of what to expect from this version of Synth Riders.

Read more
One of the Apple Vision Pro’s first games lets you play tabletop classics
Apple Vision Pro being worn by a person while using a keyboard.

Developer Resolution Games shared more details on Game Room, its launch title for the Apple Vision Pro that comes out alongside the headset on February 2.

As its name implies, Game Room is a collection of classic tabletop games like chess that Apple Vision Pro users will be able to try out in mixed reality. The Apple Vision Pro's spatial computing allows for a three-dimensional interface in which players can interact with game pieces or cards using just their hands. At launch, Game Room will include Chess, Solitaire, Hearts, Yacht, and Sea Battle (a take on Battleship), although its developers plan to add more games after launch.

Read more
Fortnite is coming back to iOS, but Epic Games still isn’t happy about it
Solid Snake aiming a pistol out of a box in Fortnite.

Fortnite is set to come back to iOS in Europe sometime in 2024. This will mark the first time a natively running version of Fortnite will be available on iOS since Apple removed the game from the App Store in 2020.

Apple did so at the time because Epic tried to use its own third-party payment system, kicking off a series of legal battles in an attempt to get Apple to open up its platform more. Although those legal battles have yielded mixed results for Epic, a newly passed Digital Markets Act in the European Union is forcing Apple to do things like "allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper’s own services in certain specific situations" and "allow their business users to promote their offer and conclude contracts with their customers outside the gatekeeper’s platform."

Read more