HP Pong Banner, Fall '96

Apparently, this was the world's first interactive advertising banner. Somehow fittingly, it is based on the world's first video game, Pong.
The banner was a hit success, generatib up to four times the click-through rate of concurrent gif89 banners. Details in email below.

You control the paddle on the right using your mouse. Rolling over the sound icon will toggle sound on and off. The computer AI (artificial intelligence) is programmed to play more aggressively for every 2 points you score.



I made several revisions in this version for use in my portfolio.

• I replaced the original marquee text with personalized text.

• In the original release, the sound toggle was moved to the left side of the banner so that people wouldn't accidentally roll over it and wonder what happened to the sound effects. I moved it back to the player side, where it is more accessible.

• I doubled the simulation frame rate to 60fps. This, because I assume you have a machine at least 4-10 times faster than the 1996 ones for which that banner was originally designed. If your machine is slower than a 133 Mhz Pentium or a 120Mhz Power PC, the animation may be jerky as it struggles to maintain frame rate while sharing cycles with the browser.

Enjoy!

Production:	Red Sky Interactive
Artwork:	Joel Hladecek (Red Sky) and Chris Hurwitz
Programming:	Chris Hurwitz

Browser compatibility was assured by implementing Javascript code that detects the Shockwave plug-in, and serves an alternate gif89 version if the user's browser isn't equipped. The banner has met with great success so far, as described in the email below.

From: jkim@redsky.com (John Kim)
Subject: Pong Banner Stats from CNET
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 17:56:48 +0100
	
For 1/10/97:
	
Shockwave Pong Banner served: 1600
GIF alternate banner served:  6740
	
CNET tech guy also said that they are finding around 25% of the browsers hitting
CNET are Netscape 3 with Shockwave.
	
The Most impressive news.   According to this guy, the normal click through rate
on an ad banner is 1.5% - 2%.  The Pong banner is getting 4-8%, which is DOUBLE TO
QUADRUPLE compared to other banners.