Alright then, time to pull another roadtrip out of the trunk!
We jump back to
November 11th, 2025. It’s winter -well, “winter" in Belgium hasn’t really seen snow in years, everything feels a bit out of whack
It’s 6:00 in the morning, the world is still half‑asleep, and I’m warming up the car for another -not so long- ride.
I pack an old T‑shirt with me
It’s the very same T‑shirt I wore exactly sixteen years ago, during that road trip to Germany when I went to pick up Atari’s original Pong cabinet
(Click the image if you want to take a look at that old road trip)But I’m not heading out to pick up an Atari Pong this time.
Today, it’s something else : the very first arcade cabinet ever built by Midway
It’s still a Pong game, sure… but here, it goes by the name “Winner.
Midway did not create Winner independently. They licensed Pong directly from Atari/Syzygy, making Winner:
- Midway’s first video arcade game ever
- An authorized reproduction of Pong
- Part of Atari’s early strategy to license Pong to other manufacturers (before they shifted to protecting the design more aggressively)
Winner and I are almost the same age, just a one‑month difference: I’m from March ’73, and Winner came out in April 1973
But what makes this cabinet even more fascinating is the fact that it’s the very first 'licensed' Pong machine to ever land in Europe. As far as I know -and based on everything I’ve dug up over the years- Atari’s original yellow Pong cabinet was never imported into Europe.
Note when it comes to the United Kingdom, it’s harder for me to be definitive. They might have gotten them thanks to the special commercial ties they’ve always had with the USA. So to be confirmed...)
In the past twenty‑five years, I’ve never seen or heard a single collector tell me they found an Atari Pong cabinet “the proper way,” meaning from a former local operator.
I’ve seen all kinds of Pong clones in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands: operators only ever had clones.
Sure, maybe there were a few exceptions here and there, but every collector I know ended up importing their Atari Pong from the US.
The first actual official Atari Pong cabinets I ever saw here were second‑generation ones: Pong Doubles, Coupe Davis, that era.
So for me, this Winner is truly the first licensed Pong to ever set foot on European soil : arriving about four months after Atari’s original Pong hit the market. Pretty motivating, right?
Alright, let’s grab the numbers for my stats:
Everyone’s asleep, mostly because I’m pretty sure the clock in my car is still one hour off. I never bother switching it back from winter time
So I quietly roll out of my little peaceful village...
I’ll spare you the drive… nothing special to report… I'm just arriving to the vendor's town, located in the province of Antwerp, in the Flemish Region of Belgium.
I’ve arrived at the seller’s place. But clearly a bit too early for him (he works night shifts, if I remember correctly). His wife kindly asks me to wait a moment… until he gets dressed
I take the opportunity to snap a photo of the place and my car
Here it is, the cabinet.
The seller got it exactly in this condition, meaning it had been converted to run Taito Crazy Balloon
Alright, the cabinet is loaded. It's time to hit the road again.
And on the way… I think I’m going to treat myself to a little something
So… Burger King or Starbucks…huh?
I have to confess I’m not really a fan of Burger King anymore…
So I’m going to go for something local instead…
mhmmm, a good frikadel, then?
This is becoming my philosophy: consuming local…
And it’s starting to apply to arcade cabinets as well... I’ll explain that a bit further on
In the end, I didn’t get anything for myself, just a few pastries for my kids…
I get back on the road…
Here I am, just a few kilometers from home, I take the opportunity to pick up a parcel.
Then I arrive just in time to pick up my little one, officially making him part of this roadtrip
My little one insists on opening the parcel I just picked up.
He’s obviously far more interested in those modern games than in the old pile of wood still sitting in the car’s trunk
(the game is of course for me
)
At home!
This photo goes straight into my 'stats'
Belgium only
ROADTRIP TIME ELAPSED :
6h40minDISTANCE :
461 KM
SPECIAL GUEST:
my son, joining the adventure
And here she is now, the beauty, shown from every angle. As you can see, there’s going to be quite a bit of work, especially when it comes to the control panel, but the cabinet itself is relatively healthy for its 53 years!
Believe it or not, this Midway version of Pong excites me much more than the original Atari version I’ve already owned.
Why? Because this Winner version is, in a way, part of my heritage.
Of course, the original Atari version is very interesting from a collector’s point of view -it was the first, the original one- but it’s not the one we knew around here.
Well, this cabinet was ultimately manufactured in the USA and then imported, but it truly became part of our local heritage...…but you get the idea, I hope lol
As time goes by, I increasingly prioritize machines from our local retro heritage.
Why should we -here in Europe- absolutely bring back cabinets in formats we ultimately never knew?
And honestly, as you’ll see in my upcoming road trips, we have some truly beautiful curiosities around here
To be continued, then - about this Winner and the idea of “consuming local”, my friends
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