The Pong game in Video Olympics for the Atari 2600.
We hosted a LAN party a month or two back, and actually ran a pong tourney. As a joke. Boy were we wrong. This was the most widely entered (the rest of the LAN *SHUT DOWN*), most hotly contested (there wasn't a single person there who wasn't hot-dogging or screaming at their opponent) game of the day. And some of the matches were truly epic.
The Pong tourney, whether or not we have actual consoles at our future events, will be a PERMANENT fixture. There's just something about someone screaming "THIS IS MY CHILDHOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" at the top of their lungs as the match is tied up at 20-20, and 7ft long paddles float across a massive projection screen, a basketball-sized ball bouncing between them, accelerating with every move, the assembled crowd of 30 picking sides and cheering the players on.
And then there are the people who never played pong before. Like my girlfriend. Before the tourney, I sat her down at that console and taught her everything I knew. She learned quickly. It was one of those truly special moments where it's as though you're passing something special, and exclusive on to the next generation. And then to watch her chew through the bracket, all the way to semi-finals (I had already secured myself a seat i nthe finals) was incredible. Just when it looked as though we were going to be seeing a battle of student vs. teacher, ninja vs. master, her opponent staged an amazing come-from-behind victory - a move he repeated on me in the next match. Such is the way of pong.