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The First Video Game

The First Video Game on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2020–2026.

Ahoy

documentary · evergreen

Open on YouTube

An hour-long, carefully sourced video essay from Ahoy asking what counts as a video game and which one was truly first. It examines Tennis for Two, Spacewar, Pong, the Brown Box and a 1947 CRT device.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it as the thorough, well-researched answer to the first video game question.

people recommended it
4
separate months
4
strong recommendations
1
discussed on HN
2020–2026
“Here's an hour-long, meticulously sourced, rather thoughtful video on the question”
— twic, Feb 2023, in “C Port of Ken Thompson's Space Travel”

What HN commenters said

5 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

icelancerNov 2021Strongly recommends

Related: A great video documentary on The First Video Game, by one of the best YouTube producers in this field: ▶ this video

in “The Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial home video game console” · View on HN

teddyhMar 2026Recommends

Ahoy did a comprehensive video about it: < ▶ this video >, and a video is a more appropriate medium for discussing and demonstrating video games.

in “The First Video Game Was Just a Box in the Corner of a Bar” · View on HN

twicFeb 2023Recommends

Video games are like compilers, or computers themselves - there isn't really a first one. Far enough back, there are things which are clearly not video games; recently enough, there are things which clearly are video games, and in between, there is a parade of things which are not clearly video games or not. Here's an hour-long, meticulously sourced, rather thoughtful video on the question: ▶ this video (which naturally concludes that video games are a British invention!)

in “C Port of Ken Thompson's Space Travel” · View on HN

banana_giraffeOct 2020Recommends

This indirectly reminds me of this youtube video: ▶ this video It's a long one, but it tries to answer when the first video game was made. Most of it, though, is trying to figure out what it means to be a video game in the first place. Sometimes really the trouble with the question is the lack of precision in the definitions involved.

in “EXoDOS: Collecting every game developed for DOS from original media” · View on HN

M4v3RMay 2025Cites it

> The first video game was called Spacewar Spacewar! was not the first video game ever. Before it in 1958 came Tennis for Two and even before that, in 1952 Christopher Strachey made Draughts. [1] What Spacewar! can be considered, as per wiki [2] is one of the first recognized video games that enjoyed wider distribution behind a single exhibition system. [1] ▶ this video [2] [link]

in “Inventing the Adventure Game (1984)” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Game history & retro gamingGaming culture & analysisfirst video gamespacewarpongralph baergame definition