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The First Video Game

Ahoy · documentary · Watch on YouTube

Game history & retro gamingGaming culture & analysis

What it is

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.

  • 4 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2020, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “A great video documentary on The First Video Game, by one of the best YouTube producers in this field”

    Great documentary on the first video game.

    icelancer, 2021-11 · Strong recommendation · in “The Magnavox Odyssey was the first commercial home video game console”

  2. “It's a long one, but it tries to answer when the first video game was made.”

    Long video on what counts as the first video game.

    banana_giraffe, 2020-10 · Recommendation · in “EXoDOS: Collecting every game developed for DOS from original media”

  3. “Here's an hour-long, meticulously sourced, rather thoughtful video on the question”

    Hour-long, well-sourced look at which was the first video game.

    twic, 2023-02 · Recommendation · in “C Port of Ken Thompson's Space Travel”

  4. “Ahoy did a comprehensive video about it”

    Comprehensive video on the first video game.

    teddyh, 2026-03 · Recommendation · in “The First Video Game Was Just a Box in the Corner of a Bar”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: first video game, spacewar, pong, ralph baer, game definition

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