The First Video Game Was Just a Box in the Corner of a Bar (lithub.com)

by PaulHoule 34 comments 39 points
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34 comments

[−] shever73 47d ago
For some irrational reason this article annoyed me. It came across arrogant with an attempt at being high-brow, and included too much fluff. Describing the founders as "foundering figures" was amusing - I don't know if the image of taking on water and sinking was the author's intent, but I think I've just become guilty of the same thing I've accused the article of.
[−] jasonkester 46d ago
I found myself hoping to find signals that it was written by AI, so that I didn't have to feel embarrassed for an actual author.

That's a first for me.

[−] futuraperdita 46d ago
It feels like the output you’d get from an LLM if you had asked it to write in a literary style. It’s not well-written, and reads more pretentious than capable.
[−] deepspace 46d ago
I came here to say exactly the same thing. The writing is so bad I thought it must be an AI, but then I realized that AIs tend to write much better copy than this drivel.
[−] uptownJimmy 47d ago
It's not irrational to be irritated by bad writing.
[−] OhMeadhbh 46d ago
it's also wrong. Computer Space and Galaxy Games predated pong. And several non-coin-op games like Nimrod, Tennis for Two and Spacewar! predate pong by decades. A quick trip to the Wikipedia could have revealed this error.

I really want this to be an AI generated article because it means AI has come a long way in emulating human fallibility.

[−] p_l 46d ago
As some have noticed, US writing about games is very console-centric
[−] roelschroeven 47d ago

> It came across arrogant with an attempt at being high-brow, and included too much fluff.

Seems consistent with the name of the website: "Literary Hub"

[−] clickety_clack 46d ago
I think that an actionable critique might be that there’s an overuse of “big word” adverbs and adjectives.
[−] gwbas1c 47d ago
I would have appreciated some pictures.
[−] myko 46d ago
maybe trying to be too clever here but i think he was implying they were in over their heads and just really lucky
[−] timcobb 47d ago
"weird pbotons"
[−] voidUpdate 47d ago

> "A revolution was televised in 1972"

Well Tennis for Two was created in 1958 so "the first video game" seems like a stretch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two

[−] teddyh 46d ago
Ahoy did a comprehensive video about it: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHQ4WCU1WQc>, and a video is a more appropriate medium for discussing and demonstrating video games.
[−] perfobotto 46d ago
So difficult to read ..
[−] empressplay 46d ago

> Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included on the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console; in response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement.

Yeah, not first video game.

[−] anthk 47d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_text-based_computer_ga...

Star Trek itself, which I own several ports, it's from 1971.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)

First computer games predate commercial releases of Pong.

Most of the console isolated journalists have no idea of 60 and 70's computers at all.

[−] egiboy 46d ago
Brings up a ‘Do you want to download “sync” on “lithub.com” and “dsp-service.admatic.de”?’ dialog on my iPad.

Hard pass.

[−] riverforest 46d ago
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