The First-Known Video Game Is Now Playable On Handheld Analogue Pocket Device

In the world of vintage games, consoles like the Atari and Super Nintendo 64 are held close to collectors’ hearts. However, if you’re talking about the holy grail, perhaps nothing could compete with the OG video game, Spacewar!.

Developed in 1962 by MIT students, the title is said to be the first known recorded video game. Now, it’s being brought back to the masses with a new update to Analogue Pocket’s handheld device.

Spacewar! is a two-person shooter game where two spaceships navigate around a gravitational star. It was designed to be played with custom “control boxes,” which were essentially the first video game consoles.

The game has stunning visuals of blue and green comet-like spaceships zooming through the cosmos as they battle each other. Atari’s founder Nolan Bushnell was so inspired by Spacewar! when he first played it, he went on to create Computer Space, which became the first commercially sold video game.

Spacewar! leveraged the PDP-1’s 1024 x 1024 CRT vector display to artfully make use of beautiful blue and green phosphors, trailing, bursting and decaying amidst modernist hexagons. pic.twitter.com/FH8iBAIHBx

— Analogue (@analogue) July 29, 2022

The original was recreated for Analogue Pocket via developer Spaceman3, who used code for the game found in the public domain.

While there is much debate about the actual first video game—as Brookhaven National Laboratory created Tennis for Two in 1958, among other similar games developed at the time—most never made it out of their research labs. Spacewar! was the first to orbit among the masses and was a hit on campuses that had the facilities to play the game. 

Serious gamers might therefore be tempted to look back on the gem that started it all.

[via Lifewire and IGN, cover image via Analogue Pocket]