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Spacewar!

Spacewar! is a pioneering two-player space combat video game developed in 1962 on the PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).^[1]^[2]^[3] Created primarily by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and others, it features two players maneuvering torpedo-armed spaceships around a central star with realistic gravity effects, engaging in strategic dogfights while managing limited fuel and utilizing a hyperspace jump to evade danger.^[1]^[2]^[3] The game's development began in 1961 as a demonstration program inspired by science fiction, particularly E. E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series, with the initial version completed by Russell and his team to showcase the PDP-1's graphical and interactive capabilities.^[1]^[2] Initially controlled via the PDP-1's toggle switches and later improved with custom joysticks and controllers by Alan Kotok and Bob Saunders, Spacewar! required over 100,000 calculations per second to simulate its physics-based environment, including an astronomically accurate starfield background added by Peter Samson.^[1]^[2]^[3] As one of the earliest digital video games, Spacewar! became a staple on all 53 PDP-1 computers produced by Digital Equipment Corporation, spreading through hacker culture and influencing the evolution of arcade games like Asteroids.^[2]^[3] It demonstrated computers' potential for entertainment beyond scientific computation, fostering user interaction and seeding the video game industry, valued at over $189 billion as of 2025.^[2]^[4] Modern emulations, including playable versions via PDP-1 simulators, highlight its enduring legacy in computing history.^[5]

Historical Context

Computing Landscape in the Early 1960s

In the 1950s and early 1960s, computing was dominated by large-scale mainframe systems, such as those from IBM and UNIVAC, which were primarily designed for scientific calculations, data processing, and military applications.^[6] These machines operated under batch processing paradigms, where jobs—submitted via punched cards, paper tape, or magnetic tape—were queued and executed sequentially without user intervention, limiting direct interactivity to basic console operations for operators.^[7] This approach maximized throughput for high-volume tasks but restricted real-time experimentation, as users often waited hours or days for results, reflecting the era's emphasis on efficiency over accessibility.^[6] A pivotal shift occurred in 1960 with the introduction of the Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) PDP-1, recognized as the first minicomputer due to its compact size and affordability relative to mainframes.^[8] Featuring an 18-bit architecture, 4K words of magnetic core memory (expandable to 16K), and a Type 30 cathode ray tube (CRT) display, the PDP-1 supported parallel binary arithmetic at up to 100,000 additions per second with a 5-microsecond cycle time.^[8] Priced at approximately $120,000—far less than the millions for comparable mainframes—it included peripherals like a typewriter for input/output and paper tape drives, enabling more modular and user-oriented configurations.^[8] The PDP-1's CRT and light pen capabilities laid groundwork for interactive programming, distinguishing it from batch-oriented systems.^[8] Access to these early computers was largely confined to universities and research laboratories, where they served as tools for advanced scientific and engineering work. Institutions like MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, established in 1951 as a federally funded center for air defense research, played a key role by hosting and further developing innovative systems such as the Whirlwind computer (commissioned in 1951) and the TX-2 transistorized machine in the late 1950s.^[9] These labs provided rare hands-on computing resources, fostering experiments in real-time control, graphics, and simulation that were infeasible on commercial mainframes.^[10] By the early 1960s, computing began transitioning from predominantly military-funded initiatives—rooted in World War II and Cold War projects like SAGE—to broader academic experimentation, supported by increasing federal investments in university research. The Department of Defense remained a major funder, but agencies like the National Science Foundation and Advanced Research Projects Agency expanded grants for civilian-oriented projects, enabling universities to explore interactive and applied computing beyond defense needs. This shift, with federal support for university computing research growing significantly, democratized access and spurred innovations in software and human-computer interaction.

MIT's Hacking Culture and PDP-1 Introduction

In the late 1950s, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC), founded in 1946, fostered a culture of innovative tinkering and playful experimentation among its members, who built intricate model train layouts in Building 20. This environment gave rise to the term "hacker" in its original sense, denoting individuals who employed clever ingenuity to devise unconventional solutions, or "hacks," often subverting standard procedures for more elegant outcomes, as documented in the club's 1959 dictionary. TMRC members extended this ethos to early computing explorations, hacking telephone systems and control circuits, which laid the groundwork for MIT's emergent hacker subculture emphasizing collaborative creativity and real-time problem-solving.^[11]^[12] This group gained hands-on experience with interactive computing through the TX-0 transistorized computer, installed at MIT in 1958, where they developed early graphical and musical demonstrations.^[13] The arrival of the first PDP-1 computer at MIT in 1961 marked a pivotal moment, with the machine—donated by Digital Equipment Corporation—installed in the Electrical Engineering department's Building 26, where it became accessible to students and researchers. This installation preceded the formal launch of Project MAC in 1963, which received initial funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), though the PDP-1 itself supported early experiments in time-sharing and interactive computing that informed the project. The PDP-1's compact design and vector graphics display enabled real-time interaction, distinguishing it from batch-processing mainframes and attracting the TMRC hackers to explore its capabilities.^[14]^[15] Early demonstrations on the PDP-1 showcased its potential for multimedia and graphical applications, including music synthesis programs developed by TMRC member Peter Samson. Samson's 1962 Harmony Compiler allowed the PDP-1 to generate four-part polyphonic music through simple flip-flop outputs connected to speakers, enabling performances of complex pieces like Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and demonstrating the machine's real-time audio processing. Graphical demos, such as the Minskytron—a visual synthesizer created by Marvin Minsky—produced hypnotic patterns on the CRT display, highlighting the PDP-1's ability to handle dynamic vector graphics and inspiring further interactive experiments.^[16]^[17] Key figures at MIT, including Ivan Sutherland, profoundly influenced this interactive computing landscape. In his 1963 PhD thesis at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, Sutherland developed Sketchpad on the TX-2 computer, introducing recursive object manipulation, constraint-based drawing, and light-pen input for real-time graphical editing, concepts that permeated MIT's PDP-1 projects and advanced human-computer interaction.^[18]

Development

Concept Formation and Team Involvement

The concept for Spacewar! originated in late 1961 during a conversation among MIT graduate students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen at the Hingham Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inspired by the interstellar battles depicted in E.E. "Doc" Smith's *Lensman* series of science fiction novels, the trio envisioned a real-time simulation of dueling spaceships to demonstrate the capabilities of the newly arrived DEC PDP-1 computer. This idea emerged amid the excitement surrounding the PDP-1's vector graphics display, which offered unprecedented potential for interactive visuals in an era dominated by batch-processing systems.^[19]^[1] Steve Russell took the lead in transforming the concept into a functional program, beginning development in January 1962 on the PDP-1 at MIT's Electrical Engineering department. Graetz contributed by creating detailed storyboards to outline the game's narrative and visual elements, while Wiitanen handled the mathematical modeling for ship physics and trajectories, ensuring the simulation's realism. Their collaborative effort reflected the informal, hacker-driven ethos of MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, where shared access to the machine fostered rapid iteration. By early 1962, the core game had taken shape as a two-player interstellar battle, aimed at showcasing the PDP-1's ability to handle real-time graphics and input without pre-recorded outputs.^[19]^[1] Additional MIT hackers joined the project to refine the prototype. Dan Edwards assisted with debugging critical issues, particularly in implementing gravitational effects around a central sun, while Peter Samson developed the "Expensive Planetarium" subroutine—a randomized starfield generator—to enhance the cosmic backdrop and prevent display flicker. These contributions, made through late-night sessions and communal testing, solidified Spacewar! as a collective endeavor rather than a solo project, with the primary goal of creating an engaging demo to impress visitors and highlight the PDP-1's interactive prowess. The game's completion in 1962 marked a pivotal moment in computing history, though it remained non-commercial and freely shared among enthusiasts.^[19]

Programming and Technical Features

Spacewar! was programmed entirely in PDP-1 assembly language, a low-level symbolic instruction set tailored to the machine's 18-bit architecture, allowing direct control over hardware operations without higher-level abstractions. The complete source code occupied approximately 4K words of the PDP-1's core memory, equivalent to about 9K bytes, demonstrating efficient packing to fit complex real-time computations within severe constraints.^[19] Key elements like ship movement and collision detection were implemented via modular subroutines, enabling reusable code blocks for vector calculations and boundary checks that updated positions frame by frame.^[1] This structure facilitated incremental development, with core mechanics coded first and enhancements added iteratively by the team.^[19] A hallmark technical innovation was the use of real-time vector graphics on the PDP-1's Type 30 CRT display, where lines and points were drawn directly by the program controlling the electron gun's deflection voltages, eschewing raster methods due to limited memory.^[1] The central gravitational simulation approximated Newtonian physics using the inverse-square law,

F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2},

implemented discretely through repeated multiplications and divisions in assembly to compute accelerations on ships and projectiles every cycle, requiring over 100,000 calculations per second for smooth motion.^[1]^[20] Torpedo handling involved tracking trajectories influenced by gravity (heavy variants) alongside guided paths for homing types (smart variants), with collision logic checking proximity to targets or the hazardous central star. The hyperspace jump subroutine provided emergency random repositioning across the display field, but carried inherent risk: explosion upon re-emergence due to the Mark I hyperfield generators failing after repeated use (guaranteed after the 8th jump), in addition to the chance of overlapping the star.^[21] Additionally, the background starfield relied on Peter Samson's "Expensive Planetarium" subroutine, which rendered realistic constellations by modulating point intensities on the CRT rather than simple dots, though its computational cost limited redraws to occasional refreshes.^[22] Development faced significant challenges inherent to the era's bare-metal computing: the PDP-1 operated without an operating system, demanding the program manage interrupts, I/O, and timing directly via assembly instructions. Input relied on custom controllers crafted by Alan Kotok and Bob Saunders, using switches and joysticks wired to the machine's panel to supplant the awkward standard toggle switches for rotation, thrust, fire, and hyperspace. Debugging occurred without compilers, IDEs, or breakpoints, involving manual code entry on paper tape, runtime halts for register inspections, and iterative testing on the single available PDP-1, often extending late into nights. The game reached substantial completion by late April 1962, after initial coding began in January.^[19]

Gameplay

Core Mechanics and Objectives

Spacewar! is designed exclusively for two players, each controlling one of two identical spaceships—the wedge-shaped vessel and the needle-shaped vessel—in a competitive duel set against a 2D starfield background. The primary objective is to maneuver one's ship to fire torpedoes that strike and destroy the opponent's vessel, while simultaneously evading incoming torpedoes and navigating the gravitational influence of a central sun that pulls both ships toward it, simulating realistic orbital mechanics. Collision with the sun, an enemy ship, or a torpedo results in an immediate explosion and loss for the affected player, ending the round in victory for the survivor.^[23]^[1] The central sun serves as a dynamic hazard, exerting a constant gravitational force on the spaceships that alters their trajectories and requires players to account for curved paths and slingshot maneuvers to gain tactical advantages, but it does not influence the torpedoes themselves. Torpedoes are launched from the front of each ship and travel in straight lines at a constant speed, unaffected by the sun's gravity, with a self-destruct timer of approximately nine seconds after firing to prevent indefinite persistence on screen. Each ship can fire torpedoes with a limited rate due to a reload mechanism—typically allowing two shots before a three-second unarmed period—ensuring players must time their attacks carefully without unlimited barrage capability, with a total supply limited to about 31 torpedoes per ship.^[24]^[25]^[26] To counter imminent threats like approaching torpedoes or unfavorable positioning, players can activate hyperspace, which instantly teleports their ship to a random location on the display while preserving its velocity. However, this escape carries inherent risk, as there is a nonzero probability—dependent on the random placement—that the ship will rematerialize within or too close to the sun, resulting in automatic destruction. The game lacks any single-player mode, emphasizing direct head-to-head competition that rewards skillful anticipation and positioning over prolonged engagements.^[2]^[23]

Controls, Strategies, and Variations

Players interacted with Spacewar! primarily through custom control panels developed by the MIT hackers to replace the awkward front-panel switches of the PDP-1 computer. Each player had access to six switches arranged in three three-position toggles: one for clockwise or counterclockwise rotation, one for forward thrust or reverse, and one for firing torpedoes or activating hyperspace, allowing for simultaneous actions like turning while thrusting.^[27] These panels were connected via the PDP-1's I/O circuitry, including taper pin connectors, and often incorporated joystick-like video knobs from the computer's console for fine-tuned aiming adjustments by varying display parameters such as intensity or position offsets.^[5] Later recreations and ports emulated these with levers for rotation and thrust/hyperspace, plus a dedicated fire button, to replicate the original tactile experience.^[28] Effective strategies in Spacewar! revolved around mastering Newtonian physics and gravity from the central sun, with players often orbiting the sun to perform slingshot maneuvers that accelerated their ship for surprise attacks or escapes.^[29] Torpedo dodging required precise timing, such as thrusting perpendicular to incoming projectiles to alter trajectory unpredictably, while conserving shots was key since only a limited total number of torpedoes could be fired, forcing players to prioritize targets amid the sun's pull.^[30] Advanced tactics included positioning near the sun to let gravity curve ship paths for indirect torpedo approaches.^[5] Post-release variations expanded Spacewar!'s playability across institutions. By late 1962, version 3.1 introduced scoring via a dedicated PDP-1 register display to enable finite matches and limit playtime, alongside refined hyperspace mechanics that randomized ship repositioning less destructively.^[31] Later adaptations, such as version 4.3 at Stanford, added multiple suns for complex gravitational fields that altered orbits and tactics, while regional ports like those on the PDP-7 included tweaks for local hardware, such as enhanced scoring or display modes.^[5]

Release and Distribution

Initial Deployment on PDP-1

Spacewar! reached its initial playable form in February 1962, when Steve Russell completed the core programming on the PDP-1 computer installed in MIT's Building 26, the Electrical Engineering department's facilities.^[32] The game was first demonstrated there among MIT students and staff, quickly gaining traction as a captivating diversion that showcased the PDP-1's real-time graphics capabilities.^[33] Its appeal led to immediate and widespread popularity within the MIT community, with the PDP-1 running Spacewar! continuously, often late into the night, as users queued to play sessions that could last hours.^[34] The game's addictive nature prompted the EE department to impose restrictions on playtime, limiting it to lunch hours and evenings to prevent interference with academic work, yet it remained a staple of campus hacker culture.^[1] In May 1962, Spacewar! received broader exposure at the annual MIT Science Open House, a public event where it was presented in a modified single-player mode to accommodate larger audiences.^[35] Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) employees attending the demonstration were particularly impressed, requesting copies for use in PDP-1 promotional setups, as detailed in a contemporary DECUS proceedings paper by Martin Graetz.^[33] This event marked the game's transition from an internal MIT project to a recognized demonstration of computing potential. Early distribution occurred informally through punched paper tape copies, shared freely among programmers without any commercial release or licensing, aligning with the prevailing hacker ethos of open collaboration and information access at MIT.^[36] Spacewar! was designed exclusively for the PDP-1 minicomputer equipped with a Type 30 cathode-ray tube (CRT) display, which enabled its vector graphics and real-time interaction—hardware limited to just a few dozen installations worldwide at the time.^[37]

Dissemination to Other Systems and Institutions

Following its debut at MIT, Spacewar! rapidly disseminated to other PDP-1 installations via informal sharing methods prevalent in the early computing community, including magnetic and paper tapes exchanged among programmers, as well as binary code transfers over telephone lines using acoustic couplers. By 1963, Spacewar! had spread to several of the approximately 50 PDP-1 installations worldwide, primarily academic and research laboratories.^[5]^[38] One early adopter was Stanford University, where developer Steve Russell personally transported the code in fall 1962 upon joining the faculty to configure their newly acquired PDP-1 for Lisp compilation and other tasks.^[38] The game's distribution exemplified the open, collaborative ethos of 1960s hacker culture, with no formal licensing or restrictions imposed by its creators; source code and binaries circulated freely via personal networks and visits to demo sites. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the PDP-1 manufacturer, tacitly supported non-commercial dissemination by featuring Spacewar! in promotional materials to highlight the system's graphical capabilities, but actively discouraged commercial exploitation to prioritize hardware sales over software ventures.^[1]^[35] This policy aligned with DEC's broader stance on user-developed software, allowing recreational use at universities and hacker gatherings while requiring permissions for profit-oriented adaptations.^[35] In the late 1960s, as PDP-1s aged, programmers ported Spacewar! to successor systems, including PDP-6 and PDP-10 machines. Russell adapted it for Stanford's PDP-6 in 1966 shortly after its display hardware arrived, enabling multi-user play on time-sharing setups.^[39] Similar ports emerged at MIT's AI Lab for their PDP-6/PDP-10 cluster by 1968, with enhancements for vector displays and up to five simultaneous players across multiple terminals.^[39] These adaptations extended the game's life in research environments like the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), where it ran on dual-processor configurations.^[38] The code's accessibility also inspired hardware-based arcade conversions in the early 1970s. At Stanford, Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck developed Galaxy Game (1971), a coin-operated PDP-11 implementation installed in the student union, preserving Spacewar!'s core mechanics with added scoring and single-player modes.^[40] Independently, Nolan Bushnell, who encountered the game during his studies at the University of Utah's PDP-1 lab in the mid-1960s, co-created Computer Space (released 1971 by Nutting Associates), a simplified, single-player variant using custom TTL logic circuits to emulate the spaceships, torpedoes, and gravitational sun without relying on a full computer.^[41] By the mid-1960s, Spacewar! had accrued thousands of play sessions across these sites, cultivating a tradition of informal game development and exchange among computing enthusiasts.^[38]

Legacy

Influence on Early Video Games

Spacewar! directly inspired the creation of the first commercial arcade video games, most notably Computer Space, released in 1971 by Nutting Associates and led by Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell, who encountered the game during his graduate studies at Stanford University around 1970, recognized its potential for coin-operated entertainment and adapted its core space combat mechanics—two dueling spaceships maneuvering around a gravitational hazard—into a single-player arcade format using discrete logic hardware rather than a full computer.^[42]^[43] This adaptation, while commercially modest due to its complexity, paved the way for Bushnell's founding of Atari in 1972 and the development of Pong, a simpler table tennis simulation that became a massive hit and launched the arcade industry. Bushnell has explicitly credited Spacewar! as the foundational influence that "opened [his] eyes to the potential" of video games as entertainment products.^[44]^[43] The game's mechanics also played a pivotal role in defining early video game genres, particularly space combat simulations featuring two-player duels and physics-based gameplay. Spacewar!'s real-time vector graphics, rotational inertia, and gravitational pull around a central star introduced concepts of orbital maneuvering and tactical positioning that echoed in subsequent titles, such as Atari's Asteroids in 1979. Asteroids incorporated similar ship controls, momentum conservation, and asteroid fields as dynamic obstacles, evolving Spacewar!'s duel into a solo survival challenge against environmental hazards while retaining the thrill of Newtonian physics in a zero-gravity arena.^[45]^[26] These elements helped establish the space shooter genre, influencing a lineage of arcade games that emphasized skillful navigation and combat in simulated cosmic environments. Spacewar!'s distribution model fostered early game development practices akin to open-source sharing, encouraging widespread modification and porting that impacted homebrew and microcomputer gaming in the 1970s. As a freely shared program among academic institutions, it was routinely customized—adding features like hyperspace jumps or multiplayer variants—and ported to systems like the PDP-8, inspiring hobbyists to recreate it in accessible languages such as BASIC for emerging personal computers like the Altair 8800 and early Apple models.^[45] This collaborative ethos democratized game creation, leading to informal ports and variants that spread through user groups and magazines, laying groundwork for the homebrew scene that flourished with the rise of affordable microcomputers.^[5] The game's legacy includes formal recognition for pioneering achievements, such as Guinness World Records designating it as the first shooting video game and the first to feature a spaceship, underscoring its foundational status in interactive entertainment.^[46]^[47] Additionally, the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics tournament held at Stanford University on October 19, 1972—organized by Stewart Brand and covered in Rolling Stone—marked the first organized video game competition, drawing competitors from across the U.S. and highlighting gaming's potential as a competitive and cultural phenomenon that influenced early industry gatherings.^[48]^[49]

Cultural Impact and Preservation Efforts

Spacewar! emerged as a symbol of the 1960s counterculture, embodying the hacker ethic of open access, experimentation, and communal creativity in computing. Stewart Brand's 1972 article in Rolling Stone, titled "SPACEWAR: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums," portrayed the game as a "cultural earthquake," highlighting how it fostered a subculture of young programmers who viewed computers as tools for personal empowerment and social change, aligning with broader countercultural ideals of decentralization and anti-authoritarianism.^[25] This depiction influenced subsequent narratives, including Steven Levy's 1984 book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, which credits Spacewar! with exemplifying the hacker ethic—principles like free access to computers, mistrust of authority, and the belief that information should be shared—developed among MIT programmers in the early 1960s. In historiography, Spacewar! is widely regarded as the progenitor of the video game industry, marking the shift from computational tools to interactive entertainment. Scholars such as Henry Lowood have emphasized its role in establishing competitive play and graphical simulation as core elements of digital gaming, influencing academic discussions on media evolution. In 2007, the Library of Congress included Spacewar! in its inaugural "game canon," a list of 10 pivotal titles selected by a consortium of game historians and curators to guide preservation efforts, recognizing its foundational status in American cultural heritage.^[50] This inclusion sparked debates on the game's legacy, with critics like those in the International Journal of Communication arguing it bridged postwar technological optimism and countercultural play, gamifying complexity in ways that prefigured modern digital interactions.^[51] Preservation efforts have focused on maintaining both hardware and software artifacts to ensure Spacewar!'s accessibility. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, restored a rare PDP-1 computer in 2005, enabling public demonstrations of the original game and underscoring its historical significance as the PDP-1's flagship demonstration program.^[52] Meanwhile, the Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle hosted recreations and tournaments, including a 2017 "Spacewar Olympics" on an IMLAC PDS-1 variant, to engage visitors with vintage hardware; the museum closed in 2020 and its permanent closure was announced in 2024, with artifacts auctioned and some acquired by other institutions.^[53]^[54] The game's source code, released into the public domain by its creators, has facilitated widespread emulation; projects like the PDP-1 simulator at masswerk.at preserve the authentic 1962 assembly code, allowing execution on modern systems without alteration.^[55] In the 2020s, Spacewar! retains modern relevance through remakes and educational applications that highlight its enduring conceptual impact. JavaScript-based emulations, such as those developed in the 2010s and updated ongoing, enable browser play of the original code, democratizing access for researchers and enthusiasts.^[5] Virtual reality adaptations, including developer projects like the Oculus Quest-based Spacewar VR from around 2020, reimagine the game's two-player combat in immersive 3D environments, exploring contemporary interfaces while honoring its roots.^[56] Educationally, it features in computing history curricula at institutions like MIT, where simulations illustrate early interactive programming and the hacker culture's influence on software innovation.^[38] However, recent critiques, particularly from feminist media scholars, have examined its origins within a male-dominated hacker milieu at MIT, arguing that such environments reinforced gender exclusions in early computing subcultures and perpetuated narratives marginalizing women's contributions to game development.^[57]

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Computer Space - The Strong National Museum of Play
Mar 13, 2023 · Engineering student Nolan Bushnell played the most popular of these games, Spacewar! (1962), in a computer lab in the 1960s.
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Before Pong, There Was Computer Space | The MIT Press Reader
Oct 15, 2021 · In February 1962, a group of MIT engineers created Spacewar!, a game that was free to play for those lucky enough to have access to the few ...
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VC&G Interview: Nolan Bushnell, Founder of Atari
Dec 12, 2007 · It was Steve Russell's Space War that really opened my eyes to the potential, and I've often credited him as being the true really exciting ...
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The Inside Story of 'Pong' and Nolan Bushnell's Early Days at Atari
Nov 15, 2017 · Watching Bushnell demonstrate the game, Alcorn grew excited. Computer Space was based on an iconic game called Spacewar!, written in 1963 by an ...
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The History of Spacewar!: The Best Waste of Time in the History of ...
Jun 10, 2009 · ... Spacewar!, which was introduced in playable form as early as February 1962. Even Spacewar! had its antecedents; two frequently brought up ...
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Spacewar! | The Dot Eaters
History is also made by Kotok and fellow Spacewar addict Bob Sanders, who are sick of the elbow fatigue caused by holding the toggle switches on the PDP-1 to ...
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First shooting videogame | Guinness World Records
Spacewar! The very first shooting game reaches back to the earliest days of the gaming medium: Spacewar! was created in 1961, by MIT students Martin Graetz, ...Missing: 1980 | Show results with:1980
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First videogame to feature a spaceship | Guinness World Records
Developed for the PDP-1 computer in 1962, Spacewar! was a two-player game in which opponents fought with armed spaceships – known as the Needle and the Wedge – ...
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First esports event | Guinness World Records
The first eSports event was the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics, a tournament held at the Stanford University AI Laboratory on 19 October 1972.<|control11|><|separator|>
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Stewart Brand Recalls First 'Spacewar' Video Game Tournament
May 25, 2016 · The first video game tournament was held on October 19th, 1972. Competitors gathered at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab in Los ...
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Is That Just Some Game? No, It's a Cultural Artifact
Mar 12, 2007 · Lowood announced a game canon, an idea that grew out of a proposal submitted to the Library of Congress in September 2006 by a consortium made ...
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[PDF] New Games, Spacewar!, and the Gamification of Complexity
Aug 31, 2020 · The game was first coded in 1961 on the. DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Steve Russell, Martin Graetz, ...
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Welcome | PDP-1 Restoration Project - Computer History Museum
This on-line exhibition covers the history of this groundbreaking computer and the Computer History Museum's recent restoration of a PDP-1 to working order.Missing: Living | Show results with:Living
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45 years after first-ever gaming tournament, Seattle museum hosts ...
Oct 18, 2017 · The Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics is a 45th anniversary celebration and tournament marking the first-ever gaming tournament, which took place in 1972.
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Spacewar! (re)sources - mass:werk
Authentic source code of "hyperspace85.bin", the orignial hyperspace patch by J.M. Graetz ("Hyperspace VIci, 2 May 1962", recoded in October 1985) for Spacewar!
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Spacewar VR - project - YouTube
Spacewar VR - project · wip spacewar vr game for oculus quest (day 1) · wip spacewar vr game for oculus quest (day 1) · wip spacewar 2 · wip spacewar vr game for ...Missing: emulations JavaScript 2020s
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[PDF] Hackers and Cyborgs
comprehend the pleasures of hacking through early videogames, Wajc- man's explicit link between videogames, hacker culture, and dominant masculinities is ...