Passage II

Spacewar!

In the early 1960s, when a single computer could take up an entire room, so the PDP-1 "mini" computer was a major improvement——it was only the size of a large car. (16) Its developers emitted one to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) hoping the talented people there could make good use of the machine. Even today, MIT has a prestigious program in computer science. The result is widely believed to have been the first digital computer game.

By today's standards, the programmers didn't have much to work with. An average modern desktop computer is about 2.000 times faster than a PDP-1 and have about 100,000 times as much random-access memory. In 1961, though, the capabilities of the PDP-1 were enough to inspire engineering student, Steve Russell. Among its innovative features, the PDP-I sported a TV-like display. A science fiction fan, Russell's decision was to create a game featuring: a battle between two spaceships. Other creative people have cited science fiction stories or films as inspiration for their work. (23)

Russell lavished about 200 hours over six months creating the two-player game he called it Spacewar! Each player used switches to control a spaceship. Flipping these switches made the ship move, rotate, and fire torpedoes. Fellow programmers enhanced the game. They added an accurate star field for a background, a sun whose gravitational pull affected the movement of the ship, and a button enabling the ship to escape into hyperspace (that is, disappear from one location and then reappear in a random spot on the screen).

Soon, MIT students were playing Spacewar! whenever he or she could. Its use in the electrical engineering lab had to be restricted to lunchtime and after work. Copies of the game spread to other universities with PDP-1s. Realizing the game pushed the machine's limits, DEC (28) gave it away as a tool to diagnose faults in the machine.

Despite never being widely available to the public in it's original form, Spacewar! hasn't been forgotten. A free version available on the Internet attracts many players eager for a truly old-school battle in outer space.