Spacewar, The Playful Epic First Video Game From 1962

 "Spacewar" 

Its name is "Spacewar", considered to be the first video game, conceived by Stephen Russell. The genre was space combat, first released in 1962, almost 60 years ago. The stories of the father of "space opera" Edward Elmer inspired the game. He used to publish as E. E. Smith, Ph.D. and later as E. E. "Doc" Smith.

Quotes from  the Creator 

If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting, if not better, in the next six months. I just happened to get there first.

                                                                                                                                - Steve Russell.

Who created the first video game ?

Stephen Russell programmed the game in 1962. Steven Russell is an American computer scientist. His nickname is "Slug".  J. Martin Graetz, Peter Samson, Alan Kotok, Wayne Witanen, and Dan Edwards from MIT helped him to build it. They build the game on a mini-computer named PDP-1. This minicomputer was designed by a company named "Digital Equipment Corporation". They donated the computer to MIT and expected to build something to show its capabilities.

 Inspiration  of Spacewar

Russell was a fan of E. E. "Doc" Smith's stories. Before the PDP-1 minicomputer arrived in the lab, he has finished reading the Lensman series by E. E. "Doc" Smith. These stories inspired him to go for a space war genre type of game. In the lensman series, heroes' spaceships were encountering each other and the writer described vividly how they maneuvers the ships across the galaxy and invent their way out from their obstacles. Skylark novels from the same writer and some Japanese movies also inspired Russell’s team.

 Development 

Two hundred man-hours were invested to build Spacewar. And the computer they used was the first computer that allows multiple users to share the computer simultaneously. This computer has a cathode-ray tube-type display and a keyboard input. It was an interactive mini-computer by "Digital Equipment Corporation". Its name was PDP-1. PDP stands for programmed data processor. This computer was specially designed to focus on user interaction. And the company was first acquired by Compaq and later merged with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in May 2002.

 Gameplay 

Spacewar has two monochrome spaceships. One ship is called "the needle" and the other is "the wedge".

The game is happening in the background of a star field and in the center of the screen there is a gravity well of a star. That gravity is pulling both the ship continuously. Each ship was controlled by a player. They attempt to shoot each another. Ships can through torpedoes. Their fuel capacity is limited. And the most interesting thing is that the ship keeps moving even when the players don’t operate. The ships can fire one torpedo at a time. They can rotate the ship's direction but they can not stop the direction of their motion. 

The winning condition is to destroy the other player’s ship and not get sunk in the pulling star by its gravitational force.

 

 Influences of Spacewar 

Spacewar influenced so many games in video game history. After creating Spacewar, at some point, Russell transferred to Stanford University and meet Nolan Bushnell. Nolan Bushnell was an engineering student. Bushnell got inspired by Spacewar and game programming and started writing coin-operated games. And start Atari Computers.

Many modern programming languages recreated Spacewar for PDP-1 emulators. Later many commercial games got directly inspired by Spacewar.

And Spacewar became one of the most important video games of all time.

 Play Spacewar 

You can play several Html versions of Spacewar here.

If you want to play Spacewar on a digital device, check this.

F.A.Q

Was Spacewar the first video game?

Spacewar was designed on a computer called PDP-1in 1962. This computer has a cathode-ray tube-type display and a keyboard input. It was an interactive mini-computer by "Digital Equipment Corporation". Its name was PDP-1. PDP stands for programmed data processor. This computer was specially designed to focus on user interaction.

What was the very first video game?

Tennis for two is thought to be the first video game. Two people played the electronic tennis game with separate controllers that connected to an analog computer and used an oscilloscope for a screen. 

When Spacewar was invented?

Spacewar is a space combat game, first released in 1962. The stories of the father of "space opera" Edward Elmer inspired the game. He used to publish as E. E. Smith, Ph.D. and later as E. E. "Doc" Smith.

Who programmed the Spacewar game in 1962?

Steve Russell and his MIT colleagues programmed the Spacewar game in 1962.