SPACEWAR


SPACEWAR

(games)A space-combat simulation game for the PDP-1 writtenin 1960-61 by Steve Russell, an employee at MIT. SPACEWARwas inspired by E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" books, in whichtwo spaceships duel around a central sun, shooting torpedoesat each other and jumping through hyperspace. MIT werewondering what to do with a new vector video display soSteve wrote the world's first video game. Steve now lives inCalifornia and still writes software for HC12 emulators.

SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of the early hackerculture at MIT. Nine years later, a descendant of the gamemotivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare time on ascavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became Unix.Less than nine years after that, SPACEWAR was commercialisedas one of the first video games; descendants are stillfeeping in video arcades everywhere.