April 30, 2021
Tales of the early days of the first digital video game.
Sometimes it’s only a short sentence, a few words dropped as an aside, which changes our understanding. A short glimpse, which provides deeper inside and understanding in what is a complex process. As it is here the case regarding how Spacewar!, the first digital video game became this remarkable program that gave birth to an entire industry. As usually, what was intended to be just a brief dump of an idea at least, this is what a blog post is all about, isn’t it? became lengthier than expected. Not for the least, as it’s still necessary to establish the subject, even as Spacewar! is rapidly progressing towards its 60
Spacewar!
Screenshot:
This is a virtual
DEC PDP-1 emulated in HTML5/JavaScript running the original code of Spacewar! , the earliest known digital video game. If available, use gamepads or joysticks (currently Chrome and Firefox only, see instructions-memo below) for authentic gameplay the game was originally played using custom control boxes.
Spacewar! was conceived in 1961 by Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. It was first realized on the
PDP-1 in 1962 by Stephen Russell, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and Martin Graetz, together with Alan Kotok, Steve Piner, and Robert A Saunders. – Spacewar! is in the public domain, but this credit paragraph must accompany all distributed versions of the program.