Spacewar!

Created originally at MIT on the PDP-1 in 1962, Spacewar! is a competitive space shooting game where two players in spaceships do battle in a segment of space. It is one of the most influential video games ever created, being a direct inspiration for seminal games such as Computer Space and Asteroids as well as introducing a plethora of features to real-time video games.

Preview

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  First public look at Spacewar! (1962)

Media Coverage

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  Spacewar! used as a demo for a new graphical display. (June 1969)
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  Article in Rolling Stone magazine (December 1972)
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  Cover of MIT Technology Review. (1967)

Photos

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  Seen at MIT (1964).

Histories

• https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1981-08/page/n59/ The Origin of Spacewar! by J. Martin Graetz.
• https://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com/2021/03/17/worldly-wednesdays-a-timeline-of-spacewar/ Worldly Wednesdays: A Timeline of Spacewar! by Alex Smith.

Interviews

• https://amhistory.si.edu/archives/AC1498_Transcript_StephenRussell.pdf — Stephen Russell oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (January 8th, 2017).
• https://amhistory.si.edu/archives/AC1498_Transcript_PeterSamson.pdf — Peter Samson oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (January 9th, 2017).
• https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_RobertSaunders.pdf — Robert Alan Saunders oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (November 29th, 2018).
• https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_StephenPiner.pdf — Steve Piner oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (November 29th, 2018).
• https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_MartinGraetz.pdf — Martin J Graetz oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (November 30th, 2018).
• https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_WayneWiitanen.pdf — Wayne Alfred Wiitanen oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (November 30th, 2018).
• https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_DanielEdwards.pdf — Daniel Edwards oral history conducted by Christopher Weaver, working with the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation (November 30th, 2018).

Books

• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy