The First Computer Game
"If I hadn't of done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next 6 months. I just happened to get there first."- Steve Russell
1962- A young programmer from MIT, Steve Russell, created the first computer video game. His game was fueled with inspiration provided by the writings of E. E. "Doc" Smith. Russell wrote his game on a PDP-1, an early DEC "interactive" mini computer which used a Athode-ray- tube type display and keyboard input. The computer was a donated to MIT from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) who hoped MIT's think tank would be able to do something remarkable with their product, a game called "Spacewar" was the last thing DEC expected.
-The PDP-1's operating system was the first to allow various user's to share the computer simutaneously, this was perfect for play "Spacewar", since it was a two player game involving warring spaceships firing photon torpedoes. By the mid-sixties when time spent on a computer was a waste of time, since time was still very expensive, "Spacewar" could be found on nearly every research computer in the United States of America.
To play a replica of "Spacewars"-