This is the fifth in a series of mini-articles on the early history of video games. The game featured here will not receive a review score, and thus will not appear on the Tier List.
Release Date: April, 1962
Platform: DEC PDP-1
Genre: Multidirectional Shooter / Space Combat Simulation
Developer(s): Steve Russell, Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner (and many more!)
Publisher(s): N/A
So now we come to Spacewar!, undoubtedly the most significant game of the Prehistory era, but also one of the most important and influential video games ever made. Spacewar! bears significant influence in the development of two of the three primary streams of video games (the three being computer/PC, arcade, and console.) Spacewar! is one of, if not the first game to not be a "one pot wonder," so to speak, in that it did not stay on a single computer, but was ported and copied to several different computer systems and installations in universities all across America throughout the 1960s and early 70s. It was also almost solely responsible for the creation of arcade video games, as the first two, Galaxy Game and Computer Space, were entirely based off of the idea of creating a commercial version of Spacewar!
Spacewar! was originally the brainchild of the trio of Steve Russell, Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen at MIT. The game concept was conceived in 1961 and, when the PDP-1 minicomputer was installed, Russell, along with assistance from other programmers at MIT, had the game working by early 1962. It became instantly popular with students at MIT, and would spread to universities all across the US over the following decade.
There's not much more for me to say from a historical perspective about Spacewar! apart from what's already been said about it, such is its importance, influence and whatnot. I think at this time, therefore, it's best to get into playing it a bit. Spacewar! is playable online via emulation developed by Norbert Landsteiner. Keep in mind that this is a two-player game only, and thus my time spent playing will be brief.
[Ed. This video was added later, and thus the following description of my playthrough will not match the video playthrough.]
This emulator gives us a few different builds of Spacewar! to play around with, ranging from the first public version seen in early 1962, to the final original build, plus some additional bonus versions and extras both old and new. What's neat is that it allows you to play all versions with USB gamepads.
So many choices...
As is custom with me, I have to try every version available here in chronological order. The earliest build is version 2B, which features "Minskytron Hyperspace." Funky name, but what it simply is is the nickname for Martin Graetz's original routine for the game's 'hyperspace' mechanic, before it was revised for later versions.
Slowly being sucked in by the star's gravity
The base format of all versions of Spacewar! are exactly the same: two starships determined to destroy each other. Not only must they contend with each other, but also the star in the centre of the screen, which functions as a gravity well that draws the ships into it, destroying them if they touch the star. The trick is to exploit the gravity to slingshot your ship across the screen instead of trying to fight it.
Curses! Just missed...
I continued to play around for a couple of minutes with the 2B version, before deciding it was time to move on and see what differences there are in the other versions of Spacewar!
The 3.1 version is considered the "official" version, as it was the last build the original creators worked on. It has a few changes from the 2B version, mostly graphical, but the hyperspace mechanic was altered somewhat. The "Minskytron" routine allowed 3 hyperspace jumps maximum, whereas the 3.1 hyperspace has unlimited jumps, but there is always a chance your ship will simply blow up when you use it. This chance increases with each successive use.
Changes are relatively minor with each successive version of Spacewar!, therefore there really isn't anything else worth commenting on. Different versions have slightly different alterations you can make to gameplay, such as gravity strength, whether the star kills or whether your ships fire single-shot or salvos of missiles, but these don't impact gameplay a whole lot (well, they don't if you're playing alone like me.)
I think that, then, concludes my look at Spacewar!. I can only imagine what it would've been like to be in the university scene when this game appeared for the first time, it must have been massively exciting to see it. As for some trivia, apparently Spacewar! was the subject of the first official video game tournament (sponsored by Rolling Stone magazine, no less) - if Wikipedia is to be believed, that is. Spacewar! leaves a huge legacy, one that we will truly see blossom when the 1970s come around.
Don't forget - if you enjoy my blog, be sure to leave a comment and follow so you don't miss any updates!
This is the fourth in a series of mini-articles on the early history of video games. The games featured here will not receive review scores, and thus will not appear on the Tier List.
As the 1950s come to a close, there are two final, closely related games that I want to cover to close out the decade. Both games were developed for the same computer, and both utilise an early form of touch screen controls: the light pen. Since neither of them are playable I'll be covering them simultaneously (plus there isn't a whole lot to discuss with another tic-tac-toe game.) As a result, this article is likely to be shorter than the previous few.
Mouse in the Maze
Release Date: January, 1959
Platform: TX-0
Genre: Maze
Developer(s): Doug Ross, John Ward
Publisher(s): N/A
Tic-Tac-Toe
Release Date: 1959 (unable to find a more precise date)
Platform: TX-0
Genre: Board Game
Developer(s): Uncredited
Publisher(s): N/A
Both Mouse in the Maze and Tic-Tac-Toe were developed for the TX-0 ("Transistorized Experimental computer zero") stationed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This was an experimental computer, one of the first to make full use of transistors. Basically all previous computers utilised vacuum tubes, but the TX-0 was the first to do away with these tubes in favour of transistors. It's also one of the earliest adopters of magnetic-core memory. Thanks to this form of memory storage, the TX-0 boasted a huge memory capacity of... 64K! Well, it was huge for 1950s computer standards... The TX-0 was also quite important in the grander scheme of computing and gaming, as it is the direct ancestor of the PDP-1 minicomputer, the computer which the legendary Spacewar! was originally developed for. The whole PDP series of computers saw a significant amount of game development throughout the 60s, as we shall see later on in the Prehistory series.
But I digress, to the games at hand. What makes these two games worth mentioning? The most noteworthy feature is the utilisation of the light pen, a device that could be considered an ancestor of the modern stylus used for the touch screens of devices such as the Nintendo DS and 3DS. The fact we have what are effectively touch screen controls in 1959 is rather shocking to me. I would not have expected to see such technology appear this early in computing history.
For Tic-Tac-Toe, the implementation is rather simple: playing against the computer, you would select the square you wanted to claim by touching it with the light pen. There's little information available for this game other than that. We don't know how the computer played, if it was perfect like OXO or dynamic like Relay Moe. We also don't even know who developed the program. I simply couldn't find any information beyond what I've presented here.
For Mouse in the Maze, the light pen implementation is a little different. Rather than filling in squares, you're removing them. Mouse in the Maze initially presents you with an 8x8 grid, and you create a maze by removing lines from the grid with the light pen. Once you've created a sufficiently devious maze, you'd place cheese somewhere in the maze and let the mouse loose to find it. The mouse automatically moves about the maze, checking for paths each square. Eventually, if it doesn't find the cheese it tires out, but it will remember the information from its first attempt for later expeditions through the maze. Amusingly, later versions of the game would replace the cheese with martinis, resulting in the mouse becoming progressively more drunk as its maze travels went on. Speaking of, this little mouse also technically features some frames of animation, too, with its little tail wagging behind it as it moves about. Cute. Technically, this would make Mouse in the Maze the first game to feature animation.
But really, what Mouse in the Maze is is a sort of level creating software for testing artificial intelligence and less so a proper game. Granted, many games over the years have included level building tools, and level creation games would become quite popular in more recent years. Just ask the Super Mario Maker community (hey, that game used a touch screen too!) So perhaps Mouse in the Maze could be called the grand-daddy of all make-your-own-level tools / games. Regardless, it and the computer it was created on still stand as important footnotes in video game development.
Don't forget - if you enjoy my blog, be sure to leave a comment and follow so you don't miss any updates!
