Spacewar!

Somehow, I expect Leonard Nimoy to be standing in front of this screen.

Spacewar! is probably the least attractive but more important video game you will ever play as it is (arguably) the most influential video game ever (11 years before Pong).

Before Spacewar! there are only a couple of video games worth mentioning:

- (1952) OXO or Noughts And Crosses - this is a tic-tac-toe game running on a 1949 EDSAC computer (you can follow this link to download an EDSAC simulator that includes a copy of the game - watch it here);

- (1958) Tennis for two - The technology consisted of an analog Donner computer linked to an oscilloscope used as display. The game was played by two people using hand controls (watch it here).

There are other older wannabe video games (like CRT Amusement Device, or  NIM) but they fail to qualify as they rely on other stuff than video for the output (this is a personal opinion - if you do not agree, fell free to post).

You can read all about Spacewar! in this wikipedia article. Fortunately the original Spacewar! can be played on any computer with Java enabled. Simply go to this link. After reading the "readme" page you can play the game as in 1961.

The game is a monstrous effort for any 1961 programmer - not only does it feature vector graphics, it also imitates some real life physics. Imagine the load on a  200kHz processor (that is not a misprint) and 9 kB of main memory!

Thrust is awkward as it has little power and only switches between full and none - but this is what makes it challenging to play. You can alter your orbit around the star (usually called the sun) with just the right amount of thrust and end up in an perfect circular or elliptical orbit (stand in awe as you see Newton's laws in motion - your speed is anything but constant).

Unfortunately, the shots fired (missiles?) are not under the influence of the star's pull (there was no processing power left) which makes it pretty easy to shoot your fellow opponent - this is probably the only downfall of the game. It ends so quickly, you sometimes wish there was no other player so you could watch yourself orbit around that sparkling thing in the middle.

Naturally there are no sound effects, no music, no storyline, no dialogs, no bosses, etc which, as strange as it may seems, benefits the overall experience.
Make no mistake - although 11 years older (this is equivalent to a couple of centuries in dog-techno-years), Spacewar! blows Pong out of the water.

Name: Spacewar!

Genre: Shooter/Competitive Multiplayer

Platform: DEC PDP-1

Date of release: 1961

Publisher: MIT (Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen)

Rating: 10/10