Spacewar Is 60 Today | Hacker News Reader

Spacewar Is 60 Today

masswerk.at

68 pointsmasswerk14 comments

I mentioned it a few times here already, but why not again :-)

The arcade conversion from way back in the 80s was one of my favorite multiplayer games, especially since you played concurrently rather than turn based. My recollection was that you could turn both the gravity and inertia off and so thrust was fast and instant as were stops. Great fun.

A real highlight was (possibly 3 years to the day) going to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View where they have a PDP-1 and allowed you play Spacewar! against other guests. Better still was that the docents leading the mini-tournament were Steve Russell and Peter Samson. (https://computerhistory.org/exhibits/pdp-1/)

I don't know if that will come back or not, but something special.

As it happens, the restoration of the CHM's PDP-1 is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Congrats to the team!

Indeed!

Also, a very nice job on the emulation. For some time it's been my go-to reference anytime I tell someone about Spacewar that doesn't know it already. Thanks for putting it together.

Which of the arcade-ified versions did you play? Computer Space, Space Wars, or Galaxy Game?

It was Space Wars. I don't recall ever seeing any of the others variants in the wild; though it was a long time ago and I use to go to quite a few arcades and some pretty big arcades so it's possible I did see, say Computer Space, just don't remember.

Peter Samson ran the Spacewar demo today on CHM's PDP-1.

OP here: "Spacewar! 2B", the version shown at the MIT Open House in May 1962 is labeled "2 Apr 62" — exactly 60 years ago, today. Moreover, a first description of the game was published in the very first issue of "Decuscope – Information for Digital Equipment Computer Users" (Vol. 1 No. 1, April 1962, pp 2 and 4).

To celebrate the event, the emulation was slightly overhauled.

I remember playing this variant for hours on end against a friend on DOS: https://dosgames.com/game/spacewar/

It was written by Bill Seiler, who apparently also did a port of the original game to the PDP-11 (https://github.com/MattisLind/SPACEWAR).

Has anyone ever put together a virtual museum of Spacewar! variants/derivatives over the decades? I would love to learn more about these games and the people who made them.

It's amazing to think video games have such a deep and rich history with more quality than I'll probably ever get around to play in my lifetime, yet their entire history is contained in a mere 60 years.

What a crazy coincidence. I played it for the first time today just a few minutes ago (playing with a MiSTer FPGA I put together; there is a PDP-1 core and when you run it, it plays Spacewar).

I think, this core also plays the music programs by Peter Samson.

Used to play this on the Amiga, it had modem support to play against a friend.

Thanks to op for posting. Remembering is important.

I couldn't even count the hours I've spent playing this game. So much nostalgia.

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