spacewar

SPACEWAR
 n.

   A space-combat simulation game, inspired by E. E. "Doc" Smith's
   Lensman books, in which two spaceships duel around a central sun,
   shooting torpedoes at each other and jumping through hyperspace. This
   game was first implemented on the PDP-1 at MIT in 1962. In 1968-69, a
   descendant of the game motivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare
   time on a scavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became {Unix}.
   Less than nine years after that, SPACEWAR was commercialized as one of
   the first video games; descendants are still {feep}ing in video
   arcades everywhere.
    

SPACEWAR

   <games> A space-combat simulation game for the {PDP-1} written
   in 1960-61 by Steve Russell, an employee at {MIT}.  SPACEWAR
   was inspired by E. E. "Doc" Smith's "Lensman" books, in which
   two spaceships duel around a central sun, shooting torpedoes
   at each other and jumping through hyperspace.  MIT were
   wondering what to do with a new {vector video display} so
   Steve wrote the world's first video game.  Steve now lives in
   California and still writes software for {HC12} {emulators}.

   SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of the early hacker
   culture at {MIT}.  Nine years later, a descendant of the game
   motivated {Ken Thompson} to build, in his spare time on a
   scavenged {PDP-7}, the {operating system} that became {Unix}.
   Less than nine years after that, SPACEWAR was commercialised
   as one of the first video games; descendants are still
   {feep}ing in video arcades everywhere.

   ["SPACEWAR" or "Space Travel"?]

   [{Jargon File}]

   (2004-07-19)