Spacewar

This article is about the PDP-1 game. To read about the arcade game, see Space Wars.

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Spacewar was an early video game, a multiplayer space-combat simulation inspired by Doc Smith's Lensman series of science fiction novels. Development started on a PDP-1 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962.

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The basic gameplay of Spacewar involves two armed spaceships attempting to shoot one another whilst maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Each player controls a ship, and must attempt to simultaneously shoot at the other ship and avoid colliding with the star. Player controls included clockwise and counterclockwise rotation, thrust, fire, and hyperspace.

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The ships fired missiles which were unaffected by gravity. Each ship had a limited number of missiles and a limited supply of fuel. The hyperspace feature could be used as a last-ditch means to evade enemy missiles, but the reentry from hyperspace would occur at a random location and there was an increasing probability of the ship exploding with each use.

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A background starfield ('Expensive Planetarium') was based on real star charts and slowly scrolled in the background.

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There were several optional features controlled by sense switches on the console:

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• no sun (and thus no gravity)
• enable angular momentum
• disable background starfield

Spacewar was a fairly good overall diagnostic of the PDP-1 computer and Type 30 Precision CRT Display, so DEC apparently used it for factory test and shipped PDP-1 computers to customers with Spacewar preloaded in the core memory.

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As of fall 2005, there is only known to be one working PDP-1 in existence, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The computer and display have been undergoing restoration for the past two years, and Spacewar is now operational.

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A second PDP-1 belonging to the Computer History Museum is currently on tour as part of the Game On exhibition, which is at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois through early September 2005, then will appear at the Tech Museum in San Jose, California through January 2006. However, this PDP-1 is not operational.

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Spacewar: Other games inspired by Spacewar ►



 

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