History of Computers - Spacewar!
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| Spacewar Gameplay |
Spacewar!
Spacewar! was the first game with vector graphics ever released to computers. Although preceded by OXO in 1952(a tic-tac-toe style game), it was the first game meant for use on a computer with randomly generated maps and moving graphics.[1]
Overview
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| The DEC-PDP1 |
Games were not the primary purpose of the DEC-PDP1, but when the computer boasted a whopping 9 kilobytes of memory, it became capable of being the first computer to run advanced applications with randomly generated enviornments and vector graphics manipulated by a user at will. Steve "Slug" Russell, Martin "Shag" Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen decided to create the game in 1961 and began writing it on a DEC-PDP1 and after 200 hours of programming put in by the three, the game was completed in 1962.[1]
Upon completion of the game, its creators began to play and attract others to the game which soon brought to light several small problems. Primarily, the random background was indeed so completely random that players would occasionally "spawn" either on top of or very near stars that they would crash into. Additionally, players had to use a very fragile and flimsy front control switch panel that wore out under normal gameplay very quickly.
These problems were quickly dealt with with the creation of "Expensive Planetarium", a mapping of the earth's real night sky, which replaced the random enviornment to a more realistic and player-friendly one. The problem with the front control switches was dealt with by Spacewar!'s introduction to a joystick controller, which proved to be much more durable, but also more accurate and increased the ease of use tremendously.[2]
Significance
With randomly generated maps, a gravity effect, and multi-player and singleplayer modes, Spacewar! began the long line of graphically intense games that have generated an enormous industry and communities numbering in the millions by rising far above the stationary dots and lines of its computer game predecessors. Spacewar! was unusual however, for unlike modern games such as World of WarCraft or Call of Duty, the game was made for solely the purpose of having fun while playing it, and so it made no profits for it's creators. Because no measures were taken to avoid others copying the game, it was quickly rewritten for different systems and later released as Spacewars in 1977, a game which sold to arcades to be played for the cost of $10 an hour. Although the game was originally only functional on DEC-PDP1 computers, it was made so widely available to players that the game is still alive and compatible with modern systems by use of a Java application. The change of Spacewar! to something completely universal lead to an understanding for a need to capitalize on games for use in arcades and other locations of the collection of huge amounts of money. Followed most significantly by Pong, the first game to sell more than 150,000 copies, Spacewar! paved the way for modern games by introducing advanced graphics and gameplay, and even more importantly, leading to a game that created large profits in arcades, stimulating the creation of quality games for large financial gains that has lead to an industry generating more revenue than double the NBA, MLB, and NFL combined.
References
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expensive_Planetarium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!
Page Creator: Logan Elliott
