Spacewar!

Uncommon card · No. 94135

Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly installed DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was later expanded by other students and employees of universities in the area, including by Dan Edwards and Peter Samson. It also spread to many of the few dozen installations of PDP-1s, making it the first video game to be played at multiple computer installations. The game features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players. Each ship has limited ammunition and fuel for maneuvering, and the ships remain in motion even when the player is not accelerating. Flying near the star to provide a gravity assist is a common tactic. Ships are destroyed when they collide with a torpedo, the star, or each other...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Joi Ito from Inbamura, Japan, CC BY 2.0