Presenting Spacewar! @ Gamespace
Playable emulation of Spacewar! at Chicago Gamespace.
Reason why the internet rocks #896: thanks to a decentralized network of video game historians, computer scientists and preservationists — across space and time — visitors to Chicago Gamespace can now play Spacewar! This 1962 game was developed for the DEC PDP-1 minicomputer at MIT. In Spacewar!, two spacecraft face off against a star field in an intergalactic battle while avoiding the gravitational pull of a star. Steve “Slug” Russell is credited as the primary designer and programmer and the concept was inspired by his avid interest in science fiction, establishing one of the most dominant genres of video games.
Dan Edwards and Peter Samson playing Spacewar! at MIT in 1962. This is the only photograph of the control boxes with the controls largely obscured by the players hands. Image courtesy of the Computer History Museum.
The Gamespace installation is comprised of an emulation by Norbert Landsteiner, custom controls by computer scientist Tom Tilley and a vinyl backdrop of the PDP-1 from the computer manual.
Screenshot of Spacewar! emulation by Norbert Landsteiner.
The emulation by Norbert Landsteiner, www.masswerk.at, (2012–2022) is based on emulation code by Barry Silverman, Brian Silverman, and Vadim Gerasimov. Learn more and play via your browser here.
Dr. Tom Tilley’s Spacewar! controllers in development.
Gamespace’s Jonathan Kinkley discovered that a computer scientist named Dr. Tom Tilley had recreated the original control boxes for Spacewar! that had been designed by Alan Kotok and Robert A Saunders. Kinkley commissioned Tilley to create joysticks for the Spacewar! installation at Gamespace and Tilley agreed! The result includes two Raspberry Pi Picos specially coded by TIlley to work with the Masswerk emulator, and inserted into hardwood boxes with potentiometers and black acrylic tops and bottoms. The left stick rotates your ship ("the wedge"), the right stick controls thrust (up) and hyperspace (down), while the button fires torpedoes.
Vinyl PDP-1 installation at Gamespace was sourced from the original computer manual.
Come to Chicago Gamespace and challenge your friend to intergalactic gameplay. This is one of the very first original video games and it went on to inspire some of the most significant pioneers of video games including the likes of Nolan Bushnell and Eugene Jarvis. Huge thanks to Norbert Landsteiner and Tom Tilley for keeping the flame of Spacewar! alive.