In The Beginning ....
There seems to be reasonable agreement1 that the first "original" software-based computer game originated in 1961 after DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) delivered its first PDP1 computer to M.I.T. At that time, computers were big, heavy, expensive and by today's standards extremely limited. Input was by means of stacks and stacks of ordered punched paper cards from which a fragile and cumbersome tape was prepared and then loaded into a tape reader. Output might be from a teletype capable of writing as many as 14 characters per second! The PDP1 introduced an unusual output device - a monochrome CRT display. The need to provide some means of demonstrating the new system's improved ability to visitors to the computer lab prompted Steve Russell to design a game that gave the new computer a thorough workout. His efforts together with input and assistance from colleagues and friends resulted in the "original" computer game "Spacewar!" by the spring of 1962. |
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