spacewar video game

SPACEWAR-- the second video game -- playable!

"It was in 1962 when a young computer programmer from MIT, Steve Russell fueled with inspiration from the writings of E. E. "Doc" Smith*, led the team that created the first computer game. It took the team about 200 man-hours to write the first version of Spacewar. Steve Russell wrote Spacewar on a PDP-1, an early DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) interactive mini computer which used a cathode-ray tube type display and keyboard input. The computer was a donation to MIT from DEC, who hoped MIT's think tank would be able to do something remarkable with their product. A computer game called Spacewar was the last thing DEC expected who later provided the game as a diagnostic program for their customers. Russell never profited from Spacewars." from http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa090198.htm by Mary Bellis.