TITLE
Interview with Stephen ‘Slug’ Russell
AUTHOR
Christopher Weaver
PUBLICATION
Smithsonian Institution
YEAR
2017
ARTICLE TYPE
Interview
FROM THE ARTICLE
Stephen Russell begins the oral history by describing early life and education leading up to his arrival at the Massachusetts institute of Technology. Russell then discusses development and evolution of the computer game Spacewar! for the Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1 computer and his career path from MIT to Harvard to Stanford University. As the informal leader of this pioneering open source coding effort, Russell also highlights the roles of others in the overall development of Spacewar! and the organizational and technical conditions which allowed its development to occur. Additionally, Russell discusses his key influences for creating a physics-based space game and his inclinations towards programming and engineering.
GAMES MENTIONED
Spacewar!
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Stephen Russell [Slug]
ALTERNATE LINK
Video Game Pioneers Oral History Collection @ Smithsonian Institution
NOTES
An interview from the Video Game Pioneers Oral History Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.