TITLE
Spacewar
AUTHOR
Albert W. Kuhfeld
PUBLICATION
Analog
YEAR
1971
ARTICLE TYPE
Article
FROM THE ARTICLE
Two ships appeared on the display and began jockeying into Solar orbit …Analog science fiction? Nope—digital science fact. That little scene has been repeated many times over during the last decade, with different players and varying rules of war. The two were playing a computerized battle game called “Spacewar,” a game which has been implemented in many computer centers and which some of you may have seen on television on “The 21st Century.” It’s a fascinating game, perhaps the first true game of the space age, and its biggest drawback is that even the most minimal versions need something like twenty kilobucks worth of computer and associated equipment. Very few individuals have that much computer handy, so Spacewar is usually played “bootleg” in the dead of night when whatever computer is available is not busy doing its official and useful tasks.
GAMES MENTIONED
Spacewar!
PRINT AVAILABILITY
July 1971 (Volume 87, Number 5)