[HN Gopher] Spacewar 1 and the Beginnings of Video Game Aesthetics
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       Spacewar 1 and the Beginnings of Video Game Aesthetics
        
       Author : masswerk
       Score  : 46 points
       Date   : 2021-04-30 13:47 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.masswerk.at)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.masswerk.at)
        
       | Syzygies wrote:
       | My father worked in the research labs at Eastman Kodak (where he
       | later devised the Bayer filter
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter for digital cameras).
       | In the early 1960's the labs held an open house for family, so as
       | a child I got to play the original Spacewar on a PDP-1.
       | 
       | It always confused me as a kid how the economy functioned with
       | "everyone" working at a desk. This certainly didn't help.
        
       | fao_ wrote:
       | I really like this article! Most of them don't seem to go beyond
       | the basics of "yes, spacewar! was a thing. it had spaceships and
       | stuff", but this is a really fun dive into how it was made, what
       | features were available, and the history of it. It's much, much
       | more interesting than it sounded when I clicked on it.
        
         | masswerk wrote:
         | Well, there is a _lot_ more of this:
         | https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar/inside/ :-)
         | 
         | (Read, code analysis of every single line.)
        
           | djmips wrote:
           | I'm curious, how close is the Spacewarduino! that was made at
           | MIT a few years ago?
        
             | masswerk wrote:
             | Sadly, I've no insight into this, as I only know the
             | respective blog post on the project. They certainly reverse
             | engineered the spaceship outlines correctly (for which you
             | have to dive a few layers into the code), so I guess, it
             | may have been quite accurate. (That said, there's always a
             | temptation to cut a few corners...)
        
             | corysama wrote:
             | You might like https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/PDP1_MiSTer
             | :)
        
       | anonymousiam wrote:
       | This was my favorite arcade game for a while (in the very early
       | days). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Wars (The arcade
       | version was a direct derivative of the original described in the
       | article.)
       | 
       | I played this a lot with a buddy. One day some clown came into
       | the arcade and saw me playing. He said he was the best in the
       | world, and wanted to challenge me to one game (for $20). I kept
       | trying to fend him off and decline his challenge, but my friend
       | put up the money.
       | 
       | I had never played anyone so good, and it took me a little while
       | to adapt to his tactics. After a few minutes, I beat him. My
       | friend collected his money, and then the guy started running
       | around the arcade (Sega Center) yelling "This guy is the best
       | Space War player!" over and over again while pointing at me. I
       | was pretty embarrassed for him.
        
         | willcipriano wrote:
         | > and then the guy started running around the arcade (Sega
         | Center) yelling "This guy is the best Space War player!" over
         | and over again while pointing at me. I was pretty embarrassed
         | for him.
         | 
         | He sounds refreshingly honest and self aware to me. He went
         | around loudly letting everyone know he was the best player,
         | when proven wrong he just as loudly informed everyone of the
         | correction. Everyone should be more like the second best Space
         | War player in the world.
        
           | msla wrote:
           | Maybe he just wanted to let the Powers That Be know who to
           | move on to.
           | 
           | ;)
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Game_of_Pool_%28The_Twilight.
           | ..
        
         | djmips wrote:
         | This was my first and also favorite game circa 1978 and
         | something that really started me along the path to computers.
         | It had really great bass sounds. I recall being on a school
         | trip to Niagara falls and slipping away into an arcade with a
         | school friend to play this instead of going on the falls
         | tour...
         | 
         | It's funny how you were embarrassed for him. He probably wasn't
         | embarrassed. Maybe he was right!
        
           | masswerk wrote:
           | In the end, it was Bruce Baumgart, winner of the 1972
           | "Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics" described in the Stewart
           | Brand article _" Spacewar -- Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death
           | Among the Computer Bums"?_ Probably the only person bearing
           | the title "best Spacewar player in the world" with some
           | legitimacy... ;-)
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-30 23:01 UTC)