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Notation On Dates*
NOTE: This is a timeline mainly consisting of the events that occurred in Steven Levy's book, Hackers. Months and years were mentioned, however, precise dates were not. -
Summer 1961 & PDP-1
Summer of 1961
News of the Programmed Data Processor (PDP-1) Machine was to be delivered to the RLE Lab of MIT for free by the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Alan Kotok and other TMRC individuals took an interest in this and started preparations."The PDP-1. It would change computing forever. It would make the still hazy hacker dream come a little closer to reality" (Levy, pp.21).
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Arrival of PDP-1
Hackers of MIT received the machine of the PDP-1 in September. Alan Kotok and others eagerly awaited the arrival of the machine beforehand and created programming for the machine before it even arrived. Programming for this machine was not ideal for the hackers upon its arrival."Kotok, Samson, Saunders, Wagner, and a couple of others began on a Friday night late in September." (Levy, pp.22)
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Marvin Minsky - Minskytron
The Minskytron, or the Circle Algorithm was discovered by Marvin Minsky by mistake while trying to create straight lines into curves or spirals on the display of the PDP-1. Mistook a "y" character for a "Y prime". (Levy, pp 24). Preview a Simulation Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Took the Job - @ $1.60 An Hour
Through the following weeks TMRC Hackers and others of MIT took on the assignment of reprogramming the PDP-1—Converting files from an older machine, the TX-0 to the PDP-1."The idea was to make a computer more usable, to make it more exciting to users, to make computers so interesting that people would be tempted to play with them, explore them, and eventually hack on them." (Levy, pp 23).
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Russell's Inspiration
The Start
Slug Russell was inspired by Minsky's creation, however, he thought it was not impactful enough. Inspired by Doc Smith's novels: "He let his imagination construct the thrill of roaring across space in a white rocket ship... and wondered if that same excitement could be captured while sitting behind the console of the PDP-1"(Levy, pp.25) Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
SpaceWar Programming Begins
Kotok pushed/encouraged Slugg Russell to begin the process of programming SpaceWar."At that point, Russel had no excuse. So he spent his off-hours writing this fantasy PDP-1 game, the likes of which no one had seen before." (Levy, p. 25)
Programming went into the next year and slowly progressed starting with a "dot" on the screen, to the design of the two rocket ships, and collision detections. Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
SpaceWar Reveal
In February of 1962, Russell unveiled his works on SpaceWar. The game consisted of two ships, each containing 31 torpedoes, random dots on the screen representing stars in the battlefield, and one could move the ships "by flicking four switches on the console of the PDP-1, representing clockwise turn, counterclockwise turn, accelerate, and fire torpedo." (Levy, pp. 25) -
Hackers of Spacewar
After the debut of SpaceWar by Slug Russell, modifications to the game were created. Such modifications included those of smoother-running missiles and weapons. Once further edits were made to the torpedo it was advised by Levy that"people spent hours in outer-space dueling". (Levy, pp.26)
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Peter Samson
Peter Samson, a programmer passionate about Spacewar, disliked the randomly generated dots representing stars in SpacWar and as such, he programmed a planetarium of sorts by entering data that would generate actual constellations that are visible to one standing on the equator. "The sky would majestically scroll—at any one time the screen exposed forty-five percent of the sky."(Levy, pp. 26) Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Dan Edwards
Programmer, Dan Edwards
Altered the programming in SpaceWars. He was unsatisfied with the original ship movements and enhanced the user experience by adding a Sun & gravity function that enhances players' strategy."He also rigged the program so that, as the game progressed, the sky would majestically scroll—at any one time the screen exposed forty-five percent of the sky." (Levy, pp. 26)
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
Shag Gartez
Shag Gartez, Programm from Higham Institute trio"added a “hyperspace” capability to the game, allowing a player to avoid a dire situation by pushing a panic button that would zip him to this hyperspace." (Levy, pp. 26)
A function able to be played only 3 times per game, after using a hyperspace function-would randomly place the user on any point of the map, including near the sun's gravity pull. Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
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Russell's Realization
"Russell and some friends went to a local bar that had some pinball machines. They played until closing time; then, instead of going home, Russell and his coworkers went back to their computer, and the first thing his friends did was run Spacewar. Suddenly it struck Russell: “These people just stopped playing a pinball machine and went to play Spacewar—by gosh, it is a pinball machine.” The most advanced, imaginative, expensive pinball machine the world had seen." (Levy, pp. 27) -
Annual MIT Open House
PDP-1 assembly-language codes were fed into a machine that the hackers brought to display SpaceWars to the public all day."The sight of it—a science-fiction game written by students and controlled by a computer-was so much on the verge of fantasy that no one dared predict that an entire genre of entertainment would eventually be spawned from it." (Levy, pp.26)
Levy, Steven. Hackers. O’Reilly Media, Inc, 2010, bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/821671B. -
A Free SpaceWars!
After the announcement of SpaceWars! to the public, the program was "placed in the drawer for anyone to access, look at, and rewrite as they saw fit." (Levy, pp. 27). The game had improved over time, and Hackers editing the game strongly utilized the Hacker Ethic to make the game better. Additional tapes containing SpaceWar were freely distributed, and DEC received a copy of it as well and included it with their PDP-1 distributions to new consumers of the machine. -
Modern SpaceWars
In modern-day society, Spacewar! has significantly impacted the gaming industry, influencing a range of games from vintage arcade classics like Asteroids, released in 1979, to more recent titles such as Star Wars: Squadrons, released in 2020. While these games may not share the same gameplay, many have adopted similar space-themed elements and incorporated programming mechanics inspired by Spacewar!