Spacewar! - (1962)

Programmer: Steve Russell
Original Platform: PDP-1 mainframe
Best: PDP-1 mainframe

SHROT REVIEW:

As I embark on a quest to find over 2000+ video games worthy of a future book that I'm thinking of...  Spacewar! might be just about the best place to start. To me its the first true "game" in all of video game history that feels like the beginning.  There simulations and games before to be sure... but this was something new, something different.  

Spacewar is partly responsible for starting an industry. Maybe not directly… but it's influence on other luminaries like Nolan Bushnell is almost a direct through-line to the beginning of the video-game industry. Where else but on a powerful minicomputer could you get a space-shooter video game in 1962?  If you were one of the privileged college students at MIT… then you might have been lucky enough to have seen or even played this ground-breaking game.

It didn't burst into existence fully formed... but various programming efforts kept refining the play mechanics. The heft of the gravity, the look of the ships... adding a sun with gravity in the center, replacing a random starfield with an actual map of real stars with their relative brightness. You see, it wasn't thought of as simply "programming a video game"… this was a learning experiment. There was no attempts at creating a commercial product, it was just experimenting with the tech, having a good time, and proudly showing off your creation.

When Nolan Bushnell tried to create a commercial arcade video-game in 1971, he was trying to recreate the Spacewar! experience he found so fascinating. Computer Space was his attempt at bringing this classic to the coin-op arcades in an affordable manner (more on that once we get there). The point being that this game was one of the big inspirations to Nolan, and others.

Many who enjoy video games have experienced that "Aha!" moment when they first got that happy buzz... a first hit of wonder & fascination with videogames. For a rare few back in the 60's… that wonder was sparked by Spacewar! And for that, I feel it's an appropriate beginning on the journey we're about to embark across the galaxy of games worth highlighting from the last 50+ years.

My goal is to keep the reviews short but meaningful. Almost everything I want to highlight has probably been covered more in-depth elsewhere... but I hope to present more like a highlight reel with this blog.

VIDEO:

1001 VG Book #06 - "Space Invaders" - (1978)

commentary about the book article for:

#6 = Space Invaders (1978)
- by CD (Chris Dahlen)
- Arcade

- Good article, however there aren't a "handful of methods for predicting the appearance of the UFO." The writer got confused... the UFO appears at regular time intervals, and the "methods" he's thinking of are simply in knowing how to get 300 pts every time you hit the UFO. It has to do with counting your shots.. and hitting the UFO with a very specific # shot.

- Also, this naturally mentions the oft-repeated fallacy of Space Invaders causing a coin shortage in Japan.  We now know that there wasn't extra coin production due to Space Invaders... but it's one of those stories that is legend, even if truth has been stretched.

- The other glaring error is they called Galaga a "clone" of Space Invaders. That's like saying Eminem is a clone of Sir-Mix-A-Lot because they are in the same genre. Sure, there are some genre similarities -- but a clone in the videogame world is a bad thing... a duplicate. Same game, different name.  Galaga is clearly not a clone!  It's a true original - an all-time classic with many of its own innovations!

MY QUICK REVIEW:
Space Invaders is one of the big daddy games of video game history. Whereas Pong might've been the first big hit for video arcade games... Space Invaders was the revolution that moved the entire industry from a small entertainment avenue towards a major global juggernaut. It effectively launched a massive increase in awareness and growth for video arcade games.

Furthermore, when it was licensed and brought over to the Atari 2600 platform in 1980, it also created demand for that console equating to millions of units and a march towards market dominance.

But why? The modern player might find it rather repetitive and boring. It's just 5 rows of 11 invaders that move monotonously, dropping steadily closer... for wave after wave until you fail. Well, maybe a few reasons:

1. High-score games were nothing new, but this was not a timed game... you really could rack up a decent score the better you got at it, lasting longer on a quarter and sensing accomplishment. The high score was saved for all to see at the very top of the screen.

2. This wasn't trying to simulate real life... it was something entirely new. It wasn't a driving game, dogfighting, sports or a shooting gallery... those are things people either saw or possibly could do in real life. But shooting down waves of aliens set on destroying the Earth was novel (at the time). Might be old hat now, but captured the imagination.

3. Well-balanced play, built-in tension, and the bug that became a feature - the gradual speeding up of the marching aliens. Never underestimate how important gameplay is.  Is it fun?  With it's tension-inducing, four-descending note soundscape (doo, doo, doo, doo...), the mother-ship popping out with its own wild sounds, and the difficulty moving from fairly easy right on up to beyond-reflex hard...heck yeah it was fun!

Did I mention it looked really cool? A painted backdrop depicting the defending moon landscape, with an angled-mirror reflecting the actual B&W screen hiding below. It had depth, sounds, gameplay, tension, presentation... and novelty! Deserves to be remembered. Still playable today.

VIDEO: