Play “Space War!,” One of the Earliest Video Games, on Your Computer (1962)

spacewar

Archive.org continues adding to its Historical Software collection. Last year, they made available Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Frogger & other video games from the Golden Age, not to mention some classic software programs like WordStar and Visi-Calc. Now, they present “Space War!”, a game that came out of MIT back in 1962.

This two-player space-battle game — originally played off the cathode-ray tube of a Digital Equipment PDP-1 — was considered a major advancement in computer gaming. Today, only one working PDP-1 is known to exist, in the Computer History Museum in northern California. But through the miracle of a JSMESS emulator, you can play “Space War!” right in your web browser. (A fairly powerful computer and recent browser–ideally Firefox–is recommended.) If you end up playing this grandaddy of computer games, let us know how it goes. You can get more info on Space War! here.

Related Content:

Download a Prototype of Ever, Jane, a Video Game That Takes You Inside the Virtual World of Jane Austen

Run Vintage Video Games (From Pac-Man to E.T.) and Software in Your Web Browser, Thanks to Archive.org

Free Fun: Play Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Frogger & Other Golden Age Video Games In Your Web Browser


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