50 years since Spacewar!

By Russ Frushtick on Dec 26, 2012 12.26.12

Until last week, I had never had the chance to play what is considered the world's first digital computer game. Spacewar! was created 50 years ago by three students at MIT as a way to show off the power of a new high-end computer, the PDP-1. It was a massively important milestone, something all gamers should experience for themselves, but doing that is not as simple as booting up an emulator and loading up a ROM. See, part of the magic of experiencing Spacewar! is about understanding how much of a pain it is to play. The Museum of the Moving Image, located in New York City, is offering nostalgic gamers a chance to do just that at a new exhibit titled "Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off." The exhibit features a recreation of the original PDP-1, along with authentic controls that are about...