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spacewar |
2 definitions found From Jargon File (4.2.3, 23 NOV 2000) [jargon]: SPACEWAR n. A space-combat simulation game, inspired by E. E. Doc" Smith's Lensman" books, in which two spaceships duel around a central sun, shooting torpedoes at each other and jumping through hyperspace. This game was first implemented on the PDP-1 at MIT in 1962. In 1968-69, a descendant of the game motivated Ken Thompson to build, in his spare time on a scavenged PDP-7, the operating system that became {{Unix}}. Less than nine years after that SPACEWAR was commercialized as one of the first video games; descendants are still {feep}ing in video arcades everywhere. From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: SPACEWARA space-combat simulation game, inspired by E. E. Doc" Smith's Lensman" books, in which two spaceships duel around a central sun, shooting torpedoes at each other and jumping through hyperspace. This game was first implemented on the PDP-1 at MIT in 1960--61. SPACEWAR aficionados formed the core of the early hacker culture at {MIT}. Nine years later a descendant of the game motivated {Ken Thompson} to build, in his spare time on a scavenged {PDP-7}, the {operating system} that became {Unix}. Less than nine years after that SPACEWAR was commercialised as one of the first video games; descendants are still {feep}ing in video arcades everywhere. ["SPACEWAR" or "Space Travel"?] [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-07)