In doing research on all of the space games made for computers, I embarrassingly forgot about the first game, and the granddaddy of them all…Spacewar! (Yes, the exclamation point is in the title of the game.) Released in freaking 1962 (nine years before I was released), Spacewar! gave two players the chance to slug it out and destroy one another using only a few keys (rotation, thrust, firing weapon) in which to destroy their opponent. It’s crude now, but I can’t imagine how it was received forty-nine years ago.
In thinking of how far space games have come since then, I can only pick my jaw up off the floor. From rudimentary controls and graphics of Spacewar! to the amazing graphics and detailed controls of Freespace 2 and X3: Terran Conflict, for example, space games have been a microcosm for the evolution of computer games in general. As part of this journey of covering ALL of the space games released for computers, I’m excited to see this evolution first hand all over again.
Spacewar! will be the next game I review, so stay tuned. :)
