Computer Space
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| Computer Space | |
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| Developer(s) | Nutting Associates |
| Publisher(s) | Nutting Associates |
| Designer(s) | Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date |  November, 1971 |
| Genre(s) | Multi-directional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player or 2 player |
| Input methods | 4 buttons |
| Cabinet | Unique design |
| Display | Horizontal, raster, standard resolution, 15 inches |
Computer Space is a video arcade game released in November 1971 by Nutting Associates. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, it is generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game — and indeed, the first commercially sold video game of any kind, predating the Magnavox Odyssey by six months, and Atari's Pong by one year. Though not commercially sold, the coin operated minicomputer driven Galaxy Game preceded it by two months, located solely at Stanford University.
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[edit] History
As the Videotopia exhibition points out, previous efforts in bringing the experience of Spacewar! to a mass market were centered on the minicomputer paradigm of the college campuses where it originated - that of a central computer distributing software to various remote terminals. Computer Space was innovative for establishing the basic form of all arcade games to come - that of a dedicated computing device built to play only that one game.
Computer Space was the first widely available video and arcade game, although it was not a success. For many, the gameplay was too complicated to grasp quickly. While it fared well on college campuses, it was not very popular in bars and other venues. Bushnell later recruited Al Alcorn and created a sensation with the much easier to grasp Pong arcade game modeled on Ralph Baer's Magnavox Odyssey home system's Tennis game.
Separate cabinets were produced for either single player games or two player games in various colors.
[edit] Gameplay
The player controls a rocket ship and must evade enemy fire from a pair of flying saucers using a thruster and a pair of rotational buttons. The player fires back to destroy the flying saucers by firing missiles at them from the rocket ship. Today, the game would be considered a multi-directional shooter.
The saucers moved in tandem. There were at least two places on the screen where the rocket could hide and not be hit by the saucers.
If the player's score was higher than that of the saucers at the end of 90 seconds, the player would get another 90 seconds of play, and the colors of the screen would switch in "Hyperspace" (it would switch like a photo negative, from black to white and white to black). If at the end of this 90 seconds the player's score was still higher than that of the saucers, the player received another 90 seconds and the colors would revert to normal. This sequence is repeated indefinitely.
[edit] Scoring
The key was that the score was a single digit that went from zero to nine. When the score was nine, the next hit would return the score to 0. So, if the play period was nearing its end and the saucers had a score greater than yours, you placed yourself so that every shot they made would score, their total would go back to zero. So if you were ahead by only a little bit, it would be advisable to go to one of the hiding places and wait out the rest of the period.
[edit] Technical
Computer Space uses no microprocessor, RAM or ROM. The entire computer system is a state machine made of 74 series TTL logic elements. Graphic elements are held in diode arrays. Physical configuration is made up of 3 PCBs interconnected through a common bus. Display is rendered on a General Electric 15" black-and-white portable television vacuum tube set specially modified for Computer Space.
[edit] Clones
- Computer Space was cloned/bootlegged in 1972 by a game company called For-Play as Star Trek[1].
[edit] Computer Space in popular culture
- A blue Computer Space arcade unit was seen in the original set for the television program The Electric Playground, and was featured in a story they did about the formation of Atari.[2]
- A white Computer Space arcade unit is seen in the science fiction movie Soylent Green.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Computerspacefan.com - large archive of Computer Space info, including historical and technical information.
- Computer Space at the Killer List of Videogames
- Videotopia exhibit
- The Dot Eaters article on the development of Computer Space.
