Space Games

History of Space Games

Throughout video gaming history, space games have had a crucial role in defining the direction of the industry. Spacewar! is one of the earliest known space games and video games in history. Following behind it was Computer Space, another of the earliest space game which is credited as being the world’s very coin-operated arcade game.

Spacewar!

Spacewar! was created in 1961 by Steve Russell, Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen on the DEC PDP-1 at MIT. The general gameplay of the Spacewar! space game revolves around two space ship which attempt to shoot each other. During games, the space ships orbited a star’s gravity well, while each space ship had limited fuel and missile ammunition. A hyperspace ability was available which could be used to avoid enemy fire in bad situations.

Spacewar! served as the inspiration for many later space games, including Galaxy Game, Computer Space, and Space Wars. Space Wars was the most commercial successful of these space games. Later more advanced space games, such as the Star Control series, were also influenced heavily by Spacewar! and other early space games of this period.

Computer Space

Computer Space was one of the first space games, and was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (founders of Atari) of Nutting Associates in 1971. It was the also the world’s first game available for sale, beating the Magnavox Odyssey to release by six months, and released over a year before even Pong.

The basic gameplay of Computer Space games involved controlling a space ship while avoiding laser fire from two enemy space ships. The player’s space ship was able to use thrusters, rotate, and fire back at the enemy space ships. You had 90 seconds to try to acheive a higher score than the enemy space ships in this space game. Like Spacewar!, Computer Space had a hyperspace ability, but it was triggered by having a higher score than the enemy space crafts, and would give you an additional 90 seconds of game play time. Scoring was stored in a single digit, looping back to zero after the ninth point. So you could effectively beat your enemies by letting them shoot you more!

Related Space Games:

Starship Chopper

Space Invaders

The next of the notable space games is Space Invaders, which was release in 1978 and developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. Space Invaders was heavily inspired by The War of the Worlds and Star Wars, two of the most famous space dramas. In Space Invaders you control a laser cannon which can move only along the horizontal axis. You must destroy a huge group of space aliens before they reach your ship or the bottom of the screen. As you destroy aliens, you earn points, and the space game continues to speed up.

You are protected by four bunkers, which can be slowly destroyed by space alien laser fire. Sometimes an alien space ship will appear during games which awards bonus points if destroyed. Space Invaders is one of the most famous space games, and video games, in history. When it was release in Japan many arcades opened featuring only Space Invader arcade machines. It is regarded as possbily the most influential space arcade games in history.

Related Space Games:

Space Vaders

1 Star Ship

Raiden X

Asteroids

The final of the space games on our list is the famous Asteroids. Asteroids is an arcade game released by Atari in 1979. It is another of the most popular and influential games in early video gaming history. The Asteroids space games used vector graphics to draw the images the player sees. Asteroids was inspired by the previously mentioned Spacewar! game. It is basically a single player version of Spacewar!, featuring a similar wedge-shaped space ship.

The Asteroids space games were thought of by Lyle Rains, and sold extremely well in the United States, during which it became Atari’s best selling game in history. Atari was producing another similar space game, Lunar Lander, but had to hault production to keep up with demand for the Asteroids space games.

The goal of these space games was to score as many points as possible by destroying enemy asteroids and space ships. The player flew a space ship which could rotate, use thrusters, and fire at enemies. Much like the previously mentioned space games, Asteroid had a hyperspace feature. This one was used to get away from enemies and asteroids, and teleported the player space ship to a new random location on the screen.

Relate Space Games:

Twin Hobo Rocket

Astro Trigger

Asteroids Revenge 2

Asteroids Revenge 3

External Links:

Spacewar! History

History of Computer Space

Space Invaders Rerelease

History of Asteroids Arcade