1976: Adventure
Category: Mainframe
On a DEC PDP-10, Will Crowther completes the first version of his adventure game called Colossal Cave Adventure, or simply Adventure. It would go one to become one of the most important influences on the genres of Interactive Fiction and Adventures. Some say it is the progenitor of all adventure games, text-based or graphical, that would follow. One year later, Don Woods will extend the content of the game with Crowther’s permission.
Play it
Play an Inform adaption of Woods’ extended 1977 version directly in your browser.
Links
1974 Computer games
Category: Mainframe
pedit5 is said to be the first “dungeon-dwelling” fantasy game, and dnd the first real computer role-playing game. Both of them appear on the PLATO network in 1974. Also released on PLATO that year are Spasim, the first 3D online shooter in which up to 32 players battle it out with their spaceships, and Airfight, a flight simulator with air combat features that would later be the inspiration for Sublogic’s Flight Simulator, soon to be acquired by Microsoft.
Play them
Cyber1 runs many original games from the PLATO network, among them dnd. If you want to play them, check their website to find out how to sign up for an account and log in to the system.
1973: Lunar Lander
Category: Mainframe
The first version of Lunar Lander is developed for DEC GT40 graphics terminals. In this game, players have to ration a limited amount of fuel to smoothly land on the surface of the moon. Like many other firsts, this game would be followed by a long series of ports and remakes, among them an Arcade conversion by Atari in 1979.
Play it
Play the official online version of the Atari’s arcade version of Lunar Lander.
1973: Lemonade Stand
Category: Mainframe, Home Computer
The first version of Lemonade Stand is developed by Bobb Jamison at MECC. This simple economic simulation lets players run their own lemonade stand, and have to estimate how much lemonade and advertising is needed for the upcoming day. The concept is easy to learn but a lot of fun, so the game was ported to other systems countless times, achieving particular popularity as Lemonade shipped with Apple II systems. You should have no problem finding a port you can play today. Below are a few links to get you started.
Play it
- Play a Flash remake directly in your browser at Geoffry Noles’ website.
- Find downloadable copies of a very nice remake for Windows and MacOS X systems at Codenautics.
- Get the text-based BASIC remake for DOS at Home of the Underdogs.
- Download the free trial of Lemonade Tycoon, a greatly expanded remake, at Shockwave.com.
1973: Maze War
Category: Mainframe
On an Imlac PDS-1 at NASA Ames Research Center in California, the first-person shooter is invented with a game called Maze War. Initially developed just as a maze game (appropriately called Maze), the developers soon came up with the idea of connecting multiple computers together so more people can explore the maze at the same time, and subsequently the idea of allowing players to shoot each other, resulting in the first FPS deathmatch mode – including a frag counter.
Links
- Read more about the history of Maze War and its further development in the excellent Wikipedia article.
- See DigiBarn’s website on the 30th anniversary of the game.
- Get a 99ยข remake for your iPhone or iPod Touch.
1972 Computer Games
Category: Mainframe
Star Trek
One year after Mike Mayfield, Don Daglow too writes his own, unlicensed Star Trek-themed text game. Studying playwriting, his version of course tells the action through dialogues with the Enterprise’s crew members. The game was written on a DEC PDP-10 and copied via the DECUS user group, which Don Daglow would only find out about after suddenly receiving fan mail at his dorm.
Play “Star Trek”
The source code to this is out there somewhere, as is a pre-compiled binary for Windows. However, I have not found a public download site for it. If you know one, please post it in the comments section. Thanks!
Hunt the Wumpus
Inspired by other early hide-and-seek computer games (Wikipedia mentions the titles Hurkle, Mugwump, and Snark), Gregory Yob writes his own called Hunt the Wumpus, also on a DEC PDP-10. Players have to track down and kill the Wumpus within a labyrinth shaped like a dodecahedron. Given the how the game is played, laid out, and the responses it gives, it is often called the first text adventure game.
Play “Hunt the Wumpus”
Hints on playing: Ever played Minesweeper? This game is not much different. Move around in the maze and use the information you get to deduce what neighbouring rooms hold, and ultimately where the Wumpus is so you can shoot him with your arrow. Once you enter a room with a pit or the Wumpus, it’s already too late and the game is over – just like tripping a mine in Minesweeper.
- Play Hunt the Wumpus in your browser!
- Another quite faithful online version at iFiction.org.
- This page offers scans of the Creative Computing magazine with background info on the game, a sample output, and the complete source code.
- Same thing for Wumpus 2.
- TatsuSoft has a faithful remake of the graphical TI-99/4A version.
- A very cool graphical version is also available for Java (play in browser applet or download) at Dream Codex.
- If you have Linux, you might want to try Be the Wumpus, an experimental game where you, as the Wumpus, try to eat adventurers that come into your cave, relying only on sound for navigation (it’s dark in the cave!)
- ‘wump‘ is the Linux remake of Hunt the Wumpus.
- There’s also a Mac remake, although I didn’t test it.
1971 Computer Games
Category: Mainframe
Baseball
Don Daglow (today president and CEO of Stormfront Studios) writes his first computer game, a textual baseball simulation, on a DEC PDP-10 at Pomona College, where he is studying playwriting. This would not only be the beginning of Don’s long career in computer game development, but also a very influential title for decades of new sports games.
Star Trek
Developed by Mike Mayfield on an SDS Sigma 7, Star Trek was a completely unlicensed textgame of outer-space combat. Players would control their NCC-1701 through a number of quadrants and sectors using text commands, trying to destroy all Klingon ships in the area.
Try this page for an impressive amount of conversions and remakes, to find a version you can play on your computer.
The Oregon Trail
Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota together work on the idea to create an interactive computer program that can be used in history classes. The result is the first incarnation of The Oregon Trail which would go on the become arguably the most popular and beloved edutainment title ever made. However, the game would not reach a wider audience until 1974, when it was distributed via the state’s MECC educational network.
Over the years, there will be numerous remakes of the title. See the article on Wikipedia for more information.
1970: Highnoon (BASIC)
Category: Mainframe
Chris Gaylo develops a text-based, single-player shootout with a wild west theme at the Syosset High School in New York. Players have 4 rounds in their guns and are standing 100 paces from a crook named Black Bart. Player and computer take turns shooting, standing still, hiding, or advancing 1 to 10 steps, which increases both shooters’ chances to hit their opponent.
Printing out the BASIC source code of this early computer game takes up only 4 pages, dictated by the low memory of the computer it ran on. You can see scans of the original source code here.
Play it
An online implementation of the game can be played directly in your browser:
Click here to play Highnoon
1962: Spacewar! (DEC PDP-1)
Category: Mainframe
In 1960, the Digital Equipment Corporation DEC introduced their PDP-1 computer (Programmed Data Processor), a computer that would be a great influence for the development of hacker culture and computer games. As the first true minicomputer of the world, it was affordable for more than just the biggest universities and corporations. It was also the first commercial computer to be equipped with a CRT display, and controlled directly through a keyboard.
In 1961, a group of students and science-fiction fans at MIT started to program a very special, interactive demo for this new computer: Spacewar!, a spaceship duel with an amazing amount of detail. Featuring a previously unknown level of real-time action, two players each freely controlled a spaceship on a star background around a central star, which forced a strong gravitational pull on the ships. Players could rotate their ships, fire the afterburner, and shoot missiles. The goal was, of course, to annihilate the other player before getting hit by the opponent’s missiles or crashing into the sun. Various features like a correct display of the current real-world star constellation and a last-resort “hyperspace” button added to the game’s complexity and detail. DEC later decided to use Spacewar! to test new PDP-1 machines (because it allowed them to test most of the system’s functionality) and even shipped it with every sold computer, so Spacewar! was the first computer game to actually reach a certain level of popularity.
Play it
Fortunately, the MESS emulator has PDP-1 support and is perfectly capable of running the original Spacewar! code. The CRT display even simulates the “trailing effect”. You first need to download and set up the MESS multi-system emulator. It is open-source, and available for all major operating systems. You can get Windows binaries and the sources directly from the project’s website:
The Official MESS Homepage
Computer Space Fan has a .ZIP archive with the Spacewar! paper tape for download:
Spacewar! page on Computer Space Fan
Installing the emulator and running the PDP-1 emulation should be straight-forward, the same goes for loading the spacewar.rim file into the paper tape reader. To have the PDP-1 read in the code from the paper tape, you now need to press [Ctrl] + [Enter] (this refers to the standard keyboard configuration for MESS.) The lights should start blinking. This is going to take a while, but after a couple of moments the game should instantly start. Player 1 uses the A, S, D, and F keys to control the ship, player 2 uses the cursor keys.
