SPACEWAR

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 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
   commercialized as one of the first video games; descendants are
   still {feep}ing in video arcades everywhere.