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Symbolic Death

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Symbolic Death J>A, r 5 ROLLING STONE DFCEMBFR 7, 1972 FanaticlJe and SymbolicDeath Anong the ComputerBu ms byStewa-t Brand whole battlesky, impervious to surprise attack. A game 1s over when only one or no survivors are displayed . The screen then blanks out, counts down 5-4-3-2-1, and redisplays a new battle with ships at new rand om positions eq uidistant from the sun and showing score accumula­ tive from previous games. A spaceship that is killed early in a battle will rein­ carnate after 16 seconds and reJom the EADY OR not, comput ers are Click: 5 (Five players . This is for the fray, so that a single battle may last up ) corni ng to the people. first familiarizatio n batt les in the to five minutes with a weak player per­ That's goo d news, maybe th e Spacewar Olympics, initiated by me ishing several times in it. best since p ychedelics. It's and sponsored (beer & prizes) by ROLL­ The twenty or so raucous competi­ way off the track of the "Comp uters ING STONE. Friends, I won't be able to tors in the Spacewar Olympics quickly T hreat or Me nace?" schoo l of libera l exp lain every computer-technical term organize three events: Five- Player critici sm bu t surp risingly in line with tha t comes by. Fortunately you don't Free-For-All, Team Competition (two the rom antic fantasies of the for efath­ need th em to get the gist of what's against two), and Singles Compet ition, ers of the science such as Nor bert happeni ng.) The executive office r o f the Al Pro­ Wiener , Warr en McCulloch , J .C. R. KEYBOARD BUTTONS? (ELSE ject, Les Earnest, who kindly OK ed Licklider , John vo n Neumann and LAR). TYPE YORN . these Olympics and their visibility, is Vannevar Bush . "Yes." Click : Y found to have no immed iate func tion The trend owes its health to an odd THE STANDARD GAMEJ S: and is sent out for beer. arra y of influenc es: Th e youthful fervor I CONSOLE, 2 TORPEDOT UBES, (NORM­ The sett ing and decor at Al is Mod­ and firm dis-Est ablishrnentarianisrn of .AL) ~r') RING, NO PARTIAL DAMAGE, ern Mad Scienti st long hallways and the freaks who des ign comput er science ; NO HYPERSPACE, KILLER SUN. SHIPS cubicle s and large wind owless roo ms, an astonishingly enlightened research START IN STANDARD POSITIONS. brutal fluorescent light , enormous ma­ program from the very top of the De­ TYPE Y TO GET A STANDARD GAME. chines humming and clattering, robots fense D epa rtment; an unexpected mar­ Ralph want s other featur es . "No ." on wheels, scurryi ng arcane technicians. ket-flank ing moveme nt by the manu­ Click : N And , also, posters and announcements factur ers of sma ll calcu lati ng mac hines, How MANY SPACE MINES agai nst the Vietnam War an d R ichard and an irrepr essible mid night phe nom­ WANT? Nixo n, comp uter print -out ph otos of enon known as Spacewar. CHOOSEFROM ZE RO TO 4. girlfrien ds , a hallwa y-long b a nner Rel iably, at any nighttime moment SOLVING TODAY'S PROBLEMS TOMOR­ (i.e. non-bu siness hours) in North Click: 4 ROW, and signs on every door in Tol­ America hundred s of computer tech­ PARTIAL DAMAGE? kien's elvish Feanorian script-the di­ nician s are effectively out of their Click : N rector' s office is lmladris , the coffee bodi es, locke d in life-o r-<leath space DISPLAYS CORES? room Th e Pra ncing Pon y, the comput­ combat com puter -p roje cted onto cath­ Click: Y er room Mordor. There's a lot of hair ode ray tube d isplay screens, for hours Two TORPEDOT UBES? on those tech nician s, and nobod y at a tim e, ruining their eyes, numbing Click: Y seem s to be telli ng them wher e t o their fingers in frenzied mashing of HYPERSPACE? scurr y. control buttons, joyously slaying their Click: N Th e games progress. A tape recor der RANDOM STARTING POSITIONS? friends and wasting their employers' kibitzes on the first round of Team valuable computer time . Someth ing Click : Y Competi tion, fou r ships twisting , con­ basic is going on . Immediately the screen goes verging , evading , exploding : Rudimentary Spacewar consists of and then displa ys: Five different space­ Where am I? Where am I? Click two humans, two sets of control but­ ships, each with a dot indicating tor ­ clickclickclickclick tons or joysticks , one TV-like display pedo tubes are loaded , five scor es, Agh! Clickclickcl ick clickclick and one computer . Two spaceships are each at zero, a convinc ing starfi eld, Glitch. Clickclick d isplayed in motion on the screen, con­ and four space mine s orbit ing around a OK, I won't shoot. Clickclickclick trollable for thrust, yaw , pitch and the central sun , toward which the space­ Good work Tovar. Revenge. Click- firing of torpedoes . Whenever a space­ ships are startin g to fall at a correctly click clickchck ship and torpedo meet , the y disappear accelerating rate . Cease fi re. Click clickclic k. 1 in an attractive explosion. That's the Players seize the five sets of contr ol Ohhhhhh NO You killed me, Tovar. origin al version invented in 1962 at button s, find their spaceship persona I'm sorry. Clickclic kclick MIT by Stev e Ru ssell. (More on him on 1he screen, and simultaneously turn Being partners means never having in a moment.) and fire toward any nearb y still-help­ to say you're sorry. Clic kclickclick October , 1972, 8 PM, at Stanford 's less spaceship s, hit the thru st button Get him! Get the mother! Clickclick- Artificial Intelligence (Al) Laboratory, to initiate orbit before being slu_rped by clickclickclick moonlit and remote in the foothill s the killer sun, and evade or shoot down Sacrifice. Clickclick click above Palo Alto, California . Two any incoming enemy torpedoes or or­ Lemm e get in orbit. Clickclick dozen of us are jammed in a semi­ biting mines . After two torpedoe s are Way to dodge. C lick clickclickclick dark console room just off the main fired, each ship has a thre_e~econd A wshit. hall containmg Al's PDP-10 computer. unarmed "reloading" time. Fired tor­ Get tough now. Clickchckclick Al's Head System Programmer and pedoes last nine second s and then dis­ The other guy was out of torps. knew it and waited till I got a good most avid Spacewar nut, Ralph Gor­ appear. ing, faces a display screen which ays shot . Clickcli ck only : As kills are made the scores start to A beaut. 0 lord. Clickclickcli ck THIS CONSOLEAVAILABLE . change . + I for a successful kill, I for I shot him but then I slurped. Click- He logs in on the keyboard with his being killed, + I for being lone survivor click clickclick initials : Click clickclickclick click. of a battle. Personalities begin to es­ Oooo! LI , REG tablish themselves in the maneuvering We win! Tovar and Rem! CSD FALL PICNIC. SATURDAY 11 spaceships : The pilot of the ship called Correct. Tovar and Rem won the AM IN FLOODPARK ... Pointy Fins is a dead shot but ~anics Team Competition (Rem is how Rob­ He interrupts further announcements, easily in cross fire. Roundback tnes to ert E. Maa s is known to the computer including one about the "First Inter­ avoid early dueling and routinely fires and thence to his friend s). Bruce Baum­ galactic Spacewar Olympics" at 8 PM, two torpedoes "around the universe" Falling into orbit around the gart, who by day builds sensing intel­ with : Click ("run") clickclickclick (off the screen, so they reappear lethal­ central point , 'Birdie,' at lower ligence into a robot vehicle , won the ("Space War Ralph") click ("do it") . ly unexpected from the opposite side) . left, defeats 'Funny Fins' in single Free-For-AU with a powerhou se per­ RSWR . Birdie drives for the sun and a fast combat; then auempts flank a/lack formance. And slim Tovar took the WELCOMETO SPACEWAR. orbit, has excellent agility in sensing on 'Pointy Fins' (upper right), who Singles . Meanwhile, your photographer, How MANYSHIPS'? MAXIMLM IS and facing toward hazard . Funny Fms has caught 'Roundback' napping & Annie, was tugged all over the lab to shouts a lot, singling out individual outfought 'Flatback' head to head. Stewart Brand, 33. is a graduate of see the hand-eye rig, the number half­ Stanford (biology).From 1968 to 1971 he opponents. Flatback is silent and main­ As kills are made the displayed numbers keep score. tone printer, various spectacular geo- Pdited the Whole Earth Catalog. tains an uncanny field~ense of the Bruce Baumgart, winner of the Five-Man Free-For-All at the First J111ergalactic Spacewar Olympics, brandishing comrol bu11ons in triumph metric display hacks, computer music Spacewar is not only intriguing history, programs, the color video image maker it's the most sophisticated analysis of . Four intense hours, much frenzy good game design I've ever run across­ and skilled concerted action, a 15-ring elegant ' work. But that's in retrospect ; circus in ten different directions, the back then it was just kids staying up most bzz-bzz-busy cene I've been all night. around since Merry Prankster Acid "We had this brand new PDP-I," Tests . and really it's just a normal Steve Russell recalls. "It was the first night at the Al Project, at any suitably mini-computer, ridiculously inexpen­ hairy co mputer research projec t.
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