The Spacewar! timeline
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From a hack on a new minicomputer in a Cambridge, Massachusetts laboratory to the founding myth of the video game, Spacewar! has been written, patched, carried from machine to machine, cloned, renamed, written about, played, and, much later, recovered, emulated, and read. This timeline runs from its conception in 1961 to the present, gathering the principal release dates, the ports and clones of its "long journey", the cultural moments, and the legacy and afterlife that followed.
The long journey
Through the 1960s and 70s Spacewar! spread from MIT to computer labs across the United States, and, once, across the Atlantic to Cambridge. Each arc traces the game leaving Cambridge, Massachusetts for another machine. The documented spread is almost entirely North American: the only confirmed overseas installation is the Cambridge Duel.