Stephen Russell, also nicknamed "Slug", is an American computer scientist most famous for creating Spacewar!, well known for being the first widely distributed video game.
Russell in 2011
Spacewar! on the Computer History Museum's PDP-1, 2007
Spacewar!
Videos
Spacewar! is a space combat video game developed in 1962 by Steve Russell in collaboration with Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and others. It was written for the newly insta
Steve Russell (computer scientist)
…Stephen Russell (born 1937), also nicknamed "Slug", is an American computer scientist most famous for creating Spacewar!, well known for being the first widely distributed video game. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Russell attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New…
Steve Russell, designer and main programmer of the initial version of Spacewar!, with a PDP-1 in 2007
Picture of gameplay of Spacewar! on a PDP-1. The moving spaceships and missiles leave trails behind them because the phosphors in the CRT monitor slowly fade after being lit.
Spacewar controllers built in 1972 by Robert Saunders, similar to the original ones from MIT