Computer Space was the first commercially available arcade game, released back in November 1971. It missed the title of first arcade game ever created by just a couple of months, a feat accomplished by Galaxy Game. Another relevant piece of history is that the designers of Computer Space, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, later founded Atari.
On to the game, Computer Space is a top-down shooter set out in space. The player controls a spaceship and is opposed by a pair of flying saucers. The saucers fire at the player, who must evade their shots and fire back to destroy them. There is a 90-second timer, after which the game ends unless the player’s score is higher than that of his enemies. If so, gameplay is extended by another 90 seconds – and this pattern repeats until the player loses.
The game is inspired by one of the earliest video games created, Spacewar, not just in terms of theme and graphics, but also of input. The player can only thrust forward and rotate the ship left or right (besides shooting, of course), and the ship’s movement in space is physically realistic – and challenging! Given its steep learning curve, the game wasn’t very successful with the general public.
A 2-player version of the arcade was later released, pitting both players against each other – resembling Spacewar and Galaxy Game. The machine can be played solo, reverting to the original single-player gameplay.
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