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. The first video game known to be played at multiple computer installations, it was popular in the small American programming community in the 1960s. Players wage a dogfight between two spaceships with limited weaponry and fuel in the gravity well of a star. Spacewar! was written for the newly installed Digital Equipment PDP-1, a minicomputer, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the public domain code was widely ported. Saunders built an early gamepad controller for the game. It directly inspired many electronic games, such as the first commercial arcade video games, Galaxy Game and Computer Space (both 1971), and later games such as Asteroids (1979). In 2007, Spacewar! was named to a list of the ten most important video games of all time, which formed the start of the game canon at the Library of Congress.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1752:
The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin Franklin describing a kite experiment (depicted) to determine the electrical nature of lightning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_experiment
1914:
First World War: Allied forces began engaging German troops at the First Battle of Ypres. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Ypres
1987:
Iran–Iraq War: U.S. Navy forces destroyed two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in response to an Iranian missile attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker three days earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Nimble_Archer
2013:
British YouTube collective the Sidemen were formed as a Rockstar Games Social Club group in Grand Theft Auto Online. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidemen
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
honeycomb: 1. (uncountable) A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance. 2. (countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes. 3. (countable, geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in three- or higher-dimensional space. 4. (countable, technology) 5. The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its surface area and capture more sunlight. 6. (archaic) A defect in a material (especially metal) where small holes are present; specifically (construction), a defect in concrete consisting of numerous voids resulting from the failure of mortar to effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles. 7. (chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells, sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make light, stiff structural components. 8. (countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”). 9. (uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”). 10. (countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant. 11. (countable, archaic) Used as a term of endearment: honey, sweetheart. 12. (uncountable, chiefly Australia, Britain, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water. 13. (transitive, often passive voice) 14. To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to become hollow or weakened in this way. 15. To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something). 16. To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern. 17. (figurative, chiefly passive voice) To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine. 18. (architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4). 19. (intransitive, also figurative, archaic) To become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/honeycomb
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would die happy if I knew that on my tombstone could be written these words, "This man was an absolute fool. None of the disastrous things that he reluctantly predicted ever came to pass!". --Lewis Mumford https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford