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Life & fun · June 4, 2014

Spacewar! featuring the original "Minskytron Hyperspace"

Play the original Spacewar!, the classic 1960s video game on a virtual PDP-1. Emulation of the first video game ever (with accurate screen graphics) in plain HTML5.

Spacewar! featuring the original "Minskytron Hyperspace" launched on June 4, 2014 with 16 votes and more than 75% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 12 years on.

Visit masswerk.at ↗Alternatives

In plain words

Spacewar! is an HTML5 emulation of the original 1960s video game, running on a virtual PDP-1 computer. Players control spaceships in this early digital game, optionally using gamepads or joysticks for authentic gameplay. The emulation reproduces the classic screen graphics accurately and runs the original code from 1962, making it accessible to anyone with a web browser who wants to experience the earliest known video game.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

This is a virtual DEC PDP-1 (emulated in HTML5/JavaScript) running the original code of "Spacewar!", the earliest known digital video game. If available, use gamepads or joysticks for authentic gameplay — the game was originally played using custom “control boxes”. Spacewar! was conceived in 1961 by Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen. It was first realized on the PDP-1 in 1962 by Stephen Russell, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and Martin Graetz, together with Alan Kotok, Steve Piner, and Robert A Saunders. Spacewar! is in the public domain, but this credit paragraph must accompany all distributed versions of the program. This emulation is by Norbert…from masswerk.at

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