[Intrepid Homoludens]

From this (Spacewar, 1962).....to this (Halo 3, Xbox360, 2007).

Alan Kotok, 64, a Pioneer in Computer Video Games, Is Dead | The New York Times, June 3, 2006

Alan Kotok, a computer designer who helped create the first video game program as a member of a small group of M.I.T. students in the early 1960's, died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on May 26. He was 64.

As a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Kotok developed an interest in computers after joining the M.I.T. Model Railroad Club in the late 1950's. Its membership included several other young men who shared his interest, and the organization became a kind of incubator for the computer design field.

The students were the original computer hackers, at least as they defined the term. Today it also refers to a computer outlaw, but the term originally described a member of a subculture of passionate hardware and software designers. A "hack" was a project without constructive end, according to a dictionary compiled by the Model Railroad members.

Their original video game, Spacewar, was designed in 1962 as a hobbyist project on an early Digital Equipment PDP-1 computer.

Spacewar was the original "twitch" game, requiring lightning reflexes. Each player used keyboard controls or a joystick to maneuver a tiny ship able to fire a stream of torpedoes as it slid across the screen.

The leader of the group, Steve Russell, was a procrastinator, and although the group passionately discussed a video game with a science- fiction theme, he delayed writing the necessary code until Mr. Kotok drove to Digital Equipment and returned with a paper tape containing the necessary math subroutines.

Though Mr. Kotok did not write any part of the original code, he was an inspiration to the group and contributed to the game's design, Mr. Russell said yesterday.

Neither man foresaw the creation of an entertainment medium that would one day be a ubiquitous aspect of popular culture.

Mr. Kotok was born in Philadelphia. He entered M.I.T. as a 16-year old prodigy, having skipped two grades. He received a bachelor's and a master's degree in electrical engineering there. As an undergraduate he was involved in the design of chess-playing computer programs with the computer scientist John McCarthy, and his work became the basis for his thesis.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by The New York Times

Alan Kotok, a computer designer who helped create the first video game program as a member of a small group of M.I.T. students in the early 1960's, died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on May 26. He was 64.

That's what you get when people don't do their research, Spacewar was not the first video game program.

But yeah, bye Alan, GG.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Thanks, cobsie. I edited the thread title. But Kotok should still be a paid respects to as someone who helped our beautiful little obsession interest along.

[insane_cobra]

I love those people, really love them all, although I know just a few by name. The biggest enjoyment I get from compilations of old games is watching the bonus interviews with aging games industry veterans. Their words open the window into a forever gone world, into the beginning of something whose future size and significance we still can't entirely fathom. Maybe I'm just deluding myself on that one, maybe games will never become more important than they presently are, but they still mean the world to me.

I remember collecting game related pages from computer magazines when I was a kid, stapling them together and reading over and over and over and over... I remember staring at pictures of all those beautiful game boxes in big catalogues our relatives would bring to us from Germany. I remember one of the first game reviews I've read being a review of Rogue Trooper, together with a map of the whole playing area. I remember spending countless hours examining the box of my copy of Space Harrier for C64, the only original game I had when I was a kid. I don't know, seems like in my case it was always more about worshipping the very idea of games, being excited because of their existance, than playing them.

Kotok is one of the people who gave me all those memories, even though I had no idea he even existed up until this day. There are countless nameless others who made all this possible and of course I can't be anything but grateful to each and every one of them.



And I also hate every one of those bastards, I should be studying now, not wasting my time on sentimental rubbish.