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Five MIT-Developed Video Games that Revolutionized the Industry

Jul 15, 2009
Amy Marcott
slice.mit.edu
14

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1961: Spacewar! One of the earliest video games for a digital computer created by Steve Russell ’60, SM ’62, EE ’66 and others. Two players tried to shoot each other's ship while avoiding the deadly sun in the center and its gravitational pull. See some of the game's source code from the Computer History Museum and learn a little more about Spacewar! in this video created by the Irate Gamer, the first installment of the history of video games.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58CdkLVr6A&hl=en&fs=1&]

1977-79: Zork One of the first interactive fiction computer games, this was a text adventure designed by Tim Anderson ’75, SM ’77; Marc Blank ’75; Bruce Daniels ’71, SM ’74; and Dave Lebling ’71, SM ’73.

1984: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy An interactive fiction game developed by Steven Eric Meretzky ’79 based on the comic book series by Douglas Adams. The game gained a reputation for deviousness for its tricky puzzles. The Babel Fish Dispenser, if not solved, did not kill the player but rendered the remainder of the game unwinnable.

2005 & 2007: Guitar Hero & Rock Band These instrument-based music games that brought interaction to a new level were developed by Alex Rigopulos ’92, SM ’94 and Eran Egozy ’95, MNG ’95, founders of Harmonix.

2009 (expected): EmotivEPOC A game currently in beta phase whose action is controlled and influenced by the player's mind via headset sensors tuned to the brain's natural electric signals. Kind of like using the force. The company, Emotiv Systems, was cofounded by Allan Snyder EE ’65. Join the Facebook group.

Want to learn more? Check out the follow-up post: Even More Groundbreaking Alumni-Developed Video Games.

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Comments

David Lee

Fri, 07/24/2009 2:22am

Hello Philip! Nice lab you've got there!

Considering that the title is "MIT-Developed Video Games that Revolutionized the Industry," this article really needs a link to Revolution.

neo

Tue, 04/19/2011 3:58am

great blog!

Philip Tan

Thu, 07/23/2009 10:08am

Looking Glass Studios had a good helping o' MIT. Ultima Underworld, Thief, System Shock, good times. Folks went all over the industry after it closed... Mind Control Software, Irrational Games/2K Boston, Harmonix, EA.

And MIT has its <a href="http://gambit.mit.edu/" rel="nofollow">game lab</a>. Hellooooo... :)

Larry DeMar '79

Mon, 08/03/2009 3:22pm

Sue, Thanks for the plug on Space Invaders. We'll have to give credit for that to Taito although I borrowed their zigzag laser for my thesis project (a video game of sorts) for which you drew the "raygun" for me. Rumor has it that the Japanese developer of Space Invaders had to hand-assemble his program as they did not have an assembler (yes....we used to write video games in assembly language :)

I will take credit for having a hand in Defender, Stargate, Robotron and Blaster for Williams as well as many, many pinball machines in the 80's and 90's.

Philip Tan

Fri, 07/24/2009 10:55am

Hi David! Nice to get in touch again.

<a href="http://www.educationarcade.org/node/357" rel="nofollow">Revolution</a> was an educational history game (a mod, really) built in MIT in 2004. Not by alums, but by students and faculty.

Trevor Stricker '97

Fri, 07/24/2009 6:02pm

Marc Leblanc was an alum at Looking Glass.

Burke Drane '96 has written a few (Moby Games would know better).

I made NBA 2K, NBA 2K1, NBA 2K2, Panzer Dragoon, Fantastic 4.

Now I'm making Quick Hit Football, with Denise Ichinco '09.

-Trevor

Rob Hunter '73

Wed, 07/22/2009 10:21pm

I made the deal and signed the contract between CBS Video Games and John Madden for the original John Madden Football in 1983. Rich Ekerstrom (Yale '78) and I co-developed the game construct (as far as we know, the first 3/4 OTS view of any sports game) with very active involvement from Mr. Madden, and the first version of it (for the Atari 5200) was demonstrated at CES in 1984. The rights to Madden Football were sold by CBS to TWI (Madden's agent) which relicensed it to EA Sports in 1986...

Dave Leblling

Thu, 07/16/2009 6:47pm

Maze -- the first 3D multiplayer FPS game (1974). Greg Thompson ('78) and I wrote it based on a simpler game he had worked on at NASA Ames. Played over the ARPANET to USC as a tour-de-force.

Trivia -- Marc Blank, Tim Anderson and I (1978). User-contribution trivia game that was widely played over the ARPANET (think of it as a run-up to Zork).

Many (most!) of Infocom's games were written by MIT alumni, not just the few games listed. In addition to Meretzky, Blank, Anderson, and me, Stu Galley (SM '70) was an Infocom "Imp."

-- Dave

Sande Chen

Thu, 07/16/2009 2:41pm

I was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing for The Witcher, 2007's PC RPG of the Year.

http://www.thewitcher.com

Eri

Thu, 07/16/2009 2:22pm

I was one of several game designers on the original Asheron's Call ("first generation" MMORPG, 1999). ('92)

Rob Jagnow

Thu, 07/16/2009 2:04am

My company, Lazy 8 Studios, released Cogs for the PC in April 2009. I did all the programming and level design.

http://www.cogsgame.com/

Sue Downing

Wed, 07/15/2009 1:27pm

Defender, and sequel Stargate, early arcade video game -pretty sure that was Larry Demar '78 ('79?)

Sue Downing

Wed, 07/15/2009 1:23pm

Space Invaders - (one of if not) the first arcade video game -pretty sure that was Larry Demar '78 ('79?)

campo

Wed, 07/15/2009 11:19am

What about one of the biggest games of all time, Ms. Pac-Man by Doug Macrae '81 and Kevin Curran '81?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms._Pac-Man

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Computer_Corporation