Space Travel (video game)
Encyclopedia
Space Travel was an early computer game that simulated travel in the solar system
. It was the development
of this game that spurred the development of the Unix
operating system
. It is sometimes claimed that the unrelated game Spacewar! had led to the development of Unix. While Spacewar! was an early (and much more popular) computer game, such claims are not accurate and have likely arisen from confusion of the two different games and their similar names.
for a Multics
system, then ported by him to Fortran
on a GECOS
system, and eventually ported by Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
to a PDP-7
. It was in the process of porting the game to the PDP-7's assembly language
that Thompson and Ritchie wrote underlying code that eventually grew into the original Unix
operating system. Some consider Space Travel the first Unix application program.
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
. It was the development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
of this game that spurred the development of the Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. It is sometimes claimed that the unrelated game Spacewar! had led to the development of Unix. While Spacewar! was an early (and much more popular) computer game, such claims are not accurate and have likely arisen from confusion of the two different games and their similar names.
Development history
The game was originally written in 1969 by Ken ThompsonKen Thompson
Kenneth Lane Thompson , commonly referred to as ken in hacker circles, is an American pioneer of computer science...
for a Multics
Multics
Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts...
system, then ported by him to Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
on a GECOS
Gecos
GECOS or gecos may stand for:*General Electric Comprehensive Operating Supervisor , which was later renamed to General Comprehensive Operating System...
system, and eventually ported by Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
Dennis Ritchie
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie , was an American computer scientist who "helped shape the digital era." He created the C programming language and, with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the UNIX operating system...
to a PDP-7
PDP-7
The DEC PDP-7 is a minicomputer produced by Digital Equipment Corporation. Introduced in 1965, it was the first to use their Flip-Chip technology. With a cost of only $72,000 USD, it was cheap but powerful by the standards of the time. The PDP-7 was the third of Digital's 18-bit machines, with...
. It was in the process of porting the game to the PDP-7's assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
that Thompson and Ritchie wrote underlying code that eventually grew into the original Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
operating system. Some consider Space Travel the first Unix application program.