Galaxy Game
1971 · Space Combat · PDP-11 Arcade Cabinet
Overview
Galaxy Game is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971 during the early era of video games. Galaxy Game is an expanded version of the 1962 Spacewar! , potentially the first video game to spread to multiple computer installations.
Deep Dive
Galaxy Game is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971 during the early era of video games. Galaxy Game is an expanded version of the 1962 Spacewar! , potentially the first video game to spread to multiple computer installations. It features two spaceships, "the needle" and "the wedge", engaged in a dogfight while maneuvering in the gravity well of a star. Both ships are controlled by human players.
Developer Story
Galaxy Game was built by Stanford students Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck in 1971 — just months before Computer Space. The pair spent $20,000 of their own money to build a coin-operated Spacewar! machine using a PDP-11 minicomputer, which was enormously expensive at the time. It was installed in the Tresidder Union at Stanford and ran almost continuously for two years. Because it was never commercially manufactured, only two units were ever built.
Did You Know?
- Galaxy Game may have been the first coin-operated video game, installed at Stanford slightly before Computer Space reached arcades — the exact timeline is disputed.
- The PDP-11 computer at its core cost around $14,000 alone, making each play of the game extraordinarily expensive to provide.
- It allowed up to eight players to queue and watch each other play, creating an early spectator gaming culture around the machine.
- The original cabinet is preserved at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
- Pitts and Tuck never commercialised the design — they built it as an engineering project, not a business venture.
