Galaxy Game – Interim Computer Museum
4 hours ago
- Galaxy Game, installed at Stanford University in September 1971, was the first coin-operated version of Spacewar!, running on a PDP-11/20 with 8K of core memory and an electrostatic X-Y display.
- The game offered an authentic PDP-1 lineage experience but was economically unsustainable due to its expensive hardware; one PDP-11 could later drive multiple consoles by 1972.
- It operated until 1979 when the display processor failed, was revived in 1997, and is now undergoing restoration at the International Center for the Museum (ICM) with power supply repairs and refurbishment of the HP 1300A displays.
- The restoration requires specialized work on deflection amplifiers, high-voltage multiplier, and focus circuitry, and donations are requested to support bringing the original machine back to life.