Space Wars

Gameplay

Space Wars was a two-player competitive game directly descended from MIT's Spacewar! (1962). Two ships orbited a central star with gravitational pull. Players could thrust, rotate, fire missiles, and use hyperspace (random teleportation). The central star pulled ships and projectiles toward it, adding gravitational strategy. Players scored by destroying their opponent.

Historical Significance

Space Wars was the first commercial vector arcade game, period. Larry Rosenthal built custom vector display hardware for his MIT graduate project, then brought it to Cinematronics in San Diego. The game sold approximately 30,000 units — a major hit for its time — and proved that vector displays were commercially viable in arcades. The hardware Rosenthal designed became the foundation for all subsequent Cinematronics vector titles.

Fun Facts & Legacy

Larry Rosenthal's vector hardware was built essentially from scratch in his garage/workshop. After a dispute with Cinematronics over royalties, Rosenthal left and founded his own company, Vectorbeam, which produced several vector titles before being acquired back by Cinematronics. The game's lineage traces directly back to Steve Russell's Spacewar! at MIT in 1962 — making it one of the most historically significant lineages in all of gaming.