Spacewar was founded in 1962 by a team of computer programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Steve Russell. The idea for the game came to Russell after reading the science fiction novels of E.E. "Doc" Smith, which inspired him to create a space-themed simulation that would allow players to control their own spaceships. The original Spacewar game was developed for the DEC PDP-1 computer, which had been donated to MIT for educational use. Russell and his team, including Martin Graetz, Wayne Wiitanen, Bob Saunders, Steve Piner, and Dan Edwards, spent around 200 hours creating the first version of the game. Spacewar quickly became a popular pastime among the MIT community and was later shared with other universities and research centers that had access to PDP-1 computers. **One interesting fact**: Spacewar is considered one of the first digital video games ever created and is credited with inspiring the development of the arcade game industry. The game's innovative use of computer graphics, physics-based gameplay, and multiplayer functionality laid the groundwork for many of the video games we enjoy today.