Games: The Original Gratuitous Space Battle

Now I haven't played it yet... but there's a computer game I want to buy if only to reward the independent developer that came up with the name. It's called Gratuitous Space Battles. It's a homage to the tradition of large fleets of spaceships shooting advanced weapons at each other in glorious space battles. For all the explosions and carnage it's a strategy game and not an action game. It's a strategy game in that you equip hulls to create your own type of ship, you place a fleet to attack the enemy, you give your fleet orders, and then you sit back and watch the carnage unfold.

In an action game you'd be at the controls. In the midst of the fray. Navigating and shooting and being directly involved.

Now there are many games that do put you in the fray at the controls of a spaceship. Ones with incredible graphics and intense gameplay. But they all owe their existence to the original space fighting game - Space War. Not only is it the original computer game of space battling but it was also recognized as important at the time. Stewart Brand, of the Whole Earth Catalog and The Long Now fame, wrote a wonderful piece for Rolling Stone back in 1972. All you wanted to know about Space War and it's history.