 By 1961 , MIT had acquired the DEC PDP @-@ 1 minicomputer , the successor to the TX @-@ 0 , which also used a vector display system . The system 's comparatively small size and processing speed meant that , like with the TX @-@ 0 , the university allowed its undergraduate students and employees to write programs for the computer which were not directly academically related whenever it was not in use . In 1961 @-@ 62 , Harvard and MIT employees Martin Graetz , Steve Russell , and Wayne Wiitanen created the game Spacewar ! on the PDP @-@ 1 , inspired by science fiction books such as the Lensman series . The game was copied to several of the early minicomputer installations in American academic institutions , making it potentially the first video game to be available outside a single research institute . 
