Editing Spasim (section)

{{Short description|1974 video game}}
{{Good article}}
{{Infobox video game
| title          = Spasim
| image          = 
| caption        = 
| developer      = Jim Bowery
| publisher      = 
| series         = 
| engine         = 
| released       = March 1974
| genre          = [[Space flight simulation game|Space flight simulation]]
| modes          = [[Multiplayer video game|Multiplayer]]
| platforms      = [[Mainframe computer]] ([[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]])
}}

'''''Spasim''''' is a 32-player 3D networked [[space flight simulation game]] and [[first-person (video games)|first-person]] [[space shooter]]<ref name="arstechnica"/> developed by Jim Bowery for the [[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]] computer network and released in March 1974. The game features four teams of eight players, each controlling a planetary system, where each player controls a spaceship in 3D space in first-person view. Two versions of the game were released: in the first, gameplay is limited to flight and space combat, and in the second systems of resource management and strategy were added as players cooperate or compete to reach a distant planet with extensive resources while managing their own systems to prevent destructive revolts. Although ''[[Maze War|Maze]]'' is believed to be the earliest 3D game and [[first-person shooter]] as it had shooting and multiplayer by fall 1973, ''Spasim'' has previously been considered along with it to be one of the "joint ancestors" of the first-person shooter genre, due to earlier uncertainty over ''Maze''{{'}}s development timeline.

The game was developed in 1974 at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]; Bowery was assisted in the second version by fellow student Frank Canzolino. Bowery encountered the PLATO system of thousands of [[graphics terminal]]s remotely connected to a set of [[mainframe computers]] that January while assisting a computer art class. He was inspired to create the original game by the multiplayer PLATO action game ''[[Empire (1973 video game)|Empire]]'', and the second version by the concept of [[win-win game|positive sum games]]. ''Spasim'' was one of the first 3D first-person video games; at one point, Bowery offered a reward to any person who could offer proof that ''Spasim'' was not the first. He also claims that ''Spasim'' was the direct initial inspiration for several other PLATO games, including ''Airace'' (1974) and ''[[Panther (1975 video game)|Panther]]'' (1975).