Game Physics

We already have some physics in our game. Each of our ships has a velocity and an acceleration. They also obey at least some of Newton's laws and conserve momentum. All of this was added earlier without much fanfare. Physics in computer games dates back to the original computer game, Space War!, which is the game that inspired the one we are currently writing. In the original version of Space War!, the spaceships conserved momentum, as we currently do in our game. A black hole gravitationally attracted the ships to the center of the play area. Before creating the classic game Pong, Nolan Bushnell created an arcade clone of Space War!, called Computer Space. Computer Space was not a hit like Pong, and Nolan Bushnell blamed Newton's laws and the public's lack of understanding of basic physics as some of the reasons for the game's commercial failure...