Steve Russell (computer scientist)
{{short description|American computer scientist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Steve Russell
| image = Stephen Russell 2011 (cropped).jpg
| caption = Russell in 2011
| birth_name = Stephen Russell
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1937}}{{cite web |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/steve-slug-russell/ |title=Steve "Slug" Russell |website=PDP-1 Restoration Project |publisher=Computer History Museum |access-date=December 31, 2015}}
| birth_place = Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
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| other_names = Slug
| fields = Computer science
| workplaces = MIT
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| alma_mater = Dartmouth College
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File:Spacewar!-PDP-1-20070512.jpg on the Computer History Museum's PDP-1, 2007]]
Stephen Russell (born 1937), also nicknamed "Slug", is an American computer scientist most famous for creating Spacewar!, well known for being the first widely distributed video game.
Biography
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Russell attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1954 to 1958.
Russell wrote the first two implementations of the programming language Lisp for the IBM 704 mainframe computer. It was Russell who realized that the concept of universal functions could be applied to the language. By implementing the Lisp universal evaluator in a lower-level language, it became possible to create the Lisp interpreter; prior development work on the language had focused on compiling the language.{{cite web |url=http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/lisp/node3.html#SECTION00030000000000000000 |title=The implementation of Lisp |website=History of Lisp |first=John |last=McCarthy |author-link=John McCarthy (computer scientist) |date=August 12, 1979 |access-date=December 31, 2015}} He invented the continuation to solve a double recursion problem for one of the users of his Lisp implementation.{{cite web |url=http://www.computernostalgia.net/articles/steveRussell.htm |title=Steve "Slug" Russell |work=Computer History}}
In 1962, Russell created and designed Spacewar!, with the fellow members of the Tech Model Railroad Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working on a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-1 minicomputer.{{cite news |last=Markoff |first=John |author-link=John Markoff |date=February 28, 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/28/technology/a-long-time-ago-in-a-lab-far-away.html |title=A Long Time Ago, in a Lab Far Away… |website=The New York Times |access-date=April 27, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/spacewar/ |title=Spacewar! |author= |date= |website=PDP-1 Restoration Project |publisher=Computer History Museum |access-date=November 22, 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://computerhistory.org/profile/steve-russell/ |title=Steve Russell |author= |date= |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=November 22, 2020}} Spacewar! is widely considered to be the first digital video game{{cite web |url=http://www.movingimage.us/exhibitions/2012/12/15/detail/spacewar-video-games-blast-off/ |title=Spacewar! Video Games Blast Off |author= |date=March 3, 2013 |website=Museum of the Moving Image |publisher=Entertainment Software Association |access-date=November 22, 2020}}{{cite magazine |date=November 1996 |title=The Great Videogame Swindle? |magazine=Next Generation |publisher=Imagine Media |issue=23 |pages=64–66}} and served as a foundation for the entire video game industry.{{cite web |url=https://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=bitstory-article-1/spacewar |title=Spacewar! – It Came from MIT |website=The Dot Eaters |access-date=July 10, 2023}}
He later served as an executive of Computer Center Corporation (nicknamed C-Cubed), a small time-sharing company in Washington (state). In 1968, he mentored Bill Gates and Paul Allen on the use of the DEC PDP-10 mainframe, while they were part of the programming group of Lakeside School (Seattle).{{Cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Isaacson |year=2014 |title=The Innovators |publisher=Simon & Schuster UK |isbn=978-1-47113-879-9 |pages=Chapter 9}}{{Cite book |title=Idea Man |last=Allen |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Allen |year=2011 |publisher=Penguin Group |pages=Chapters 3–4}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Steve Russell}}
{{Lisp programming language}}
{{Early history of video games}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Steve}}
Category:American video game programmers
Category:Dartmouth College alumni
Category:American computer scientists
Category:Lisp (programming language) people
Category:Scientists from Hartford, Connecticut
Category:Game Developers Conference Pioneer Award recipients