Alan Kotok has died. Kotok, an early pioneer of computer video games, entered MIT as a 16-year-old prodigy. There he became one of the original “hackers” – a member of the group of MIT students who developed “Spacewar,” contributing to the game’s design and serving as an inspiration to the group. “Spacewar,” arguably the world’s first computer game, ran on a Digital Equipment PDP-1 computer and was developed in 1962 as a hobby project. In an interview in 1990, Mr. Kotok said, “The only money I made from Spacewar was as a consultant for lawsuits in the video game industry in the 1970’s. I have all this fame, but it’s in a very narrow circle.” Kotok was 64. The cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

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