Moondust_(video_game)
Moondust (video game)
1983 video game
Moondust is a 1983 generative music video game created for the Commodore 64 by virtual reality pioneer, Jaron Lanier. Moondust was programmed in 6502 assembly[1] in 1982,[2] and is considered the first art video game.[3][4][5] Moondust has frequently been used as an art installation piece in museum exhibitions[6] from Corcoran Gallery of Art's 1983 "ARTcade"[7] to the Smithsonian's 2012 "The Art of Video Games".[8][9] It has also been used by Lanier and others in papers and lectures as an example to demonstrate the unexpected ephemerality of digital data.[10][11][12][2]
Moondust is also considered to be the first interactive music publication,[13][14] and it sold quite successfully.[15] With the profits from Moondust[16] and additional funding from Marvin Minsky,[17] Lanier formed VPL which would later go on to create the DataGlove and the DataSuit[18] and to become one of the primary innovators of virtual-reality research and development throughout the 1980s.