Habitat (video game)
| Habitat | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Lucasfilm Games, Quantum Link, Fujitsu |
| Publisher(s) | Quantum Link, Fujitsu |
| Director(s) | Chip Morningstar |
| Producer(s) | Steve Arnold |
| Designer(s) | Chip Morningstar Randy Farmer |
| Programmer(s) | Chip Morningstar |
| Artist(s) | Gary Winnick |
| Platform(s) | Commodore 64, FM Towns, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Habitat is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by LucasArts. It is the first attempt at a large-scale commercial virtual community that was graphic based. Initially created in 1985 by Randy Farmer and Chip Morningstar, the game was made available as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to America Online. Both Farmer and Morningstar were given a First Penguin Award at the 2001 Game Developers Choice Awards for their innovative work on Habitat. As a graphical MUD it is considered a forerunner of modern MMORPGs unlike other online communities of the time (i.e. MUDs and massively multiplayer onlines with text-based interfaces). The Habitat had a GUI and large user base of consumer-oriented users, and those elements in particular have made the Habitat a much-cited project and acknowledged benchmark for the design of today's online communities that incorporate accelerated 3D computer graphics and immersive elements into their environments.
Habitat is "a multi-participant online virtual environment", a cyberspace. Each participant ("player") uses a home computer (Commodore 64) as an intelligent, interactive client, communicating via modem and telephone over a commercial packet-switching network to a centralized, mainframe host system. The client software provides the user interface, generating a real-time animated display of what is going on and translating input from the player into messages to the host. The host maintains the system's world model enforcing the rules and keeping each player's client informed about the constantly changing state of the universe.
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