Netrek
| Netrek | |
|---|---|
In-game screenshot
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| Developer(s) | Open source |
| Designer(s) | Kevin Smith Scott Silvey |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows Mac OS X Linux Unix (many variants) NetBSD |
| Release | 1988 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy / shooter |
| Mode(s) |
team game up to 16 observers Internet or local multiplayer or single player vs. robots |
team game
2–4 teams (usually 2)
1–8 players per team
Netrek is an Internet game for up to 16 players, written almost entirely in cross-platform open source software. It combines features of multi-directional shooters and team-based real-time strategy games. Players attempt to disable or destroy their opponents' ships in real-time combat, while taking over enemy planets by bombing them and dropping off armies they pick up on friendly planets. The goal of the game is to capture all the opposing team's planets.
Developed as a successor to 1986's Xtrek, Netrek was first played in 1988. It was the third Internet game, the first Internet team game, and as of 2011 is the oldest Internet game still actively played. It pioneered many technologies used in later games, and has been cited as prior art in patent disputes.Xtrek and Netrek are the oldest games of what is now called the MOBA genre.
Netrek is essentially a greatly expanded version of Empire, a multi-user space combat game that ran on the PLATO. Empire, in turn, is essentially a multi-user version of the seminal Spacewar!, the earliest computer video game. Like those games, in Netrek each player takes command of a starship, which they pilot about a 2D map of the game galaxy, as seen from above. The game combines both tactical combat and strategic goals.
The game galaxy consists of 40 planets distributed about the map. The map is further divided into 4 sectors of 10 planets each. Netrek divided the players into one of four teams, loosely based on the Star Trek universe; the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, and Orions (or "feds", "roms", "klis", and "oris", respectively). Each team is assigned to a single sector when the map is reset.
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