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History of online games
Online games are video games played over a computer network. The evolution of these games parallels the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies improving the essential functionality needed for playing video games on a remote server. Many video games have an online component, allowing players to play against or cooperatively with players across a network around the world.
The first video and computer games, such as NIMROD (1951), OXO (1952), and Spacewar! (1962), were for one or two players sitting at a single computer, which was being used only to play the game. Later in the 1960s, computers began to support time-sharing, which allowed multiple users to share the use of a computer simultaneously. Systems of computer terminals were created, allowing users to operate the computer from a different room from where the computer was housed. Soon after, modem links further expanded this range so that users did not have to be in the same building as the computer; terminals could connect to their host computers via dial-up or leased telephone lines. With the increased remote access, host-based games were created, in which users on remote systems connected to a central computer to play single-player, and soon after, multiplayer games.[citation needed]
Later, in the 1970s, packet-based computer networking technology began to mature. Between 1973 and 1975, Xerox PARC developed local area networks based on Ethernet. Additionally, the wide area network ARPANET further developed from its 1969 roots, led to the creation of the Internet on January 1, 1983. These LANs and WANs allowed for network games, where the game created and received network packets; systems located across LANs or the Internet could run games with each other in peer-to-peer or client–server models.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, Rick Bloome implemented SpaceWar! as a two-player game on PLATO.
In the early 1970s, the PLATO time-sharing system, created by the University of Illinois and Control Data Corporation, allowed students at several locations to use online lessons in one of the earliest systems for computer-aided instruction. In 1972, PLATO IV terminals with new graphics capabilities were introduced, and students started using this system to create multiplayer games. By 1978, PLATO had multiplayer interactive graphical dungeon crawls, air combat (Airfight), tank combat, space battles (Empire and Spasim), with features such as interplayer messaging, persistent game characters, and team play for at least 32 simultaneous players.
A key goal of early network systems such as ARPANET and JANET was to allow users of "dumb" text-based terminals attached to one host computer (or, later, to terminal servers) to interactively use programs on other host computers. This meant that games on those systems were accessible to users in many different locations by the use of programs such as telnet.
Most of the early host-based games were single-player, and frequently originated and were primarily played at universities. A sizable proportion was written on DEC-20 mainframes, as those had a strong presence in the university market. Games such as The Oregon Trail (1971), Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), and Star Trek (1972) were very popular, with several or many students each playing their own copy of the game at once, time-sharing the system with each other and users running other programs.
Eventually, though, multiplayer host-based games on networked computers began to be developed. One of the most important of these was MUD (1978), a program that spawned a genre and had significant input into the development of concepts of shared world design, having a formative impact on the evolution of MMORPGs. In 1984, MAD debuted on BITNET; this was the first MUD fully accessible from a worldwide computer network. During its two-year existence, 10% of the sites on BITNET connected to it.[citation needed] In 1988, another BITNET MUD named MUDA appeared. It lasted for five years, before going offline due to the retirement of the computers it ran on.
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History of online games AI simulator
(@History of online games_simulator)
History of online games
Online games are video games played over a computer network. The evolution of these games parallels the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies improving the essential functionality needed for playing video games on a remote server. Many video games have an online component, allowing players to play against or cooperatively with players across a network around the world.
The first video and computer games, such as NIMROD (1951), OXO (1952), and Spacewar! (1962), were for one or two players sitting at a single computer, which was being used only to play the game. Later in the 1960s, computers began to support time-sharing, which allowed multiple users to share the use of a computer simultaneously. Systems of computer terminals were created, allowing users to operate the computer from a different room from where the computer was housed. Soon after, modem links further expanded this range so that users did not have to be in the same building as the computer; terminals could connect to their host computers via dial-up or leased telephone lines. With the increased remote access, host-based games were created, in which users on remote systems connected to a central computer to play single-player, and soon after, multiplayer games.[citation needed]
Later, in the 1970s, packet-based computer networking technology began to mature. Between 1973 and 1975, Xerox PARC developed local area networks based on Ethernet. Additionally, the wide area network ARPANET further developed from its 1969 roots, led to the creation of the Internet on January 1, 1983. These LANs and WANs allowed for network games, where the game created and received network packets; systems located across LANs or the Internet could run games with each other in peer-to-peer or client–server models.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, Rick Bloome implemented SpaceWar! as a two-player game on PLATO.
In the early 1970s, the PLATO time-sharing system, created by the University of Illinois and Control Data Corporation, allowed students at several locations to use online lessons in one of the earliest systems for computer-aided instruction. In 1972, PLATO IV terminals with new graphics capabilities were introduced, and students started using this system to create multiplayer games. By 1978, PLATO had multiplayer interactive graphical dungeon crawls, air combat (Airfight), tank combat, space battles (Empire and Spasim), with features such as interplayer messaging, persistent game characters, and team play for at least 32 simultaneous players.
A key goal of early network systems such as ARPANET and JANET was to allow users of "dumb" text-based terminals attached to one host computer (or, later, to terminal servers) to interactively use programs on other host computers. This meant that games on those systems were accessible to users in many different locations by the use of programs such as telnet.
Most of the early host-based games were single-player, and frequently originated and were primarily played at universities. A sizable proportion was written on DEC-20 mainframes, as those had a strong presence in the university market. Games such as The Oregon Trail (1971), Colossal Cave Adventure (1976), and Star Trek (1972) were very popular, with several or many students each playing their own copy of the game at once, time-sharing the system with each other and users running other programs.
Eventually, though, multiplayer host-based games on networked computers began to be developed. One of the most important of these was MUD (1978), a program that spawned a genre and had significant input into the development of concepts of shared world design, having a formative impact on the evolution of MMORPGs. In 1984, MAD debuted on BITNET; this was the first MUD fully accessible from a worldwide computer network. During its two-year existence, 10% of the sites on BITNET connected to it.[citation needed] In 1988, another BITNET MUD named MUDA appeared. It lasted for five years, before going offline due to the retirement of the computers it ran on.