|
|
|
"No, I don't have the source and don't know where to find it!" — The other author
Decwar was one of the first multiuser games ever written? There were passwords for god mode in the game? Megawars I on Compuserve is a modified version of Decwars? Decwar was written in Macro-10 and Fortran? There are several clones written but none currently running on the internet?
|
The University of Texas at Austin...Home of Decwar The Decwar game, produced in the late '70s, was the one of the historic first "multiplayer" games, in which users would compete with each other on a computer. DECWAR was a sophisticated real time space battle game designed to be played by from 1 to 18 people. It was written at the University of Texas at Austin. The game was originally based on a very limited, single job, single terminal, two player Star Trek type game known as WAR. This game came from the CDC-6600/6400 system at the University of Texas at Austin, author unknown. The game was rewritten, and then transfered to the DEC-10. In the transfer process, the game was renamed to DECWAR, largely re-designed, and almost entirely re-written, so that the current version bears little resemblance to the original. Almost all the commands were added once the game was on the DEC-10, as well as the basic concept of separate jobs controlling each ship, and most of the other features that make the game challenging, exciting, and enjoyable. The first version was installed on the DEC-10 in August 1978. After several revisions, the greatly enhanced and improved game, version 2.0, was finally installed in July 1979. MOve RElative 5 4/TOrpedo COmputed 3 romulan/PHasers COmputed ENemy... MO RE 5 4/TO CO 3 R/PH CO EN Decwar was unique in that it used a command line for input. Command structure was simular to the command structure of TOPS-10, the operating system for the DEC-10. Commands could be abbrieviated to their most simple and unique form. Decwars allowed the user to enter coordinates in absolute, relative or computed format. Finally, commands could be stacked on a line, allowing a list of commands to be executed at once. If the user wanted, the last command line could be re-entered by simply pressing the escape key. Star @22-31 +4,+2 makes 301.2 unit hit on Panther displaced to 20-31 +2,+2, -72.1% * @22-31 +4,+2 301.2 unit N P -->20-31 +2,+2, -72.1% * 22-31 +4,+2 301N P >20-31 +2,+2, -72
Output for Decwar was also elegant. Output could be either in long, medium or short format. This allowed power users with the ability to get more information in a shorter amount of time. The output could be in absolute or relative format or both. Science Officer: Captain, that was a MOST illogical tactic.! Each player commanded a ship. Each ship had several devices, including: warp engines, inpulse engines, photon torpedoes, phaser banks, deflector shields, computer, life support, sub-space radio, and a tractor beam. Each ship started with 5000 units of energy, 2500 units of shield strength, and 0 units of damage. Other objects in the 79 x 79 universe included: Federation and Empire ships, computer controlled romulans, Federation and Empire bases, Federation and Empire planets and black holes.
THE WAR IS OVER!!!
The Klingon Empire is VICTORIOUS!!!
Please proceed to the nearest Klingon slave planet.!
|