Help me remember this game!

[Desfeek]

I am very young compared to most people here. No need to point such things out.

 

I was in Kindergarden in 1994-95. I remember the computer lab was run by a friend of mine (at the time)'s father, who had installed a LAN space combat game on every machine. He would allow a group of us to go in after school and dogfight. As far as I remember, this was my first exposure to multiplayer gaming.

 

 

My memories are insanely fuzzy (try to remember kindergarden for a moment), but this is what I remember:

 

It was a black and white game. I don't think we were playing on monochrome monitors, but it is possible. I do know that our computer lab wasn't anywhere near top-of-the-line.

 

Each player had health, shields, and fuel to worry about. There were powerups to refill these stats. I *think* killing an enemy gave you more fuel.

 

I definitely remember a cloaking item, which was the most coveted item in the game. Would render your ship completely invisible.

 

 

I had lost this memory to the depths of time, until I recently laid eyes on Vectorbeam's Space War. Memories came flooding back, I had played Space War, just an updated and LAN-multiplayer version of it. I remember being blown away, looking at a friend's screen and watching my own ship fly around.

 

Sorry this is incredibly vague. If you have any ideas, they would be much appreciated.

Edited August 3, 2011 by Desfeek

[Shephda]

I am very young compared to most people here. No need to point such things out.

 

I was in Kindergarden in 1994-95. I remember the computer lab was run by a friend of mine (at the time)'s father, who had installed a LAN space combat game on every machine. He would allow a group of us to go in after school and dogfight. As far as I remember, this was my first exposure to multiplayer gaming.

 

 

My memories are insanely fuzzy (try to remember kindergarden for a moment), but this is what I remember:

 

It was a black and white game. I don't think we were playing on monochrome monitors, but it is possible. I do know that our computer lab wasn't anywhere near top-of-the-line.

 

Each player had health, shields, and fuel to worry about. There were powerups to refill these stats. I *think* killing an enemy gave you more fuel.

 

I definitely remember a cloaking item, which was the most coveted item in the game. Would render your ship completely invisible.

 

 

I had lost this memory to the depths of time, until I recently laid eyes on Vectorbeam's Computer Space. Memories came flooding back, I had played Computer Space, just an updated and LAN-multiplayer version of it. I remember being blown away, looking at a friend's screen and watching my own ship fly around.

 

Sorry this is incredibly vague. If you have any ideas, they would be much appreciated.

 

Perhaps it was Spacewar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacewar!

[Desfeek]

no no no...We are talking 94-95.

 

A lot like Space War / Computer Space, just running on a Mac II or something similar...

 

EDIT: Actually, I recently played Vectorbeam's Space War, not Computer Space. Computer Space was on display, just not playable. Edited my original post, still looking for this game!

Edited August 3, 2011 by Desfeek

[Desfeek]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Control is close...but I still don't think that's it. A little older?

[PsychoKittyNet]

Xpilot maybe?

[Desfeek]

Xpilot is the closest I've seen. It's probably it. The more I research this, the more I'm coming to realize I may never nail down exactly what I playe all those years ago.

 

EDIT: ehhhh after watching youtube videos I'm not so sure...There was a lot of emphasis on that cloaking device. I don't remember CTF gametypes

Edited August 3, 2011 by Desfeek

[Reaperman]

Netrek maybe?

There were a lot of clients for it--maybe a fairly primative one. I can't say I've ever seen a client in black and white, but there are many that feature sparcely colored vector objects. It was actually a fairly popular game around that timeframe, despite it being old as dirt.

 

Was the game overhead or cockpit view?

Edited August 3, 2011 by Reaperman

[Desfeek]

YES! It was Netrek. It had to be an early version of it, but THAT is the game I played all those years ago

 

The shape of the spaceship, and the circular shield seem very familiar, as well as the in-game planets. The only thing that makes me question it is the the wikipedia article makes no mention of a cloaking device, but maybe I was wrong about that. Even the bullet pattern seems familiar.

 

It's funny that my memories would overlook something as crucial as, "it was Star Trek related", haha. I possibly had little to no comprehension of what Star Trek was at that point.

[Desfeek]

Thanks a ton, for everyone's suggestions by the way! This has been bugging me for awhile.

[jmetal88]

Hmm, maybe you should also check out PDTrek, although I believe it was only a two-player modem game.

[almightytodd]

I remember a game that sounds like this that was called, "Lightyear" or "Lightspeed" or something like that. I don't know if it was an actual commercial product, or something some Novell programmers had come up with to show off the potential of LAN configurations. I recall that the ships were simple polygon shapes and could even be rendered in wireframes if you were running on lower-end hardware (i386 machines). I've tried to search for information about this game on the web, but have never been able to find out anything about it.

 

In addition to multi-player mode, there was also a single-player game that involved protecting a group of "pods" from being snatched by hostile alien ships and towed away. If a pod was snatched, you could chase after it and if you were able to blast the ship towing it, it would slowly drift back to where the other pods were. But in the meantime, there might be other hostile ships that would rush in to grab unprotected pods while you were off in pursuit of another.

[VectorGamer]

I remember a game that sounds like this that was called, "Lightyear" or "Lightspeed" or something like that. I don't know if it was an actual commercial product, or something some Novell programmers had come up with to show off the potential of LAN configurations. I recall that the ships were simple polygon shapes and could even be rendered in wireframes if you were running on lower-end hardware (i386 machines). I've tried to search for information about this game on the web, but have never been able to find out anything about it.

 

In addition to multi-player mode, there was also a single-player game that involved protecting a group of "pods" from being snatched by hostile alien ships and towed away. If a pod was snatched, you could chase after it and if you were able to blast the ship towing it, it would slowly drift back to where the other pods were. But in the meantime, there might be other hostile ships that would rush in to grab unprotected pods while you were off in pursuit of another.

 

That second game sounds like Rip Off