Modem Wars

Modem Wars is a 1988 Real Time Strategy game developed by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts for the IBM PC and Commodore 64 platforms. The first multi-computer online game. Modem Wars was played over a modem connection between two machines (via telephone or null modem serial connection), with both players controlling a group of robotic units trying to eliminate the opponent's command center. Features such as fog of war, varied unit... more

Modem Wars is a 1988 Real Time Strategy game developed by Ozark Softscape and published by Electronic Arts for the IBM PC and Commodore 64 platforms. The first multi-computer online game. Modem Wars was played over a modem connection between two machines (via telephone or null modem serial connection), with both players controlling a group of robotic units trying to eliminate the opponent's command center. Features such as fog of war, varied unit types, terrain, and formations, all now standards in the genre, were implemented despite the daunting technical limitations of late 1980s computers. As for the game's influence on other games, Scott Sharkey states that Modem Wars was perhaps "[t]he closest predecessor" to the groundbreaking and influential Sega Genesis real-time strategy game Herzog Zwei. Of specific technical interest, Modem Wars has been lauded for its mechanism of using 4-byte packets for each 'move', deltas to determine game stats, and storage of those deltas to allow for... less