Editing Netrek (section)

==History==
''Netrek'' is largely derived from ''[[Empire (PLATO)|Empire]]'', written for the [[PLATO (computer system)|PLATO]] mainframe system beginning in 1973.<ref name=mcfadden>{{cite web |url=http://www.netrek.org/about/history_overall.php |title=The History of Netrek, through Jan 1 1994 |first=Andy |last=McFadden |date=1 May 1994}}</ref> It shares many characteristics of that game; key differences include a different planet layout and a much different pace of play, as well as evolutionary factors such as the use of mice instead of keyboard commands, TCP/IP networking, and the inclusion of color and sound.

In 1982, [[UC Berkeley]] student David Davis began writing a [[UNIX]] game called trek82, based on what he remembered of ''Empire'' when he used the PLATO system while at the [[University of Hawaii]]. This version emerged as ''trek82'', using character graphics for display and a shared file to exchange data.<ref name=mcfadden/> Chris Guthrie joined Davis, and introduced him to [[Jef Poskanzer]] and Craig Leres, who were working on a more strategic offshoot of ''Empire'' called ''Conquest''.<ref name=mcfadden/> They produced an updated version known as ''trek83''.

In 1986, Guthrie began porting ''trek83'' to the newly released [[X Window System]], producing ''Xtrek''. Further development took place at the [[EXperimental Computing Facility|XCF]], with the help of Ed James. In the spring of 1988, ''Xtrek II'' was written by Scott Silvey and K. Smith, moving from a model which used X as a transport to the game having its own client–server protocol.<ref name=mcfadden/> This was key in allowing the game to be ported to other platforms, which may or may not support X. This version was later developed into ''Netrek'' by Scott Silvey, Kevin Smith and Terence Chang.<ref name=kelly>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.netrek.org/about/wired_article.php |title=The First Online Sports Game |first=Kevin |last= Kelly |magazine=Wired |issue=6 |date=December 1993|volume=1 }}</ref>

In 1989, the source code was posted to [[Usenet]]. In the fall of 1990, UCB alumnus Terence Chang set up a public ''Netrek'' server at [[Carnegie Mellon University]] where he was attending graduate school.<ref name=kelly/> In spring 1991, the first inter-scholastic game was played between UCB and CMU, and in January 1992, the "International Netrek League" (INL) was formed, so that teams could form and compete with one another (as opposed to pick-up play, in which games are played by whoever connects to a server, and players enter and leave as they wish during the course of the game). ''Netrek'' was very popular in the Carnegie Mellon computer clusters for a number of years in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Heiko Wengler at the [[Technical University of Dortmund]] added Short Packets, an improved network protocol that reduced traffic by 40–75% and enabled competitive play via low-bandwidth connections.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/usr/jch/netrek/short-packets |title=Definition and implementation of short packets |date=24 May 1993 |access-date=30 March 2016 |last=Wengler |first=Heiko}}</ref>

''Netrek'' play peaked in the middle to late 1990s, with several leagues existing for different forms of the game as well as for different regions, and several pickup games always active, 24 hours per day, seven days per week.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://games.slashdot.org/story/02/05/10/189241/netrek |title=Netrek |first=R. Jason |last=Valentine |website=Slashdot |date=11 May 2002 }}</ref> Between 2002 and 2006 there was a steady decline in play. As of early 2007, Netrek has seen a moderate increase in playerbase coupled with a mild renaissance in development. In late 2006 ''Mactrek'', a new client for the Macintosh, was released, and substantial changes are being made to the Windows clients as well as various server enhancements. In 2019, an open source Netrek client was implemented in the Swift programming language and made available in the MacOS App Store.<ref>{{cite web |title=Swift Netrek |website=[[GitHub]]|date=4 December 2020|url=https://github.com/darrellroot/SwiftNetrek}}</ref>  Currently{{when?|date=October 2024}} there is a move from 10 frame/s to 50 frame/s, and the addition of voice chat is being considered.