Netrek

Overview

Netrek is a game based on the Star Trek universe. It is an original online multiplayer shooter for Unix and GNU/Linux machines that run in the X-Windows environment. There are also versions for Windows and MAC OS X. The game could be launched from the command line of a terminal to open a new window in which the game would be played. The player would use their local client to log onto a server that house the game where up to four teams of up to eight players would be competing against each other for control of a system. Players would each pilot a starship to destroy other players starships, bomb other players systems, pick up units from their own systems, and drop units onto enemy systems to take over enemy planets.

Each player have a choice of four starships when spawning into the game: destroyer, light cruiser, heavy cruiser, and battleship. The sprites for these ships look a lot like the starships used by the Federation in the Star Trek universe (as depicted in the Star Trek movies, television show, and Star Fleet Battles tabletop game). The starships have various attributes that went along with its class (destroyers were faster, but were more easily destroyed). Players play in real-time controlling the speed and direction of their ships with mouse and keyboard while firing phasers and photon torpedoes at opposing fleets. The strategy for the game is to use the units spawned on planets in your quadrant to invade opposing teams' planets to take them over. Players can also bomb opposing planets to destroy the defending units and drop units onto friendly planets to reinforce the garrison ahead of enemy invasion. Teams would be eliminated when all of their planets had been taken over by an opposing team.