XPilot
Encyclopedia
XPilot is a multiplayer computer game. It is open source
and runs on many platforms. Although its 2D graphics have improved over time, they still resemble the style of Thrust
. Gameplay includes Capture the Flag
, base defense, racing
and deathmatch
es. XPilot uses a client–server architecture, in which a central metaserver
receives information from all XPilot server
s on the Internet
.
undergraduates at the University of Tromsø
, began writing XPilot, inspired by the earlier game Thrust. It was originally developed in C
on HP9000 workstation
s which ran Unix
. Soon after its first public release in 1992, Stabell and Schouten began receiving feedback, suggestions, and patches from players all around the world. Other XPilot users wrote documentation and contributed source code to the project. By 1996, there were nearly one hundred XPilot servers worldwide.
XPilot's code has been fork
ed several times. XPilot5 is a complete rewrite of XPilot in C++
. Unlike its predecessor, it comes with sound and is bundled with applications to configure the keyboard, ship shapes and behavior. The latest stable version of XPilot5 is 5.0.0. In late 2000, another group of developers began a branch of XPilot, later labeled XPilot NG (for next generation). Programmed in C
, it contains two clients
, either X11-based or SDL
/OpenGL
-based. Unlike the block-based maps of the original game, XPilot NG provides high frame rate
s and polygon
maps. A new Java
based map editor provides better map editing facilities. The latest version of XPilot NG is 4.7.2. In 2009, 7b5 Labs released XPilot iPhone, an XPilot client for Apple's
iPhone
and iPod touch
. It is based on XPilot and XPilot NG and uses touchscreen
controls. While these modern versions implement many new features, they are mostly compatible with the original program.
contains a list of all XPilot maps on the Internet
. These maps, created by users, feature several types of gameplay. In deathmatches
, points are earned by destroying other players or robots
. Users can increase their firepower by picking up items such as missile
s, mine
s and laser
s. Players can also defend themselves by gathering cloak
s, shield
s, ECM
s and armor. In racing maps, players earn points based on their finishing position. The objective of team games is to "destroy" the opponent's ball by placing it in the treasure chest
. Team games may also be run in a slightly different Capture the flag
mode.
Other modes exist, like trying to survive as long as possible surrounded by cannons, by dodging the bullets, or combinations of different modes.
and multiplayer functionality spawned the formation of a community. Contact between players was facilitated by newsgroups such as alt.games.xpilot and later rec.games.computer.xpilot. Since 1991, several annual team tournaments, known "Cups", have been held. After the first HTML
and image-rendering web browser
s were introduced, members of the community developed the game's online documentation.
There is also an IRC
channel dedicated to XPilot.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and runs on many platforms. Although its 2D graphics have improved over time, they still resemble the style of Thrust
Thrust (computer game)
Thrust is a computer game originally for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. The perspective is 2 dimensional platform-based and the player's aim is to maneuver a spaceship by rotating and thrusting, as it flies over a landscape and along corridors....
. Gameplay includes Capture the Flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
, base defense, racing
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
and deathmatch
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
es. XPilot uses a client–server architecture, in which a central metaserver
Metaserver
A MetaServer is considered a central broker providing a collated view for dispersed web resources. It is used to collect data from various web services, web pages, databases, or other online resources/repositories and then present the combined results to the client using a standard web protocol A...
receives information from all XPilot server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
History
In 1991, Bjørn Stabell and Ken Schouten, then computer scienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
undergraduates at the University of Tromsø
University of Tromsø
The University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
, began writing XPilot, inspired by the earlier game Thrust. It was originally developed in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
on HP9000 workstation
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
s which ran Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
. Soon after its first public release in 1992, Stabell and Schouten began receiving feedback, suggestions, and patches from players all around the world. Other XPilot users wrote documentation and contributed source code to the project. By 1996, there were nearly one hundred XPilot servers worldwide.
XPilot's code has been fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
ed several times. XPilot5 is a complete rewrite of XPilot in C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
. Unlike its predecessor, it comes with sound and is bundled with applications to configure the keyboard, ship shapes and behavior. The latest stable version of XPilot5 is 5.0.0. In late 2000, another group of developers began a branch of XPilot, later labeled XPilot NG (for next generation). Programmed in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, it contains two clients
Client (computing)
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
, either X11-based or SDL
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
/OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
-based. Unlike the block-based maps of the original game, XPilot NG provides high frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
s and polygon
Polygon
In geometry a polygon is a flat shape consisting of straight lines that are joined to form a closed chain orcircuit.A polygon is traditionally a plane figure that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments...
maps. A new Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
based map editor provides better map editing facilities. The latest version of XPilot NG is 4.7.2. In 2009, 7b5 Labs released XPilot iPhone, an XPilot client for Apple's
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod touch
IPod touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
. It is based on XPilot and XPilot NG and uses touchscreen
Touchscreen
A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
controls. While these modern versions implement many new features, they are mostly compatible with the original program.
Gameplay
The metaserverMetaserver
A MetaServer is considered a central broker providing a collated view for dispersed web resources. It is used to collect data from various web services, web pages, databases, or other online resources/repositories and then present the combined results to the client using a standard web protocol A...
contains a list of all XPilot maps on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. These maps, created by users, feature several types of gameplay. In deathmatches
Deathmatch (gaming)
Deathmatch or Player vs All is a widely-used gameplay mode integrated into many shooter and real-time strategy computer games...
, points are earned by destroying other players or robots
Computer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
. Users can increase their firepower by picking up items such as missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s, mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
s and laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s. Players can also defend themselves by gathering cloak
Cloaking device
Cloaking devices are advanced stealth technologies still in development that will cause objects, such as spaceships or individuals, to be partially or wholly invisible to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...
s, shield
Shield
A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....
s, ECM
Electronic countermeasures
An electronic countermeasure is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar or other detection systems, like infrared or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting information to an enemy...
s and armor. In racing maps, players earn points based on their finishing position. The objective of team games is to "destroy" the opponent's ball by placing it in the treasure chest
Treasure Chest
Treasure Chest was a Catholic-oriented comic book series created by Dayton, Ohio publisher George A...
. Team games may also be run in a slightly different Capture the flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
mode.
Other modes exist, like trying to survive as long as possible surrounded by cannons, by dodging the bullets, or combinations of different modes.
Community
XPilotOnline chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
and multiplayer functionality spawned the formation of a community. Contact between players was facilitated by newsgroups such as alt.games.xpilot and later rec.games.computer.xpilot. Since 1991, several annual team tournaments, known "Cups", have been held. After the first HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
and image-rendering web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
s were introduced, members of the community developed the game's online documentation.
There is also an IRC
Internet Relay Chat
Internet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
channel dedicated to XPilot.
External links
- Official homepage
- XPilot page at Sourceforge
- XPilot NG homepage
- XPilot5 homepage
- XPilot iPhone
- The Story of XPilot, archived by the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- The XPilot Newbie Manual, archived by the Internet Archive
- XPilot: The Newbieguide
- Artificial Intelligence Programming in Xpilot