Empire (PLATO)

Empire is the name of a computer game written for the PLATO system in 1973. It is significant for being quite probably the first networked multiplayer arena shooter-style game. It may also be the first networked multiplayer action game (although Maze War is another possibility for this distinction).

The first version, Empire I, was written by John Daleske as project coursework for an education class in the Spring of 1973. Silas Warner helped out by providing Daleske with disk space (known as "lesson space" in the PLATO environment). The first version of the game was a strategic turn-based game for eight players. Each had ships, industry, and budgets. Players had to keep the budget up to build more ships, maintain industry to help pay for it, provide raw materials to turn into goods, and trade. This was likely the earliest example of an online, multi-player, interterminal computer game. Games prior to this were two player or one player against a computer.

Empire II, written in the Fall of 1973, was substantially different, much more tactically oriented. Players each captained a starship and could fire torpedoes at each other. Silas Warner liked the earlier version, and with Daleske's permission resurrected it under the name Conquest. The initial versions were written in longhand, with no printouts available as Daleske was at a remote computing center.

In late 1973, Daleske rewrote the game again, creating Empire III in a 36-hour programming blitz, completing the effort in early 1974. This version of the game, with a few minor modifications (newer looping constructs replace branches, and a timing issue has been corrected) may still be played on the Cyber1 PLATO system. In this version of the game, the internal physics are greatly improved, and the player's ship is always shown in the center of the tactical screen. Up to seven teams and fifty players could participate. Players could opt to be in an eighth "rogue" or non-affiliated team.

The game was substantially revised in 1976 by a team led by Chuck Miller and Gary Fritz, including John Daleske and Jim Battin; by 1977, they produced Empire IV, which allowed for live chat between players. In 1981, Steve Peltz wrote a tournament version of the game, which allowed for annual tournaments between teams. These were most often won by the Orion team.

Empire was a very popular game. Usage logs from the PLATO system at the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL) at UIUC indicate that between 1978 and 1985, users spent about 300,000 hours playing Empire. Empire is still played (as of 2013) on the system at www.cyber1.org.

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