Xbattle

xbattle is a multi-player real time strategy game released in 1991 by Steve Lehar and Greg Lesher.

The game was originally written for unix systems using the X Window System. Many military-type scenarios can be played out in this game. The board is very generic, consisting of repeated geometric shapes (hexagons, triangles, or squares). Water obstructions can be included and randomly generated boards are often used. Each player is assigned a color. Each player gets a pre-set number of bases that generate "troops". Troops look like blobs of color, with strength indicated by the size of the blob in the location. Troops can be moved around the board to take over additional squares or opposing bases. Supply lines thin out, so the opposing force usually tries to cut off your supply lines. There are numerous options, including fog-of-war limits on visibility and paratrooper options. Some recent versions include a single player AI option.

This game does not run as client server. Instead, it opens windows on all the clients using the X window system, so it is really just a single application running multi-headed.

External links

* [http://www.games.ru/games/linux/screenshots/xbattle.gifxbattle example image]
* [http://linux.maruhn.com/sec/xbattle.html 5.4.1 version source code ]
* [http://www.wlug.org.nz/XBattle Another recent version with bug fixes and good AI]

Note, there is also an xbattle Quake modification ("mod") that is much more recent (2000s?). This mod is unrelated to the classic xbattle game.