Multiplayer Game Programming: Architecting Networked Games,

Chapter 1. Overview of Networked Games

Although there are notable exceptions, the concept of networked multiplayer games didn’t really catch on with mainstream gamers until the 1990s. This chapter first gives a brief history of how multiplayer games evolved from the early networked games of the 1970s to the massive industry today. Next, the chapter provides an overview of the architecture of two popular network games from the 1990s—Starsiege: Tribes and Age of Empires. Many of the techniques used in these games are still in use today, so this discussion gives insight into the overall challenges of engineering a networked multiplayer game.

A Brief History of Multiplayer Games

The progenitor of the modern networked multiplayer game began on university ...