30th Anniversary

Written by  on October 26, 2015 

mtreknewnewlogo900x900Nearly 30 years ago at the University of California Santa Cruz, Tim Wisseman approached Chuck L. Peterson with some early ideas for a text-based space combat simulator. Chuck (widely known only by his initials, “clp” or his UCSCB username, “rush”) ran with the idea and eventually went on to write the popular game Multi-Trek. This game was ground-breaking. In 1986, there was nothing else like it, because most games were local-play only, turn-based, or single-player. Clp’s MTrek was quite possibly the first online game powered by an actual 3-D engine, and the first to use a real-time movement system to navigate through a persistent 3-D world. Combine those features with a massively multiplayer sandbox environment, and you have the original formula that evolved into the popular MMORPGS and Shooters of today. It can certainly be debated whether Multi-Trek directly influenced the evolution of the gaming industry, or if it was simply years ahead of its time. Regardless, MTrek has earned a place in internet history.

To celebrate three decades of awesomeness, mtrek.com’s newest fork of JavaTrek (mtrek.com 6.0) will be codenamed MTrek 3D. The initial planning phases have already begun, and you can expect to see an open beta or two in the coming months. A lot of the details are still being ironed out, but a few things can be counted on:

  • The server will run faster, and with (knock on wood) fewer bugs.
  • There will be more ship classes to choose from, including two all-new ships.
  • The Cardassian CDA-180 will finally become a respectable ship.
  • The Constitution II (minus the “A”) will rise from the ashes of MTrek lore.
  • The mtrek.com website will be freshened up.
  • A renewed campaign for more players will ensue.

Stay tuned for more news. The first MTrek 3D open beta will likely occur in early-mid December, but no promises. The official public release of MTrek 3D is anticipated in April or May 2016.

-obit

Comments

13 Responses

  1. squirel squirel says:

    Is that you’re desktop?

    • squirel squirel says:

      ignore the your you’re typo plz =D

    • Avatar mtrek.com says:

      It’s a screenshot of a semi-transparent terminal session with one of the game maps open behind it, which was then cropped and pasted onto a piece of the website’s wallpaper, along with the mtrek.com header logo and “screenshot: ununtu terminal” in gold *Trek font.

      I made it about 3 years ago for I don’t remember what reason, and haven’t bothered to make a nicer new one yet 🙂

  2. Squirel Squirel says:

    The Cardassian CDA-180 will finally become a respectable ship.

    How?

  3. squirel squirel says:

    there’s not really a big difference….[

    • Avatar mtrek.com says:

      There is a big difference.

      In the hands of a skilled pilot, tracking xwarp can be a powerful offensive tool.

      For example, with tracking, you can xwarp directly onto an enemy within scan range. Without tracking you’ll overshoot your target by a mile.

      Also, in a critical situation where you need to flee to a starbase, tracking will drop you right on the base, where non-tracking can leave you damaged / weaponless / un-powered and a few thousand distance from your life-saving sb.

      Source:

      I’ve piloted a number of excel’s and a few dys to the top high scores over the years, including excel’s with > 50K and dys > 30K.

  4. Squirel Squirel says:

    How accurate is it?

    • Avatar mtrek.com says:

      You drop out of warp at the exact coordinates you intercepted, unless that point is farther than you can travel at a given speed. (See the xwarp distance charts in the FAQ)

      That said, to intercept a nearby ship, particularly a moving one, you have to carefully time when the intercept coords are input during the 3-second xwarp countdown.

      So you’ll start the countdown with }x and then type esc-l. At the last possible instant, before xwarp engages, hit the target shipletter. This is the only way to reliably intercept an on-HUD opponent with xwarp. The tracking xwarp disregards a normal ship intercept, and sends you flying right on by.

      Esc-l [shipletter] is actually loading a manual xyz coordinate just as if you had typed “I” and then the coords.

  5. Squirel Squirel says:

    Remind me not to mess with you in game….

  6. Avatar mtrek.com says:

    Hehe if you ever forget I’ll be sure to remind you… With my excel

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