Your Internet Consultant - The FAQs of Life Online

10.10. What is Netrek?

Board games are fine, but don't forget about the games that couldn't even exist without computers. Netrek, for example, is a 16-player, real-time battle simulation with a Star Trek theme. The game is divided into two teams of up to eight people, who dogfight and attempt to conquer each other's planets. There are several different types of ships, from fast, fragile scouts to big, slow battleships. This allows a great deal of variance in play styles.

What makes Netrek different from many other Internet games is that it features real graphics rather than dismal ASCII quasi-graphics. Because of this, you'll need special client software on your computer before you can play--along with a computer capable of supporting the graphics and a network connection with sufficient bandwidth.

If you're lucky, you have the right combination of hardware and Internet connection to do this. You'll need to be using a terminal that runs X Window. If you use the Internet from a command-line UNIX environment, Delphi or similar, you're out of luck. Sad, but true.

For more information, read the Netrek FAQ, available as follows: 

rtfm.mit.edu:pub/usenet/games/netrek/faq
If you don't have FTP, send e-mail 
To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
Subject: <subject line is ignored>
Body: send usenet/news.answers/games/netrek/faq

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