XCraft is a multiplayer, networked, real-time strategy (RTS) game, similar to the popular game WarCraft II. Unlike WarCraft II, however, XCraft runs under the X Window System for UN*X. Current supported platforms are FreeBSD and Solaris (x86 and Sparc). Also, unlike WarCraft II, which is serverless, XCraft is built around a client-server model. The clients draw the grapics, handle the user interface, and request actions from the server, while the server stores all of the game state, checks client requests for validity, and updates the clients with the appropriate messages as necessary.

The object of this game is to conquer by elimination all other players (or teams) by managing your own troops and resources. In theory, up to eight people can play at once, although it has never actually been tested with more than four. The server and clients are run for one game only and players cannot join in the middle of a game (all players must join at the beginning of the game).

Initial reaction to XCraft has been promising. This could be due, at least in part, to the fact that there really are no real-time strategy games for X. Often, our testing in the second-floor labs in Soda Hall would draw a crowd of curious people who would ask such questions as "Is that WarCraft for UNIX?", or "How is WarCraft running under UNIX?", or, less frequently "Where did you get the source?". They were often impressed when we broke the news to them that we wrote it ourselves. Find out more about what the current version of XCraft can do.

Now that the semester is over for CS169, you can download a copy of the source to use and peruse. Work will continue on the project this summer.