History SGI Dogfight

the view inside of cockpit.

flight written in summer of 1983 sgi iris series of computer workstations. iris used motorola 68000 family cpus, , provide approximately 1 mips , draw 500 polygons per second.

in 1984, networking capabilities began added. initially, 2 stations connected serial cables. allowed 7 frames per second. siggraph 1984, xns support added, allowing play on ethernet.

probably in 1985, dog created, , dog , flight shipped demonstration software included sgi workstations. in 1986, udp broadcast protocol capability added (using port 5130). information transmitted via broadcast packets , @ frame rate, meaning program made intensive use of network resources , small number of players capable of saturating ethernet. while first game use internet protocol suite, game not pass through router, , not played across internet itself.

due expense of sgi workstations , computer networks @ time, many system administrators removed dogfight newly installed systems in order prevent abuse of resources, or limited play restricted off-peak hours.

by 1988, introduction of sgi s 4d series of machines, dogfight had forked, 1 version running on sgi machines of time (3000 series, 4dxxg s, personal iris, gt, gtx) , use on higher-end gt , gtx machines, , interoperate, both versions playing in same game. slower systems ran around 12 frame/s, while faster systems might 25 frame/s. source code available sgi upon request if non-disclosure agreement signed, , code used many programmers example of how use udp networking on sgi equipment. program called atc (air traffic control) added dogfight.

for irix 3.3 version, circa 1989, ip multicast capability added, , game became playable between compatible hosts on internet, assuming had multicast access (which quite uncommon). multicast address 224.0.1.2, making third multicast application receive address assignment, vmtp protocol (224.0.1.0) , network time protocol (224.0.1.1) having arrived first.