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Trade Wars is a series of video games dating back to 1984.^[1]^[2] The video games are inspired by Hunt the Wumpus, the board game Risk, and the original space trader game Star Trader.^[3]

History

The first game with the title, Trade Wars, by Chris Sherrick, was developed in BASIC for the TRS-80 Model II, and soon ported, by Sherrick, to the IBM PC for the Nochange BBS system in 1984.^[2] Sherrick conceived his game as a cross between Dave Kaufman's BASIC program Star Trader (1974), the board game Risk, and Gregory Yob's Hunt the Wumpus (1972).^[2]

Because Sherrick released his earliest versions with a free license, many variations of the game appeared over the next few years, including TWV - Galactic Armageddon, Yankee Trader, and TW2 (a development of the original by John Morris who took over from Chris Sherrick).

One of the more popular variants is the TradeWars 2002 series (Gary Martin, John Pritchett, 1986). TW2002 was designed originally as a WWIV chain (a way of calling external programs which was a part of Turbo Pascal 3 - and one that often required the source code to work, which is why so many people were able to get copies) in September 1986 by a sysop named James T Gunderson with the handle "Lord Darkseid" (his BBS was called Apokolips, and he was apparently a DC Comics fan). Its original name was TW2 for WWIV - and it shared no source code with the Sherrick version, which was written in Basic. Another WWIV sysop - B0b "OM" Mosley - made additional modifications, including porting the code to Turbo Pascal 4.x specifications, numerous bug fixes, a series of cosmetic changes to allow the game to reflect a Star Trek theme, and development of a map editor that allowed for both larger maps and the ability to randomly generate new maps as well as reinitialize the game's databases to reflect the new map data. High school student Dylan Tynan ("Sorcerer" and "Alex and Droogs"), worked with Mosley during the rewrite, serving as the primary tester, as well as contributing source fixes and additional features. After two years of development, Mosley released the source code for the game and editor, which allowed fellow WWIV sysop Gary Martin to make his own changes to the included source code. Gary's first version was Trade Wars 2001, and it contained many of the base features. It also used exactly the same TWSECT.DAT file (the file which contains the information on all of the warp points in the game) as Trade Wars 2002.

While TW2001 was well received, Gary decided to expand the game further. In addition to the port in Sector 1 where the players could buy fighters/shields/holds, another port was added called the Stardock where the players could buy new types of ships. Over a period of time, feature after feature was added, so that Trade Wars 2002 v0.96 was a different game than Trade Wars 2002 v1.00. TW2002 v1.00 was released in June 1991. One of the major design choices made was influenced by changes in the BBS software – WWIV author Wayne Bell had rewritten the WWIV BBS System using Turbo C instead of Turbo Pascal. This meant that classic Chain programs would no longer work, and Trade Wars 2002 v2 used a general purpose door library which allowed the game to be run under other brands of BBS software for the first time.

TW2002 v1, v2, & v3 were BBS mainstays throughout the 1990s. In 1998, Gary Martin sold the Trade Wars license to John Pritchett, who had written Tradewars 2002 v3 and its gold expansion. John and his company, EIS, developed a stand-alone game server, TradeWars Game Server, which has allowed Trade Wars to survive beyond the BBS era.

Gameplay

Though specifics vary between versions, in general the player is a trader in a galaxy with a fixed set of other players (either human or computer). The players seek to gain control of resources: usually fuel ore, food, and equipment, and travel through sectors of the galaxy trading them for money or undervalued resources. Players use their wealth to upgrade their spaceship with better weapons and defenses, and fight for control of planets and star bases.

Since the basics of the game structure are numerical, these games are not reliant on high resolution graphics or rapid processing, which makes them ideally suited to low-resource computing platforms.

Today, classic Trade Wars is primarily hosted by Windows NT/2000/XP computers running the Trade Wars Game Server (TWGS), which accepts incoming telnet connections and launches the Trade Wars ANSI game. Trade Wars is also run by many of the surviving BBSs, and variations have been ported to the web, cell phones, and the Palm OS.

Reception

Computer Gaming World in 1993 rated Trade Wars two points out of three, stating that for many players "there is no other on-liner than Trade Wars ... This game will be around for a while, in one form or another".^[4]

Legacy

Trade Wars is cited as an influence by some game developers.^[5]^{[better source needed]} Examples include Paul Sage, lead designer of Ultima Online, Josh Johnston, lead programmer of Jumpgate, and Eric Wang, producer of Earth & Beyond. In 2013, the designers of Star Citizen listed Trade Wars 2002 among the games that inspired the design of their in-game economy.^[5] Games that are often compared to TradeWars include EVE Online, Starport, Jumpgate, Rebel Galaxy, Elite Dangerous, Earth and Beyond, Pardus, and Spore.^[5] Trade Wars 2002 was named the 10th best PC game of all time by PC World Magazine in 2009.^[1]

A major online game based on Trade Wars 2002 was under development in the early 2000s under the name TW: Dark Millennium, later renamed Exarch. When the developer, Realm Interactive, was acquired by their publisher, NCsoft Austin (Richard Garriott/Destination Games), the development of Exarch was discontinued. What started as TW: DM was eventually released by NCsoft as Dungeon Runners.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b Edwards, Benj (February 8, 2009). "The Ten Greatest PC Games Ever". PC World. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
^ ^a ^b ^c History of Trade Wars Variants
^ "Chris Sherrick Interview". Official TradeWars Museum. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
^ Shefski, William J. (May 1993). "A survey of gems to be found on private bulletin board systems". Computer Gaming World. p. 64. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Influenced by Trade Wars". Official TradeWars Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
^ Trade Wars: Dark Millennium Q&A - PC News at GameSpot

External links

[pc_world-1] Edwards, Benj (February 8, 2009). "The Ten Greatest PC Games Ever". PC World. Retrieved 2010-01-03.

[twhistory-2] History of Trade Wars Variants

[SherrickInterview-3] "Chris Sherrick Interview". Official TradeWars Museum. Retrieved 7 March 2021.

[shefski199305-4] Shefski, William J. (May 1993). "A survey of gems to be found on private bulletin board systems". Computer Gaming World. p. 64. Retrieved 7 July 2014.

[twinfluences-5] "Influenced by Trade Wars". Official TradeWars Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2021.

[6] Trade Wars: Dark Millennium Q&A - PC News at GameSpot

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+{{short description|Series of video games}}
-{{refimprove|date=July 2008}}
+{{redirect|Imperial StarShip|Imperial Star Ships in ''Star Trek''|Mirror Universe}}
-'''Trade Wars''' is the title, with some variations in spelling and capitalization, of a series of [[computer game]]s dating back to the early days of personal computing.  Inspired by [[Hunt the Wumpus]], the board game [[Risk]], and the original space trader game, [[Star Trader]], Trade Wars was the first multiplayer game of the [[Space trading and combat simulator|Space Trader]] genre.  During the height of its popularity in the early 1990s, Trade Wars was the preeminent BBS game, played by tens of thousands of computer enthusiasts around the world<ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Inside_TradeWars_-_Impact_-_Statistics</ref>.
+{{For|economic conflict|Trade war}}
+{{Italic title}}
+'''''Trade Wars''''' is a series of [[video game]]s dating back to 1984.<ref name="pc_world"/><ref name="twhistory"/> The video games are inspired by ''[[Hunt the Wumpus]]'', the board game ''[[Risk (game)|Risk]]'', and the original space trader game ''[[Star Trader]]''.<ref name="SherrickInterview">{{cite web | url=https://wiki.classictw.com/index.php/TradeWars_1_(Sherrick) | title=Chris Sherrick Interview | work=Official TradeWars Museum | access-date=7 March 2021}}</ref>
 ==History==
+{{refimprove section|date=March 2024}}
+The first game with the title, ''Trade Wars'', by Chris Sherrick, was developed in [[BASIC]] for the [[TRS-80 Model II]], and soon ported, by Sherrick, to the [[IBM PC]] for the Nochange BBS system in 1984.<ref name="twhistory">[http://www.eisonline.com/twhistory/ History of Trade Wars Variants<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Sherrick conceived his game as a cross between Dave Kaufman's [[BASIC]] program ''[[Star Trader]]'' (1974), the board game ''[[Risk (game)|Risk]]'', and Gregory Yob's ''[[Hunt the Wumpus]]'' (1972).<ref name="twhistory"/>
+Because Sherrick released his earliest versions with a free license, many variations of the game appeared over the next few years, including ''TWV - Galactic Armageddon'', ''Yankee Trader'', and ''TW2'' (a development of the original by John Morris who took over from Chris Sherrick).
-The first game with the title, "Trade Wars" by Chris Sherrick, was developed in [[BASIC]] for the [[TRS-80]], and immediately ported to the [[IBM PC]] for the Nochange BBS system in 1984.<ref>{{cite book | title = Guild Leadership | author = Jeon Rezvani | page = 175 | publisher = Lulu.com | year = 2008 }}</ref> Though other space trading games appeared earlier, including "[[DECWAR]]" 1974 and "[[MegaWars]]" 1983, Sherrick states that he was unfamiliar with either game, and conceived his game as a cross between Dave Kaufman's BASIC program "[[Star Trader]]" 1974, the board game "[[Risk (game)|Risk]]", and Gregory Yob's "[[Hunt the Wumpus]]" 1972.<ref name="twhistory">[http://www.eisonline.com/twhistory/ History of Trade Wars Variants<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
+One of the more popular variants is the ''TradeWars 2002'' series (Gary Martin, John Pritchett, 1986).  ''TW2002'' was designed originally as a [[WWIV]] [[Chain loading|chain]] (a way of calling external programs which was a part of [[Turbo Pascal]] 3 - and one that often required the [[source code]] to work, which is why so many people were able to get copies) in September 1986 by a sysop named James T Gunderson with the [[user (computing)|handle]] "Lord Darkseid" (his BBS was called Apokolips, and he was apparently a [[DC Comics]] fan). Its original name was ''TW2 for WWIV'' - and it shared no source code with the Sherrick version, which was written in Basic. Another WWIV sysop - B0b "OM" Mosley - made additional modifications, including porting the code to Turbo Pascal 4.x specifications, numerous [[bug fix]]es, a series of cosmetic changes to allow the game to reflect a ''[[Star Trek]]'' theme, and development of a map editor that allowed for both larger maps and the ability to randomly generate new maps as well as reinitialize the game's databases to reflect the new map data. High school student Dylan Tynan ("Sorcerer" and "Alex and Droogs"), worked with Mosley during the rewrite, serving as the primary tester, as well as contributing source fixes and additional features. After two years of development, Mosley released the source code for the game and editor, which allowed fellow WWIV sysop Gary Martin to make his own changes to the included source code. Gary's first version was ''Trade Wars 2001'', and it contained many of the base features. It also used exactly the same TWSECT.DAT file (the file which contains the information on all of the warp points in the game) as ''Trade Wars 2002''.
-Because Sherrick released his earliest versions with a free license, many variations of the game appeared over the next few years, including TWV - Galactic Armageddon, [[Yankee Trader]], and TW2 (a development of the original by John Morris who took over from Chris Sherrick).
+While ''TW2001'' was well received, Gary decided to expand the game further. In addition to the port in Sector 1 where the players could buy fighters/shields/holds, another port was added called the Stardock where the players could buy new types of ships. Over a period of time, feature after feature was added, so that ''Trade Wars 2002'' v0.96 was a different game than ''Trade Wars 2002'' v1.00. ''TW2002'' v1.00 was released in June 1991. One of the major design choices made was influenced by changes in the BBS software – WWIV author [[Wayne Bell (computer specialist)|Wayne Bell]] had rewritten the WWIV BBS System using Turbo C instead of Turbo Pascal. This meant that classic [[Chain loading|Chain]] programs would no longer work, and ''Trade Wars 2002'' v2 used a general purpose [[BBS door|door]] library which allowed the game to be run under other brands of BBS software for the first time.
-The most definitive version was the [[TradeWars 2002]] series (Gary Martin, John Pritchett, 1986).  TW2002 was designed originally as a [[WWIV]] [[chain]] (a way of calling external programs which was a part of Turbo Pascal 3 - and one that often required the source code to work, which is why so many people were able to get copies) in September 1986 by a sysop with the [[user (computing)|handle]] "Lord Darkseid" (his BBS was called Apokolips, and he was apparently a [[DC Comics]] fan). Its original name was ''TW2 for WWIV'' - and it shared no source code with the Sherrick version, which was written in Basic. Another WWIV sysop - B0b "OM" Mosley - made additional modifications, including porting the code to Turbo Pascal 4.x specifications, numerous bug fixes, a series of cosmetic changes to allow the game to reflect a ''[[Star Trek]]'' theme, and development of a map editor that allowed for both larger maps and the ability to randomly generate new maps as well as reinitialize the game's databases to reflect the new map data. After two years of development, Mosley released the source code for the game and editor, which allowed fellow WWIV sysop Gary Martin to make his own changes to the included source code. Gary's first version was [[Trade Wars 2001]], and it contained many of the base features. It also used exactly the same TWSECT.DAT file (the file with contains the information on all of the warp points in the game) as Trade Wars 2002.
+''TW2002'' v1, v2, & v3 were BBS mainstays throughout the 1990s. In 1998, Gary Martin sold the ''Trade Wars'' license to John Pritchett, who had written ''Tradewars 2002'' v3 and its gold expansion. John and his company, EIS, developed a stand-alone game server, ''TradeWars Game Server'', which has allowed ''Trade Wars'' to survive beyond the BBS era.
-While TW2001 was well received, Gary (who was a [[Traveller (role-playing game)|Traveller]] game master) decided to expand the game further. In addition to the port in Sector 1 where you could buy fighters/shields/holds, another port was added called the Stardock where you could buy new types of ships. Over a period of time, feature after feature was added, so that Trade Wars 2002 V0.96 was a very different game than Trade Wars 2002 V1.00. TW2002 V1.00 was released in June 1991. One of the major design choices made was influenced by changes in the BBS software &mdash; WWIV author [[Wayne Bell (computer specialist)|Wayne Bell]] had rewritten the WWIV BBS System using Turbo C instead of Turbo Pascal. This meant that classic [[Chain]] programs would no longer work, and Trade Wars 2002 V2 used a general purpose [[BBS door|door]] library which allowed the game to be run under other brands of BBS software for the first time.
-TW2002 V1, V2, & V3 were BBS mainstays throughout the 1990s.  In 1998, Gary Martin sold the Trade Wars license to John Pritchett. John and his company, EIS, developed a stand-alone game server, TWGS, which has allowed Trade Wars to survive beyond the BBS era.
 ==Gameplay==
+Though specifics vary between versions, in general the player is a trader in a galaxy with a fixed set of other players (either human or computer). The players seek to gain control of resources: usually fuel ore, food, and equipment, and travel through sectors of the galaxy trading them for money or undervalued resources. Players use their wealth to upgrade their spaceship with better weapons and defenses, and fight for control of planets and star bases.
-Though specifics vary from one version to another, in general the player is a trader in a galaxy with a fixed set of other players (either human or computer). The players seek to gain control of resources: usually fuel, ore, food, and equipment, and travel through sectors of the galaxy trading them for money or undervalued resources. Players use their wealth to upgrade their spaceship with better weapons and defenses, and fight for control of planets and starbases.
 Since the basics of the game structure are numerical, these games are not reliant on high resolution graphics or rapid processing, which makes them ideally suited to low-resource computing platforms.
-Today, classic Trade Wars is primarily hosted by Windows NT/2000/XP computers running the Trade Wars Game Server (TWGS), which accepts incoming telnet connections and launches the Trade Wars ASCII game.  Trade Wars is also run by many of the surviving BBSs, and variations have been ported to the [[World Wide Web|web]], [[cell phone]]s, and the [[Palm OS]].
+Today, classic ''Trade Wars'' is primarily hosted by Windows NT/2000/XP computers running the Trade Wars Game Server (TWGS), which accepts incoming telnet connections and launches the Trade Wars ANSI game. ''Trade Wars'' is also run by many of the surviving BBSs, and variations have been ported to the [[World Wide Web|web]], [[cell phone]]s, and the [[Palm OS]].
+==Reception==
-==Graphical Versions==
+''[[Computer Gaming World]]'' in 1993 rated ''Trade Wars'' two points out of three, stating that for many players "there is no
+other on-liner than ''Trade Wars'' ... This game will be around for a while, in one form or another".<ref name="shefski199305">{{cite magazine | url=http://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/index.php?year=1993&pub=2&id=106 | title=A survey of gems to be found on private bulletin board systems | magazine=Computer Gaming World | date=May 1993 | access-date=7 July 2014 | author=Shefski, William J. | pages=64}}</ref>
-A major on-line game based on Trade Wars 2002 was under development in the early 2000s under the name "TW: Dark Millennium", later renamed "Exarch".  When the developer, Realm Interactive, was acquired by their publisher, [[NCsoft]] Austin ([[Richard Garriott]]/[[Destination Games]]), development of "Exarch" was discontinued.  What started as TW: DM was eventually released by NCsoft as "[[Dungeon Runners]]".<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/exarch/news.html?sid=2708152&mode=recent Trade Wars: Dark Millennium Q&A - PC News at GameSpot<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref><ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Application:TradeWars:_Dark_Millennium</ref>
-On July 15, 2007, Sylien announced an open beta on [http://www.tradewarsrising.com/ TradeWars Rising], which was to be a web based remake of the classic text-based game with 2D and 3D graphics.  Though initially designed by EIS owner John Pritchett, disagreements over the direction of the project led Pritchett to step aside and allow Sylien to create their own vision of a TradeWars remake<ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Application:TradeWars_Tournament</ref>.
-In 2008, EIS and 21-6 Productions began development of a graphical TradeWars spin-off for the [[Instant Action]] game portal.  Production continued for 9 months before Instant Action was restructured and many of its planned games, including TradeWars, were dropped.
 ==Legacy==
+''Trade Wars'' is cited as an influence by some game developers.<ref name="twinfluences">{{cite web |url=https://wiki.classictw.com/index.php/Media_-_Influenced_By_TradeWars | title=Influenced by Trade Wars | work=Official TradeWars Museum | access-date=6 March 2021}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=June 2022}} Examples include Paul Sage, lead designer of ''[[Ultima Online]]'', Josh Johnston, lead programmer of ''Jumpgate'', and Eric Wang, producer of ''[[Earth & Beyond]]''. In 2013, the designers of ''[[Star Citizen]]'' listed ''Trade Wars 2002'' among the games that inspired the design of their in-game economy.<ref name="twinfluences"/> Games that are often compared to TradeWars include ''[[EVE Online]]'', ''Starport'', ''Jumpgate'', ''Rebel Galaxy'', ''Elite Dangerous'', ''Earth and Beyond'', ''[[Pardus (video game)|Pardus]]'', and ''Spore''.<ref name="twinfluences"/> ''Trade Wars 2002'' was named the 10th best PC game of all time by ''[[PC World Magazine]]'' in 2009.<ref name="pc_world">{{Cite web | last = Edwards | first = Benj | title = The Ten Greatest PC Games Ever | publisher = [[PC World (magazine)|PC World]] | date = February 8, 2009 | url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/158850/best_pc_games.html#slide2 | access-date = 2010-01-03}}</ref>
+A major online game based on ''Trade Wars 2002'' was under development in the early 2000s under the name ''TW: Dark Millennium'', later renamed ''Exarch''. When the developer, Realm Interactive, was acquired by their publisher, [[NCsoft]] Austin ([[Richard Garriott]]/[[Destination Games]]), the development of ''Exarch'' was discontinued. What started as ''TW: DM'' was eventually released by NCsoft as ''[[Dungeon Runners]]''.<ref>[http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/exarch/news.html?sid=2708152&mode=recent Trade Wars: Dark Millennium Q&A - PC News at GameSpot<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
-TradeWars is often cited as an influence by game developers.  Examples include [[Paul Sage]] ([[Ultima Online]]), [[Josh Johnston]] ([[Jumpgate]]), and [[Eric Wang]] ([[Earth and Beyond]]).  In 2013, the designers of [[Star Citizen]] listed TradeWars 2002 among the games that inspired the design of their in-game economy<ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Media_-_Influenced_By_TradeWars</ref>.
-Games that are often compared to TradeWars include [[EVE Online]], Jumpgate, Earth and Beyond, [[Pardus]], and Spore (the space stage)<ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Media_-_Compared_With_TradeWars</ref>.
-Many books on the early Internet and online gaming history have referenced TradeWars<ref>http://wiki.classictw.com/index.php?title=Media_-_Mentions_of_TradeWars</ref>.
-TradeWars 2002 was named the 10th best PC game of all time by PC World Magazine in 2008<ref>http://www.pcworld.com/article/158850/the_ten_greatest_pc_games_ever.html?tk=nl_bex_h_reviews</ref>.
 ==See also==
-*[[TradeWars 2002]]
+* [[Space combat simulator]]
-*[[Space combat simulator]]
 ==References==
+{{reflist}}
-<references />
 ==External links==
-*[http://www.tradewars.com Official TradeWars website]
+* [http://wiki.classictw.com Official TradeWars Museum]
-*[http://www.eisonline.com/ EIS, owner and developer of classic TradeWars]
+* [http://www.tradewars.com TradeWars tribute website]
-*[http://www.classictw.com Official EIS TradeWars forum]
+* [http://www.eisonline.com/ EIS, owner and developer of classic TradeWars]
-*[http://www.sylien.com Sylien Games, developer of the new TradeWars 'TW:Rising' licenced by EIS]
+* [http://www.classictw.com Official EIS TradeWars forum]
+* [http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/PROGRAMS/DOORS/TRADEWARS/tradewars.html History of Trade Wars 2002 - John Pritchett]
-*[http://www.tradewarsrising.com Official Sylien TradeWars site & forum]
+* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100323022213/http://www.tmcbbs.com/twvariants.html A list of other ancient versions; alas none of the actual files have been archived here]
-*[http://www.eisonline.com/twhistory History of Trade Wars 2002 - John Pritchett]
-*[http://www.tmcbbs.com/twvariants.html Other ancient versions, including source can be found here]
 [[Category:Door games]]
@@ Line 61: / Line 52: @@
 [[Category:Massively multiplayer online turn-based strategy games]]
 [[Category:Space trading and combat simulators]]
-[[Category:MMORPGs in space]]
+[[Category:Space massively multiplayer online role-playing games]]
 [[Category:Browser-based multiplayer online games]]
+[[Category:Video games developed in the United States]]