Video games - The Universal

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	Video games - The Universal

The Universal (previously known as A Tractor and Islands) is a free third person online multiplayer game centered somewhat around the combined virtual world concepts of authors William Gibson, Neal Stephenson and a little hint of Douglas Adams, namely, and inside satire relating to monkeys, chimps, and whiskey. It is currently independently developed by a small group of volunteers, from around the world, who work on the game in their spare time. Contributions to the game, in the form of art, code, and ideas are accepted from the community. The game has recently implemented new features, an example of which being intergalactic trading.

History

The Universal started out as a small game concept by its creator and lead programmer, Mitchell Goodwin, in December 2000. The game was called "A Tractor," and was centered around the objective of keeping your character alive in a server (called an "island"). This entailed keeping a job, earning money in the form of "sheckles" and "denari," keeping your house stocked with plenty of food and drinks, and optionally running a business. There were also things to do for recreation, such as play a SubSpace-like subgame called "robocrow," and fight in wars with missiles and other weapons.

The game stayed mostly as such until 2003. Large advancements in the game, such as support for multiple Gateways (server software that managed the smaller "island" game servers) and many upgrades to the 3D game engine took place. The addition of another dimension of the game, called the Universe, was added not too long afterwards. This allowed for interactive, three-dimensional travel between "Worlds" (the new term for "Gateways," mentioned earlier).

Currently, two main server programs ran by volunteer staff - one for the Universe and one for global chatting - manage the smaller World servers owned by select players. They are connected graphically in the Universe by navigating around galaxies and stars, and landing on the worlds.

Since October 2005, A Tractor has begun to run again, bringing back to life the old style gaming of The Universal.

Community

The Universal depends highly upon its community, with almost every world in the game being operated by a player. Some servers are granted the right to be more readily accessible by players, with donations by the operator, and others are paid for with small monthly fees. In addition, players can contribute by creating 3D models, textures, and code for the built-in arcade.

Sub Clients

The Universal has a number of sub-clients, two of which are called Iridis and UltraKricket. Iridis is a game reminiscent of SubSpace/Continuum, whereas UltraKricket is a game based on Cricket.

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