I only know one network title for an XT class:

Elephant Herding! 😀
https://thandor.net/article/36

There are some more games that's are multiplayer and playable on an XT but those use modem or NULL modem cable. I've played F29 Retaliatior (flight sim) on two 8088 machines and it was somewhat playable.

Corridor 7 has LAN multiplayer support and runs on an XT class but extremely slow.. and it's a pretty crappy game.

According to MobyGames Zany's Golf also has IPX support and should run on an XT, although I've never tried. It's from 1988 so that might possibly make it the oldest.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/will-harveys-z … y-golf/techinfo

Hezus wrote on 2021-01-09, 19:41:

Elephant Herding! 😀
https://thandor.net/article/36

That is a surprisingly accurate & funny recreation of animal herding. My morning has been improved.

Thanks! Nice findinds!

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-09, 21:22:

Hezus wrote on 2021-01-09, 19:41:

Elephant Herding! 😀
https://thandor.net/article/36

That is a surprisingly accurate & funny recreation of animal herding. My morning has been improved.

It was made by my younger brother. He's also registered on these forums as Thandor. 😀

Hezus wrote on 2021-01-10, 08:02:

Pierre32 wrote on 2021-01-09, 21:22:

Hezus wrote on 2021-01-09, 19:41:

Elephant Herding! 😀
https://thandor.net/article/36

That is a surprisingly accurate & funny recreation of animal herding. My morning has been improved.

It was made by my younger brother. He's also registered on these forums as Thandor. 😀

Oh, nice!

Thandor reporting in!

Glad you liked Elephant Herding! It came to life after I programmed Bloxinies. With Bloxinies I wanted to reach a playable game that runs on low spec (8088 4.77MHz, CGA. Who needs more? 😀) which worked out quite well (in hindsight the game has a few quirks that would be non-existent if I had to redo the game). A follow-up would be a networking game with the same specs. I thought about getting networking support into Bloxinies but didn't do that eventually. Instead, an old text-based game came to mind that turned out to be a re-creation of Elephant Herding in a very basic form. Fun to play for one round or to set up on a DOS IPX-network. Again with low-spec in mind: 8088 8MHz in text-mode.

The source-code is included in the download on my website. If you fancy Turbo Pascal 7.0 then feel free to fiddle around with it 😉.

Regarding your initial question: I believe Falcon 3.0 (1991) can run over IPX network. Never tested it and sure it won't run on XT-class hardware but it's an early game with IPX networking support.

I do remember Sopwith ME (Multiplayer Edition) with the original Sopwith characteristics but I think it was a rework for modern Win9x libraries. Nevertheless: I think Sopwith would make an excellent candidate for a XT-class multiplayer game!

Multiplayer online games predate the original IBM PC. These games were text-based MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) that originated in the 70s, and the first one on XT I can find is Scepter of Goth, circa 1983:

https://dwheeler.com/scepter-of-goth/scepter-of-goth.html

Not really local area network games though, are they?

jmarsh wrote on 2021-01-10, 22:07:

Not really local area network games though, are they?

LAN vs WAN - MUDs didn't differentiate them. Nor does it really make sense to even try to differentiate them. They commonly used dialup modems for home users, but these games originated in academia with local networks.