Advanced NetWars
| Industry | Software |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1983 |
| Headquarters | Hungerford , United Kingdom |
Key people | Edward N. Hill, Jr. (engineer, project lead for NetWars) |
| Products | NetWare, NetWars |
NetWars—initially known as LiteYear—is a 3D vector graphics game utilizing IPX protocol, launched by Novell in 1993 for DOS systems to demonstrate the capabilities of NetWare. The project was led by Edward N. Hill, Jr., an engineer at Novell's European Development Centre located in Hungerford, UK, with development starting in 1989.
Release
Version 2.06 of NetWars was distributed alongside Novell DOS 7 and Personal NetWare 1.0 under the filename NETWARS.EXE. This version replaced the earlier text-based NLSNIPES.EXE, which had been part of NetWare Lite 1.1 since 1991—a more advanced iteration of the classic Snipes game that had traditionally accompanied Novell NetWare.
Legacy
In 1997, Caldera introduced an upgraded edition titled Advanced NetWars (version 3) bundled with OpenDOS 7.01 and DR-DOS versions 7.02/7.03. Enhancements included compatibility with SoundBlaster audio devices, joystick support, a six-player multiplayer mode featuring missiles and AI opponents, a novel multiplayer shoot-out mode, refined single-player gameplay, an external camera perspective, and a shape editor named NWDRAW for designing custom spacecraft. Remarkably, the executable file size remained under 77 KB despite these improvements.
The original NetWars and its advanced successor served as inspiration for several clones such as Ingmar Frank's NetWarsGL (Win32/OpenGL, developed between 2002 and 2004) and the Botolib-based title NetWorst.