As you note, the 'original' Net Mac game was Maze Wars (Maze Warz?) that was developed at Apple during AppleTalk development. But, as Obi Wan said, 'there is another...'

Ever heard of 'Bus'd Out'? (as in 'Bust Out') I only remember playing it a few times, but as I remember, it was a playing field that had obstacles and other players, but the field was 'in the dark' and anything more than a few feet away was black. I really don't remember many details, but I am sure that it existed. I may even have a copy on some old disks.

The reason that I am sure of this is that a group of friends had what I consider the first 'net game party', at the first MacWorld Expo in Feb. '85. AppleTalk and the LaserWriter were introduced at that show. One of the guys got some info about AppleTalk before the show (Developer info or leak? I don't know.), and he built an AppleTalk 'hack' net from Radio Shack parts. One evening during the show, the group met at a pizza parlor in San Fran, and we had (at the peak) about 20 Mac 128's and 512's on two nets running MazeWarz and Buss'ed Out.

So, we invaded a pizza place, set up a 20 Mac net, ran some net games (buying lots of pizza and drinks, the guy stayed open later than normal for us), and left the pizza place as we found it... in Feb. '85. Can anybody beat that date? I know they were running this stuff inside Apple before, and that there were some limited 'net' games on mainframes before, but this was a 'hit and run' 'plug and play' net game party in '85. We have done this type of party many times since, but I would think that this one was the first.

Indeed, that was one of the first times that I was ABSOLUTLY POSITIVE that the Mac was going to make it. Up to that point, I loved the Mac, but was less sure about it's success. When I saw this 'net party', how easily it came together, AND WORKED, that was one of the first of several moments when I knew that Mac was going to 'make it'.

Jack Kobzeff