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Alto Trek is a computer game, developed by Gene Ball
Gene Ball

Gene Ball is a computer science researcher and computer programmer.Ball obtained a bachelors degree from the University of Oklahoma, and attended graduate school at the University of Rochester, completing a masters degree and finishing his doctorate in 1982....
 and Rick Rashid for the Xerox Alto
Xerox Alto

The Xerox Alto was an early personal computer developed at Xerox PARC in 1973. It was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface ....
 while they were graduate students at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester

The University of Rochester is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and professional degrees through six schools and various interdisciplinary programs....
 during the late 1970s. It's one of the first networked
Computer networking

Computer networking is the engineering discipline concerned with communication between computer systems or Peripheral devices. Networking, routers, routing protocols, and networking over the public Internet have their specifications defined in documents called Request for Commentss....
 multiplayer game
Multiplayer game

A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or Non-player character, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular huma...
s.

Alto Trek is a multiplayer game where each player uses their own Alto workstation to control a starship. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy without being destroyed. A player can choose between of being a Klingon
Klingon

Klingons are a warrior race in the fictional Star Trek universe. They are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and seven feature films....
, Romulan
Romulan

Romulans are a fictional alien species that exist in the Star Trek universe that are related to the Vulcan and are at war or in an uneasy truce with the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member, throughout most of the Star Trek series and films....
, or Terran
Starfleet

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet is the defense , research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets ....
.






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Alto Trek is a computer game, developed by Gene Ball
Gene Ball

Gene Ball is a computer science researcher and computer programmer.Ball obtained a bachelors degree from the University of Oklahoma, and attended graduate school at the University of Rochester, completing a masters degree and finishing his doctorate in 1982....
 and Rick Rashid for the Xerox Alto
Xerox Alto

The Xerox Alto was an early personal computer developed at Xerox PARC in 1973. It was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface ....
 while they were graduate students at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester

The University of Rochester is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and professional degrees through six schools and various interdisciplinary programs....
 during the late 1970s. It's one of the first networked
Computer networking

Computer networking is the engineering discipline concerned with communication between computer systems or Peripheral devices. Networking, routers, routing protocols, and networking over the public Internet have their specifications defined in documents called Request for Commentss....
 multiplayer game
Multiplayer game

A multiplayer video game is one which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time. Unlike most other games, computer and video games are often single-player activities that pit the player against preprogrammed challenges and/or Non-player character, which often lack the flexibility and ingenuity of regular huma...
s.

Alto Trek is a multiplayer game where each player uses their own Alto workstation to control a starship. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy without being destroyed. A player can choose between of being a Klingon
Klingon

Klingons are a warrior race in the fictional Star Trek universe. They are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and seven feature films....
, Romulan
Romulan

Romulans are a fictional alien species that exist in the Star Trek universe that are related to the Vulcan and are at war or in an uneasy truce with the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a member, throughout most of the Star Trek series and films....
, or Terran
Starfleet

In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet is the defense , research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets ....
. The game can be played by one player, but there will be no enemy to destroy.

The manual for version 2.1 is dated August 1979 and authored by Allen Wells, Bob Baldwin, and Steve Quarterman. It refers to the game as having been authored by Ball, strangely making no mention of Rashid.

Around 1997, while a vice president at Microsoft
Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices....
, Rashid began to reimplement the game as a way to teach himself to use the DirectX
DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms....
 programming API
Application programming interface

An application programming interface is a set of subroutine, data structures, class and/or Protocol provided by library and/or operating system Service s in order to support the building of applications....
. This resulted in the development of Microsoft Allegiance
Allegiance (computer game)

Allegiance is a multiplayer online game providing a mix of real-time strategy and player piloted Space combat simulator gameplay. Initially developed by Microsoft Research, the game was later released under a shared source license in 2002 and is now maintained and developed by volunteers....
.

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