We’re dipping deep into antiquity with this question: Who here remembers 10Six? If you don’t, that’s all right because we unearthed it back in a 2016 edition of The Game Archaeologist, but in summary, 10Six was one of Sega’s earliest forays into persistent online worlds, blending RTS base building with FPS combat between players as they tried to build, mine, and defend personal bases from player attack at all times. It first launched in April 2000 and ran for two years on Sega’s proprietary Heat.net service before the company axed its wide-reaching aspirations, including a million players in one world and a launch on the Dreamcast console.
For those who read through our retrospective, you might have noticed mention of an emulator crafted by one of the original devs and a team of fans: Project Visitor. We’re happy to report that six years on, the emu is still online and operational to this day, with periodic updates that are still being applied as recently as this year – this past November and February to be specific.
Ultimately, this might not be breaking news, but we’re always ready to cast a light on games preservation, so consider this something of a checkup-cum-retrospective of MMO gaming’s history. And what would history be without some fuzzy video footage?
