XPilot
multiplayer video game
XPilot is a multiplayer video game. It is open source and runs on many platforms. Although its 2D graphics have improved over time, they still resemble the style of Thrust. Gameplay includes Capture the Flag, base defense, racing and deathmatches. XPilot uses a client–server architecture, in which a central metaserver receives information from all XPilot servers on the Internet.
History
In 1991, Bjørn Stabell and Ken Schouten, then computer science undergraduates at the University of Tromsø, began writing XPilot, inspired by the earlier game Thrust. It was originally developed in C on HP9000 workstations which ran Unix. Soon after its first public release in 1992, Stabell and Schouten began receiving feedback, suggestions, and patches from players all around the world. Other XPilot users wrote documentation and contributed source code to the project. By 1996, there were nearly one hundred XPilot servers worldwide.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “XPilot” is multiplayer video game. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through XPilot, multiplayer and video, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “multiplayer video game” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2707982. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1992 and 1996.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “XPilot”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow XPilot primary sources, XPilot archive and XPilot research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “XPilot”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “XPilot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.