Air is a text-based air combat mainframe computer game written in 1977 by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. Air foreshadowed the first graphical MMOG, Air Warrior, which was released by the company Flinn and Taylor later founded, Kesmai. Air Warrior in turn spurred the development of key original MMOG titles including Neverwinter Nights (Don Daglow and Cathryn Mataga, 1991), Ultima Online (Richard Garriott and Origin Systems, 1997), and Everquest (Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost at Sony Online Entertainment, 1999). Air Combat is a semi-realistic flight-sim/action game, it was developed by Namco and was released in 1995 for the Sony Playstation. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Notable events of 1977 in computer and video games. ... Kelton Flinn is an American computer game designer best known for his work in online games. ... A massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a type of computer game that enables hundreds or thousands of players to simultaneously interact in a game world they are connected to via the Internet. ... Air Warrior was the worlds first multiplayer on-line air-combat simulator (at least for civilians). ... Kesmai is a pioneering game developer and online game publisher, founded in 1981 by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. ... Neverwinter Nights is the first graphical Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), which ran from 1991 to 1997 on AOL. It is the predecessor to BioWares 2002 game, Neverwinter Nights. ... Don Daglow (born ~1953) is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. ... Cathryn Mataga has been involved in the game industry since at least 1984 and is probably best known for programming the landmark game Neverwinter Nights. ... Notable events of 1991 in computer and video games. ... Ultima Online (UO) is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 25, 1997, by Origin Systems. ... Richard Garriott in Lord British attire Richard Allen Garriott (born July 4, 1961; nickname Lord British) is a significant figure in the video game industry. ... Origin Systems, Inc. ... See also: 1996 in video gaming, other events of 1997, 1998 in video gaming, history of video games Events 3rd annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo) October 4 - Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997) dies after a double car accident. ... EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. ... Brad McQuaid is an American computer game designer who was one of the original designers of EverQuest, a highly successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 1999. ... Wikipedia presents. ... 1999 1999 in games 1998 in video gaming 2000 in video gaming Notable events of 1999 in video gaming. ...

Although Air was by today's standards a primitive text-based game, its influence over the following two decades of game evolution still marks it as a major title. The first version was created in 1977 and enhanced through 1979. As Flinn has said: "If Air Warrior was a primate swinging in the trees, AIR was the text-based amoeba crawling on the ocean floor. But it was quasi-real time, multi-player, and attempted to render 3-D on the terminal using ASCII graphics. It was an acquired taste."^{[citation needed]} Image:ASCII fullsvg There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...