I was reminiscing about Blizzard’s Diablo II game, which connects to Battle.net. I’m not sure if that’s still running or if they’ve pulled the plug. Anyway, it got me to wondering what is the oldest (more or less continuously) running online game server? Is it still going strong today?
To the best of my knowledge it’s still running.
I would say Battle.Net which runs Diablo I & II, Warcraft II & III as well as Star Craft.
There’s FIBS, the [First Internet Backgammon Server](First - Wikipedia Internet Backgammon Server). According to Wikipedia, it has been operating since July 19, 1992, although it doesn’t say whether there were any breaks in that period, but it is still running.
That beats Battle.net, launched in January 1997.
If you count MUDs (basically text-based MMORPGs) there have probably been some running for fifteen to twenty years or even more.
Depending on how you define “server” and “continuous”, the PLATO/Novanet/Cybis/Cyber1 history dates back to the 70’s and before. One interactive multiplayer game (empire) with graphics, still regularly played, dates back to (I think) 1975, essentially unchanged. Other active games are nearly that old, but may have had significant breaks in availability.