Over the Net!

Over the Net! is a 1990 DOS volleyball game that brings the sport to the computer with all the jumping, spiking, serving, and frantic attempts to stop the ball from landing on your side of the court. The game offers competitive matches where timing and positioning are essential, because volleyball has a remarkable ability to make a perfectly manageable ball suddenly become a personal crisis. Players must coordinate attacks and defenses while attempting to outplay the opposing team. Its presentation is straightforward, but the gameplay captures the basic rhythm of the sport effectively. Over the Net! is a good example of early sports gaming, when developers could take a familiar real-world activity and turn it into a surprisingly tense collection of pixels. The rules are simple: get the ball over the net. The difficult part is persuading it to stay there.