Gameplay includes Capture the Flag, base defense, racing and deathmatches.

[1] 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.

Soon after its first public release in 1992,[2] Stabell and Schouten began receiving feedback, suggestions, and patches from players all around the world.

Unlike its predecessor, it comes with sound and is bundled with applications to configure the keyboard, ship shapes and behavior.

The objective of team games is to "destroy" the opponent's ball by placing it in the treasure chest.

XPilot's in-game chat and multiplayer functionality spawned the formation of a community.

[8] After the first HTML and image-rendering web browsers were introduced, members of the community developed the game's online documentation.