One of the earliest space war games on the web is a digital computer game titled Spacewar! The game play involves two players, each player owning a spaceship with the goal to destroy the others space ship. Both players have to possess a vast amount of maneuvering skills in order to evade falling into the pit located within the huge star in the middle of the screen. Whenever a player is placed in a hard position, they are allowed to use a feature called hyperspace which returns the player to a random place on the screen with the possibility of blowing up if placed in a bad place.
The gameplay of Spacewar has been used as a basis for multiple other online spacewar games since it was out years ago. The name is even shared by some with only the gaming being restructured. Features like being affected by gravity, varied levels of acceleration, regeneration over time, missiles affected by the amount of gravity presented, and varied levels of gravity are included in some games that are exact clones of the original.
An arcade version of Spacewar was released in the 1971 as Computer space and The Galaxy game, and later maded into Cinematronics in 1977. The mainly successful of all of the above was Cinematronics. Silas Warner was the first to let out a networked version of Spacewar in 1974 titled Orbit War. Big Board was additional to Orbit War, which is a hub where other players would wait for opponents to fight against with all the game play of the original.
The basic player vs. player combat system is one of the vast varieties of frameworks provided by the game Star Control, which is one of the most elaborate of console and computer versions of the game. Senko no Ronde is a modern interpretation of the original Spacewar game, basing its fighting and combat style off of the fighting styles located in the versus section of Street Fighter II. The 2D inertial navigation and combat from Spacewar is also inspiration for the Escape Velocity series.
Fighting by Atari and Tank by Kee Games are games that are not set in a space like environment but has all the features of the original Spacewar game. The control of the vehicle is dependent on both players, with each being able to strike their foe with a missile as well as gain points. Space Travel is a game that was the primary basis for the development of the UNIX system, even though Spacewar is often mistaken to actually be the inspiration for creating UNIX by the UNIX directors.
For more relative discussions on this topic, you can go to space shooting game or Battlestar Galactica Online.