Free, fast download, instantly understood: "Blobby Volley" seems like made to turn machines into gaming machines in seconds. When a school class entered a computer lab shortly after the turn of the millennium, there was a great chance that some students would not get informed about things like photosynthesis, but rather hit a few balls across the net - perhaps the simplest volleyball simulator in the world.

"Blobby Volley" ran and runs on almost every PC, you can play it in pairs on a keyboard. Left, right and jump - the mini-game did not need more control to become a hit.

When the teacher or the professor in the computer room of the university just looked away, the game was played quickly: It was only one megabyte in size. Nevertheless, in "Blobby Volley" even matches were possible across two connected computers, which gave him cult status on Lan parties.

Four months work

The developers Daniel Skoraszewsky and Silvio Mummert from Brandenburg were behind the gaming and Internet phenomenon. Skoraszewsky studied computer science in his early twenties, while his friend completed a training as a media designer.

Among other things, "Blobby Volley" was born out of the desire not to constantly lose to Skoraszewsky in "Arcade Volleyball", Mummert recalls. The ball physics of this older game had been "modest", moreover, it was only local, so not be played in networks.

The development of "Blobby Volley" began in July 2000. Skoraszewsky took over the coding in accordance with their professional interests and Mummert focused entirely on the visual design. About four months later, version 1.0 of the game was ready, with some updates still to come.

"Back in 2000, the Internet was structured in a different way than it is today," says Mummert. "In order to distribute the software, we simply put it on our website and entered it for months in all sorts of search engines, catalogs and software pages."

Suddenly on magazine CDs

The concept worked: "Blobby Volley" became popular and self-propelled. Mummert's own website has been accessed over 700,000 times. And at that time high-circulation games magazines such as the "Computer Bild Spiele" and "PC Games" packed "Blobby Volley" on their magazine CDs. Some magazines previously asked permission, others did not. On some days, the two developers received over a hundred emails with suggestions for improvement.

Menu of "Blobby Volley"

Professional developer studios, however, did not answer. A few projects were still being worked on, but there really has not been anything tangible. Apart from mutual birthday greetings there is no contact between the former programming partners, is called by Mummert. Daniel Skoraszewsky declined an interview on "Blobby Volley", saying he had lost interest in the game and video games in general. Silvio Mummert works today not as a games developer, but as a programmer for software companies.

Sequels, offshoots and a separate league

The story of "Blobby Volley" was not over with the big hype. After the release of version 1.8 Skoraszewsky and Mummert released the source code of their game. So came third-hand "Blobby Volley 2", which offered more features, but overall very similar to the original.

More than 730,000 times the fan sequel was downloaded from the net. In 2005, passionate "Blobby Volley" players even founded their own league with regular tournaments. In the weddings, the associated website was well visited. Between 10 and 50 players and players are said to have always been ready for a match, says Tarik Al Mashni alias "Nightmaster", who was one of the most active league players at that time.

The sworn group soon reached a level that the creators probably had not anticipated. The ball physics of "Blobby Volley" was very rudimentary and at some point very predictable for experienced players. Games were therefore mostly decide who was the first to lose concentration. The most legendary tournament final in league history took almost ten hours, says Tarik Al Mashni.

100 players per day

Today, the "Blobby Volley" league seems dead - and there are alternatives to the classic. For example, some fans have created their own versions of the game, such as the fully-3D "BlubVolley", a tennis VR version and a comfortable browser variant.

The media informer Philipp Rixner extended the simple game principle for "Blobby Online" with items that can influence the game characters or the field. For the development, he even quit his job and put some money back. After the money went out after five months, he funded his heart project from his income as a freelancer.

On average, more than 100 users play "Blobby Online" per day, says Rixner, for him the server costs are 400 euros per year. Despite the manageable interest, the project should remain in the network. Rixner says it is a "very nice and satisfying feeling to have created something that is really used by other people and where other people enjoy it".

How many people "Blobby Volley" ever played, even the original developer Silvio Mummert can not really appreciate. In the million range, the download numbers of the game but already go, he says.

The decision to offer his work for free, regretted the Brandenburger not. "The game was pretty high quality at the time, so there was no reason not to let others participate," says Mummert. "Then, like many other developers, we chose the common way to get freeware into circulation."

Many students may have been grateful to Mummert - the teachers probably less.