The original MS-DOS version of Kali was created by
Scott Coleman, Alex Markovich and Jay Cotton in the spring of 1995. It was the successor to a program called iDOOM (later Frag) that Cotton wrote so he could play
id Software's DOS game
DOOM over the Internet. After the release of
Descent, Coleman, Markovich and Cotton wrote a new program to allow
Descent, or any other game which supported LAN play using the IPX protocol, to be played over the Internet; this new program was named Kali. In the summer of 1995, Coleman went off to work for
Interplay Productions, Markovich left the project and Cotton formed a new company, Kali Inc., to develop and market Kali. Cotton and his team developed the first Windows version (Kali95) and all subsequent versions. Initially Kali appealed only to hardcore computer tinkerers, due to the difficulty of getting
TCP/IP running on MS-DOS. Kali95 took advantage of the greater network support of Windows 95, allowing Kali to achieve mainstream popularity. In the mid-1990s, it was an extremely popular way to play
Command & Conquer,
Descent,
Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness,
Duke Nukem 3D, and other games over the Internet, with more than 50,000 users worldwide by the end of 1996. This was largely possible due to Kali's scaled-down services; it did not provide the contests and high-tech chat features offered by other leading online gaming services. ($5 cheaper than Kali at that time). However, Kali was already well-established by this point; existing users saw no reason to buy another piece of software, and new users were still attracted to Kali's larger user base, since the whole point of the software was to be able to play with other people. The minor cost savings proved largely ineffective against Kali, and Kahn never achieved much market share. The market for Kali eventually dried up as games began to host their own online services, such as
battle.net,
MSN Gaming Zone, and also through direct TCP/IP connections, made easier by Microsoft's
DirectPlay package. As IPX itself was phased out, Kali's unique emulation technology fell by the wayside and the software shifted its emphasis to becoming a game browser, a market where strong competitors such as
GameSpy were already established. In the early 2000s, Cotton decided to sell Kali to a company that would have the capital to expand the program. However, this move proved to be disastrous for Kali as the new company folded shortly after the purchase. A year later Cotton reacquired the rights to the Kali software and system. Since then he has resumed development and support of Kali. , the latest version of Kali is 2.613, which was released in February 2004. At present Kali works with over 400 games. Support has faded over the last years making usage of Kali harder and less effective. Kali has gained new life, because the IPX protocol has been removed in all versions of Windows after XP. As of 2014, the software has for the most part died. However, there is still a small, loyal following (largely residing in the Descent Channel) that uses the software as a chat room. Games, such as
Descent, are still played among this group of gamers. Currently (January 2023), the software and registration is offered on Kali.net at no cost. ==Reception==