Posted April 06, 2014
Forgive me if I didn't put this in the right forum, but I guess it's kind of DRM-free praise. I find this little tool neat.
Back in 2011, I bought Duke Nukem 3D here, and November last year, during a sale, I gifted the game to my very good IRL friend. To save trouble of setting up source ports and stuff, we just used the "Multiplayer" program in the game's start menu. I know how to port forward so it wasn't too much work. Turn on port, play, turn port off.
Recently I learned from a friend about GameSpy's shut down. It is sad, I have memories of playing MotoGP 3 on their service and it was quite fun. Also, it reminded me of this little tool GOG includes with Duke and I'm sure other games have it too. Thing is, it never asks me for a log-in, gives me a master server, or anything. All that's needed is someone hosting, and the other player(s) having the host's IP address. This really lives up to DRM free. Let's say if GOG went down, the game's online would still be playable. Using IP addresses may be archaic I guess in a world where games have some form of matchmaking, but the bottom line is it still works.
More interesting is the flexibility. I can host a game using this tool, and a regular DOSBox can still join it. Yeah it's by command-line, but still. I know it simplifies the DOSBox IPX feature, but still it's useful in event someone already owns a copy of said game.
Maybe I'm looking too much into this. I just think it's a neat tool to use for quick multiplayer. No service and it's a direct connection, but playing Duke on this little tool gave me some fun times. Yes, I'm well aware of YANG and source ports, but this is about being able to play a network/online game without relying on a third party.
If no one knows what I'm talking about, I attached a screenshot of the tool.
Back in 2011, I bought Duke Nukem 3D here, and November last year, during a sale, I gifted the game to my very good IRL friend. To save trouble of setting up source ports and stuff, we just used the "Multiplayer" program in the game's start menu. I know how to port forward so it wasn't too much work. Turn on port, play, turn port off.
Recently I learned from a friend about GameSpy's shut down. It is sad, I have memories of playing MotoGP 3 on their service and it was quite fun. Also, it reminded me of this little tool GOG includes with Duke and I'm sure other games have it too. Thing is, it never asks me for a log-in, gives me a master server, or anything. All that's needed is someone hosting, and the other player(s) having the host's IP address. This really lives up to DRM free. Let's say if GOG went down, the game's online would still be playable. Using IP addresses may be archaic I guess in a world where games have some form of matchmaking, but the bottom line is it still works.
More interesting is the flexibility. I can host a game using this tool, and a regular DOSBox can still join it. Yeah it's by command-line, but still. I know it simplifies the DOSBox IPX feature, but still it's useful in event someone already owns a copy of said game.
Maybe I'm looking too much into this. I just think it's a neat tool to use for quick multiplayer. No service and it's a direct connection, but playing Duke on this little tool gave me some fun times. Yes, I'm well aware of YANG and source ports, but this is about being able to play a network/online game without relying on a third party.
If no one knows what I'm talking about, I attached a screenshot of the tool.
Post edited April 06, 2014 by tailsy64