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Dr.K.
November 7th, 2005, 08:50 AM
Hi,

I have the following problem:
My sons an I love playing the "old" DOS-DOOM. Until now they have used and "old" PC (233 MHz) running Win98SE and three old laptops (486DX2) running Win95b (no soundcard but the speaker allow shooting and other sounds - no music but this is o.k.) and playing DOOM with multiplayer via LAN. No problem, DOS-DOOM did not need so much ressources.
Now one lapop is dead and they have bought a new PC (2,6 GHz) with WinXPHome. But now DOS-DOON does not run on this PC because of the missing "real" DOS (DOS-Box).
I have tried to solve this with using e.g. DOSBox but this does not work because it is not possible to establish a LAN (IPX)-connection outside of the PC.
Then I have tried the several ports.
At first I tried DOOMsday. Fine, fine, nice resolution and graphics, smooth and fast running - but it needs 3D-hardware-acceleration and the other PC/laptops (esp. the laptops) does not has and so DOOMsday does not run on the other PC, it does not crawl - it is similar to still motion. So no multiplayer is possible. I also tried to run DOS-DOOM on the other PC and DOOMsday on the new&fast PC but is was not possible to establish a LAN-connection between them - the DOS-DOOM-PCworked together but did not get contact to the DOOMs-day-PC and vice versa.
The next was using DOOM95. Some say it is garbage but the tests I did were o.k. Anyway: DOOM95 is running on all PC and although the graphic is much worse than at DOOMsday. Multiplayer was possible - but DOOM95 wants/needs a soundcard to generate any sound and the laptops do not have a soundcard. On the other side there seems to be no way to use only the speaker and generate the simple shooting- and smashing-sounds as with DOS-DOOM (which would be sufficient). Also ist was not possible running DOOM95 and DOS-DOOM together in a LAN - the DOOM95-PC does not get contact to the DOS-DOOM-laptop and vice versa.
Then I tested ZDOOM2 and the situation is an with DOOM95 weith exception of a slower running/graphic with the older PC although the sam resolution as with DOOM95 (640x480).
The next and last test was the (recommended) DOOMlegacy - hoped that it could be possible running the DOS-Version on the laptops and so getting a wroking LAN/mulitplayer session, but it failed: No sound possible and no LAN possible (the software always chrashes). And: the Windows-version shows the stange behaviour of slowing down in the neighbourhood of walls etc. - turnÃ*ng needs a lot of deathly seconds ... although 640x480 is adjusted. :-(
So I am asking for help: hat can I do to set up working multiplayer session in this this combination of PC and OS?

Best regards

Michael König

Planky
November 7th, 2005, 12:26 PM
Not easily, if at all. You cannot play network games with different versions of legacy (ie Dos Legacy and Win32 Legacy).

You may be able to run DOS Legacy on Windows XP, but its been awhile since Ive tried that.

You can tell legacy not to bother with sound with the -nosound parameter.

rustyslacker
November 7th, 2005, 03:05 PM
Heh. Maybe you can use Win32 Legacy on all computers, because you said the laptops had Win98? Legacy can run pretty fast on a slow comp, if you play at 320x240 or so.

Alien[QNET]
November 7th, 2005, 10:10 PM
"...turnÃ*ng needs a lot of deathly seconds"
Are you sure you're running DoomLegacy in "software" mode? This sounds to me like you're trying to run it with OpenGL at 640x480, but with no proper opengl-driver/card.

edit: "You cannot play network games with different versions of legacy (ie Dos Legacy and Win32 Legacy)"
Really, isn't that possible? i remeber to play LAN matches with Linux and Win32-version. The problem with the DOS version is, the latest ver. is 1.32.
Maybe you can use the Win32 1.32 version to connect to Dos-Legacy 1.32, but with IPX only :)
TCP and DOS....hmmmm *ugh*

Mike.Reiner
November 9th, 2005, 05:45 AM
Man, i'd suggust saving a lil cash so you could buy some 1ghz or above systems, they are pretty cheap, and will more than do for you're cause.
That way you can just run the latest version under windows, and actually have real sound on them all.
if for whatever reason you can't do that, then I don't know what to do for ya man...

Rellik_jmd
November 9th, 2005, 11:28 AM
In software mode they should all work fine, I used to do the same thing with p200mmx, 486's and a 486 laptop.