Enter the Modem Quake Setup Guide here!
Friday the 13th! Sorry for the problems with the mail server. If you've been trying to contact me and haven't received a reply, its because the Geocities server has been giving me fits. I haven't been able to log on for a while. I'm thinking about having this site hosted elsewhere. More news on that later.
No IPX support? No need to tear down the guide quite yet... D'oh
Point release released! Finally. I'm downloading the file as we speak (it's early Friday morning, just got in from a night of drinking) and eager to check it out. IPX support was promised from this release, and, should it be included, the guide will be updated in a few short hours.
I plan a full redesign of the site following an update to the guide. For those who can't wait to start playing IPX games (which should improve performance, btw) can follow the guide as is and omit the sections on configuring the IP address and Subnet masks. Once connected via the dial-up-server you can start an IPX game without further configuration in Windows.
As Geocities has been kinda lame lately, I'm going to start looking for another host. You can use http://bounce.to/mQ always, and will be linked to the new server should I find one.
Drinking at Annie's on Thursday rocks! Any hardcore Montrealer knows what I'm talking about. BTW, still no score in the Canada-Czech hockey game. Canada for Gold!
Sorry for the lack of updates. I have decided to wait until the famed "point release" appears before making a lengthy update to the guide. The information in the guide, for 99% of you (there are always some screwball case that defies logic), is accurate and works. An revision will be made when IPX works, hopefully removing the need for a TCP/IP setup guide. No need for undue confusion right now.
I have a feeling we're no more than a week and a half away from it, anyway. Cross your fingers. Life will be better.
The ice storm knocked out my power at home for most of the last week, so I was unable to update. If you haven't heard, the biggest natural disaster in the history of Canada paralyzed most of the eastern provinces last week, and millions are still without light and heat. I should have time coming soon, so look for an update in a few days.
Connection problems? Check out Christian Antkow's .plan update for some helpful tips.
Quake 2 version 3.10 out! John Carmack at id software made a .plan update stating the release of the latest Quake 2 patch (version 3.10) at ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2-310.exe.
He notes that he has fixed many problems, and users should download the new version. If you have had any unsolved problems setting up or running Quake 2 modem games, you certainly might want to try upgrading the game.
Kinda slow on the news front lately. I'll try to have the guide's first revision up soon. I plan to add sections relevant to null modem play and general tips for gameplay. I haven't received too many emails detailing problems that were not covered in the guide, so that's why I have held off updating it as long as I have. When we see IPX support, or some other new feature that's newsworthy, I will try to add it to the guide as quickly as possible.
So long for now.
D'oh! Looks like we're going to have to wait for the "point release" for IPX support as it wasn't included in the recent 3.09 upgrade. No need to tear down the guide quite yet...
I have some time on my hands tonight. I might spend it streamlining the guide a bit and adding some reader reviews. I've had reports of 3 player games where two people on the LAN connect a caller through DUN and played Quake 2. The modem caller had a ping of less than 100ms.
Thank you everyone for all of your feedback. I hope to answer all of your emails as fast as I can and answer your questions.
By far the most asked question is: "How do I set up a Null Modem Connection?" I used to play Quake all the time using Windows 95 Direct Cable Connection (DCC) and got pings of less than 40ms using the IPX protocol. If you follow the directions in the guide for setting up the Network Properties first, you can play using Windows 95 DCC with TCP/IP! I hope to include a section in the guide soon detailing using DCC, but I'm sure you can set it up easily in the meantime.
This page no longer supports obsolete browsers :( If you are reading this guide to set up Quake 2 games, you must obviously be able to run the Netscape 3.0+ or MSIE 3.0+ browsers. The reason for this? I have added JavaScript scripting to facilitate updating and minimize download time.
IPX Support Sunday! John Carmack made a .plan update stating that IPX code will be forthcoming in the new Quake 2 executable they hope will be due out on Sunday! No further details are available right now, but the inclusion of IPX will greatly simplify setting up and running DUN games. I'm updating from my Christmas party, and don't have much time right now, so I'll have more in the morning.
Here's a small utility you that I found on Microsoft's website. It lets users chat across network connections. This would be useful to decide who would host the game after being connected. Download it here.
I received an e-mail detailing a strange problem setting up the Win95 Dial-Up-Server that I have never seen or heard of before:
If anybody has heard of this before please mail me. I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this.
On a brighter note, I ran across a site that deals with reducing lag across Dial-Up-Networking connections. You can access it here. I'm sure those of you are clever enough can adapt it to modem-modem connections. Let me know if it works for you!
That's all the time I have tonight. I'll try to update before work tomorrow; if not, Christmas Day. If so, I just want to wish everybody Merry Christmas!
GeoCities down last night! Had the intention to log on last night to do some updates, but the server kept telling me my page didn't exist. Oh well. I plan to do some updates throughout the day after I do my last minute shopping, so stay tuned...
Guide now online! I have finally finished typing in the guide. You can access it here. I hope to be adding to it over the next couple of days with some more tips on how to optimize gameplay, and I hope to also incoporate feedback into a special section.
Let me know how you like it!
Warning! Make sure to set back your IP and Subnet Mask to "Server Assigned" or it might prevent DUN from connecting to your ISP.
In Quake 2 you can enable client side prediction for smoother gameplay. The client must type cl_predict 1 to enable it.
For further reading, you can check out Misery's "Totally Unofficial Modem Quake FAQ v2.0" here. It's kinda out of date, but still a useful read.
Update: IPX Network protocol support absent in Quake 2! It seems id left it out of the final game (they talk of a possibility of adding it to the forthcoming point release, let's hope). If you want to run Quake 2 on a LAN, you must have TCP/IP installed.
This page's contents focus on setting up id software's Quake 2/GLQuake (and WinQuake) games to work with Windows 95's Dial-Up-Networking to play a modem game.
Because of the orignal DOS Quake's horribly broken modem code, it was left out of subsequent versions of the game. I will help those of you who have friends without internet access use their modems and Windows 95 to play multi-player Quake by fooling the game into thinking its running on an IPX network.
I realize that I'm not breaking any new ground here, but the average user can be overwhelmed setting up Windows 95 Dial-Up-Severs and adjusting Network Properties.
You can reach me here.
As an additional note, you can also use my shortened web address http://bounce.to/mQ
as an alternative to the cumbersome GeoCities one. Hey, its free!
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