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Dr.K.

Multiplayer with different PC / DOOMs

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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. - turníng 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

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It is possible to install windows 98 se as a dual boot on your newer computer.

Because I don't see anything running good on 486 besides the old DOS doom.

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they would have to wipe the xp off wouldnt they first?

i didnt think it was possible to intall new --> older windows. i was always tought to do older --> newer

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I did it by using 2 HDs. One with WinXP (NTFS boot partition) and one FAT32 formatted HD (usually some old 10 or 20 gigs).

Then I unplug the WinXP HDD, so it goes undetected by the windows98 installation.
I boot on the Win98se CD, install it and set up the driver.
Once it's working I plug the WinXP HDD again and can select the booting drive in the bios.

The only problem I had with my new motherboard was to find Win98 builtin ethernet driver, so I had to install an ethernet card.

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Try PRBoom 2.2.6 and ZDoom 1.22 (both of which should be fine on an older computer that supports 32 bit applications). I find ZDoom easier because no server has to be set up. Both come with instructions.

The problem with IPX/SPX is nobody uses it anymore.

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Doomsday is wierd about it's multiplayer. Perhaps try Zdaemon? Allows for internet play in addition to LAN.

Yeah, the fact that one machine running DOSDOOM (which networks through IPX and uses cued player input events) and another running Doomsday (which uses a client/server framework running TCP and UDP and a TOTALLY different packet syztem) can't understand each other is just plain weird to me to.

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Dr.K. said:
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.

The main issue here is that the older computers need PC speaker sound, which is not supported by released-source-based engines, as that feature was part of the propietary code by Paul Radek that never made it to the released source of Doom, plus that even though on Windows XP Doom will run, it will have certain issues, including the lack of IPX connectivity.

You can't use different engines together, and even different versions of the same engine will likly not work or have issues while networked.

Using Doom on Windows 98 I did manage to play with someone on Windows XP that had Windows 98 on top of it with virtual PC, but it often became laggy as virtual PC used resources like a dust devil.

The dual-boot option for the new system seems like the only reasonable solution unless you can somehow add cheap sound cards to the laptops.

With the dual-boot option you could get the DOS version running again, and with the added sound cards, a light Windows version instead (like Doom95, WinDoom, etc.)

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VinceDSS said:

It is possible to install windows 98 se as a dual boot on your newer computer.


Yes, would be the easiest way. But it is not possible, I have tried is several times but there are no drivers for this new system (also not from the manufacturer, I have asked several times). :-((

Beste Grüße

Dr. Michael König

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if it is possible to boot your new PC from diskette (or cdrom), you can create small DOS environment on this source and run original DOOM perfectly. the only problem can be size of doom2.wad (if boot from diskette), it must be placed on harddisk or cdrom, and DOS must have access to it

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if you rename chocolate doom.exe to doom2.exe it should work by going through setup.exe
I havn't had tme to try it yet

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