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Number of hits since 12/02/96
PLEASE NOTE THIS PAGE IS UNDER RE-CONSTRUCTION PLEASE CHECK BACK OFTEN
Get the iFrag executables here
Get The Cool iFrag WAD Package here
The TCP/IP Internet DOOMer's FAQ a Guide to Setting up and Using iFrag
- by Scott Coleman (asre@uiuc.edu)
-
- and Jay Cotton (jay@calc.vet.uga.edu)
- updated 12/12/1996
HTML version by Christophe Person (chrisp@dirac.bcm.tmc.edu)
The North-American Tracker address is 198.68.238.19
The European Tracker address is 194.51.15.50 (shop.imaginet.fr)
The Aussie Tracker Address is 203.7.198.1
There will soon be a Windows 95/NT Daemon to allow you to monitor who is currently on on ifrag
and what games are available. You will also be able to check the games via the web.
I am currently working
on WinFrag that will run on win95 this should be ready for beta in January.
For the time being, please check the doom newsgroups or ask on IRC #doom or #deathmatch or #quake.
You can also find information at this location.
Also log on to iFrag on the hour that is usually the best time to find a game.
I decided to promote the Best Doom Page i have seen so far
This is a good page :-)
PPP & Ifrag
Since i received hundreds of mails asking me about playing IFRAG with PPP. What you need is PPPSHARE, the simplest way to get around it. (You will also need LSL).
Contents
Introduction
Getting prepared...
Running iFrag...
Oh Oh - It's Not Working! OK, so you've done everything, just like I've
shown you, but you're still having problems. The following
are some suggestions to try in case of trouble.
Pointers and Tips for More Fragging Enjoyment
- We'd like to leave you with a few experiences and
opinions about Internet deathmatches.
Finding Other iFrag Players
- There are many ways to find opponents for your TCP/IP
Internet DOOM games. One is to contact your friends who play DOOM
and arrange a time for a game. However, everyone will
occasionally find times when nobody they know is available to
play. Fortunately, there is a virtual equivalent to walking down
to the basketball court and joining a pickup game.
Connecting to the Frag Tracker
Q10. How do I set up my own game on the tracker ?
A Final Though
- The TCP/IP Internet DOOM and the IRC can be VERY
addictive. Have fun, but don't lose your "real" life just to
play a game!
Introduction
id Software's DOOM is truly the
Killer App of the MS-DOS world. DOOM's popularity
is so immense, it has been estimated that it is
installed on more PCs than OS/2 and Windows NT combined, and DOOM's
creators commute to work in ferarris.
Interest in the game has
been so great that it has been hacked,
reverse-engineered, dissected, and enhanced more than any
other games in PC history. And now, as more and more people
become hooked into the Internet, DOOM is
rapidly becoming the Killer App of the Internet, as well.
Internet DOOM play is currently at the "clever hack" stage. DOOM,
as released by iD, supports only IPX network play and serial play
between two machines. As a result, the DOOM documentation doesn't
include any information about DOOMing across the Internet. Of course,
this also means that DOOMers can't call id for help. The result of all this is
many curious people asking the same question: How do I play DOOM over the Internet ?
Enter this document. In the pages that follow, we will attempt to answer the most
frequently asked questions about Internet DOOM, including what you need, how to
set it up, and how to find new fragbait - er, I mean, opponents.
DOOM across the Internet is made possible by a neat little freeware
program called iFrag. iFrag uses the UDP protocol (part of
the TCP/IP protocol suite) to send DOOM game information
between multiple machines on the Internet. It is based on the WATTCP
TCP/IP kernel written by Eric Engelke of the University of Waterloo.
By some strange coincidence, the authors of this document are also the
creators of iFrag, and we have used the program to play
Internet DOOM sessions with opponents from as far away as
Estonia or South Africa. In writing this FAQ, we hope that sharing some of
our experience will make it easier for you to get connected
in your own Internet DOOM sessions. NOTE: Throughout this document, we will
refer specifically to games of DOOM played over the Internet
via a DIRECT CONNECTION, i.e. no modems are involved
anywhere in the link. Note that IHHD, SLIP and PPP
connections all involve modems at some point. Although other
methods of connecting two DOOM machines together across the
Internet exist, this document will focus on direct net connections using the iFrag network driver program
A quick note on SLIP/PPP: People always ask "can I play
iFrag over my SLIP connection?" The answer is "yes, but you won't
be happy with the speed." DOOM over a 14.4Kbps SLIP or PPP
connection is, quite simply, too slow to be playable. Of course,
nobody believes me when I tell them that - whoever coined the
phrase "hope springs eternal" obviously knew a lot of SLIP-bound
DOOMers. There actually is some hope if you have a 28.8Kbps modem
(and your Internet service provider does also). I have played
against someone who had a 28.8Kbps SLIP connection, and the game
was acceptably playable, although by no means fast. This
situation can only improve as connectivity options grow, but for
now, a direct Ethernet connection is still the way to go.
Q1.I want to play DOOM using iFrag, what hardware do I need?
To successfully play DOOM across the Internet, you will
need the following hardware:
- * A machine capable of playing DOOM (D'OHH!)
- * A network interface card (NIC). And not just any old
NIC, mind you - your NIC must be supported by a packet
driver if you wish to use it to play Internet DOOM.
Usually this means that your NIC must be an ethernet
card, although iFrag has been successfully played over
token ring. We will assume that your PC is already
equipped with a suitable NIC, although it may currently
be in use for some other non-TCP/IP function (such as a
node on a Novell network).
- * A direct connection to the Internet. As noted
earlier, if there is a modem somewhere in the link
between your PC and your opponent's PC, this FAQ is not
for you. Although it is possible to play Internet DOOM
over a modem link (either by dialing up to a UNIX
machine and using IHHD or via SLIP/PPP), such
connection methods are beyond the scope of this
document.
Q2. OK, I've got all the hardware. What software do I need?
- In addition to the hardware requirements, some software
is also required to round out your the package. Before you
can play, you'll need to pick up the following:
- * DOOM 1.2 or higher (1.666 or higher is strongly recommended, this
version seems to have solved some problems related to network games).
Note that you can get the patches from ID Software Web Pages.
DOOM versions 1.1 and below are incapable of using iFrag. Another reason to
upgrade to the latest version of DOOM/DOOM II/Heretic is the
fact that you will be unable to play against anyone whose
game version is different from yours. Since those already
playing Internet DOOM tend to have the latest version, if
you want to play with them you'll need the latest also.
NOTE: In this document, the term DOOM will refer to DOOM2, HERETIC & HEXEN as well.
- * A packet driver written specifically for your NIC.
The Packet Driver is a standardized interface that lets
iFrag (and therefore DOOM) "talk" to your NIC.
- * IFRAG.EXE, the Internet driver for DOOM.
- * The WATTCP Applications. These are not absolutely
necessary, but can definitely be useful for debugging and
testing your setup.
Q3. Hold on - I don't have some of this software! Where can I get it?
- * iFrag 2.21: Click
here to receive iFrag, the latest version as of this writing.
- * An Ethernet Packet Driver: Many ethernet cards come with the
appropriate packet
drivers on a utilities diskette packaged with the card.
If your card does not come with a packet driver, there
is an excellent collection of freely available packet
drivers called the Crynwr (nee Clarkson) Packet Driver
collection. You can obtain it via anonymous ftp from
oak.oakland.edu:/simtel/msdos/pktdrvr/.
The files PKTD11A.ZIP,
PKTD11B.ZIP and PKTD11C.ZIP contain source
code and example programs for the packet drivers - you
won't need these in order to play iFrag.
- * Net Diagnostic Tools You may need some basic network diagnostic utilities.
The WATTCP applications are freely available and
include a PING program. You can get them in apps.zip
Q4. OK, I've got everything, now what do I do to set it up?
- Setting your computer up for TCP/IP access
is very straightforward. As an
illustration, I'll be taking you through the steps necessary
to set up a PC with an SMC ethernet card and the IP address
128.192.23.5. You'll of course need to substitute your own
specific information in place of the examples given here.
All set? OK, let's get started.
- Step 0: START WITH A CLEAN BOOT!!!!! Set up your
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files to load as few drivers as
possible. Some definite things to EXclude are memory
managers (HIMEM, EMM386, QEMM, etc.) and network drivers
(e.g. LSL, IPXODI). DOOM doesn't need the former, and the
latter will probably conflict with the packet driver. We
recommend that you prepare an alternate configuration (using
the multiple configuration facility built into MS-DOS)
specifically for Internet DOOM with a CONFIG.SYS portion
containing only a FILES=20 line, and an AUTOEXEC.BAT portion
containing only the line "prompt=$p$g". Be sure to include
the line which loads your mouse driver (if you play DOOM
using a mouse). Also now is a good time
to create a new directory on your hard disk which will hold iFrag
and all its configuration and data files. C:\IFRAG is
recommended. Throughout the remainder of this document, the
phrase "iFrag directory" will be used to refer to this directory.
- Step 1:Set up the packet driver. If you do not already
have a suitable packet driver installed on your machine, now
is the time to install one. Determining your
ethernet card's IRQ setting, it's base I/O port setting, and
it's memory address setting (if any). You should be able to
determine this by looking at the card itself and consulting
the user manual. You'll need some if not all of this
information, depending upon which packet driver you use
and/or type of hardware you have (for example, some IBM
computers with the MicroChannel bus can determine the
settings on the card automatically without you having to
supply them on the packet driver command line). Unzip the
appropriate driver from Crynwr Packet Driver collection
archive. In our example, the packet driver is called
SMC_WD.COM. By looking at the jumpers on the card and
consulting the manual, I determined that the card has been
set to IRQ 7, Base I/O port address 300h, and the base
memory address is at segment d800h. For this example, I have
chosen to use interrupt 60h for the packet driver. Packet
drivers typically operate on an interrupt in the range of
60h to 80h inclusive; since nothing else in my sample system
happens to be using the first available interrupt (INT 60h),
I chose that. Thus, to load my packet driver, I use the
command line
SMC_WD 0x60 0x7 0x300 0xd800
where 0x60 is the packet driver interrupt, 0x7 is the IRQ
setting on the card, 0x300 is the I/O port base address, and
0xd800 is the memory base address (NOTE: all numbers are in
C-style HEX notation). Don't worry if you don't understand
what all this stuff means - as long as you use the correct
numbers, your packet driver should work. NOTE: If your PC is
currently part of a Novell network (e.g. Netware, Netware
Lite, Personal Netware) the parameters you need can be found
in a file called NET.CFG, usually located in your \NOVELL,
\NWLITE or \NWCLIENT subdirectories (along with all the
other drivers needed by Novell).
- At the very minimum, the packet driver should give
a sign on message and report the ethernet address of your
NIC when you load it. Chances are that if your NIC has been
functioning properly for other tasks (e.g. as a node on a
Novell network) then you'll have no problems here. If not,
or if there are any error or warning messages, something is
wrong. One possibility is that one of the settings on your
NIC is in conflict with those of another expansion card in
your system. No two cards can have the same IRQ, I/O port,
or memory address settings, nor can the memory areas of two
cards overlap. Whatever the cause, you'll need to find and
correct the problem before continuing.
- Step 2:
Set up a WATTCP.CFG file in the C:\IFrag directory
which you created in step 0. Your WATTCP.CFG file contains
important parameters used by the WATTCP TCP/IP kernel. These
values MUST be entered correctly if you wish to make a connection
with another PC. In preparation for this, you'll need several
bits of information. Contact the network administrator for your
site and find out the IP address for your machine, the IP address
for your gateway or router, the IP address of at least one Domain
Name Server local to your site, and your netmask value. The three
IP addresses will each consist of four groups of digits separated
by periods. In our example, the machine's IP address is
128.192.23.5, the gateway is 128.192.23.1, the netmask is
255.255.255.0, and the nameserver address is 128.192.44.67. NOTE:
it is important to use the numeric IP addresses, not the actual
host names. NOTE: If you have other Internet programs currently
installed on your machine, such as a Gopher client or the Trumpet
newsreader, you can probably find the information you need in the
configuration files used for those programs. If the application
is based on the Waterloo TCP package, it will have it's own
WATTCP.CFG, in which case you can simply copy it over to your
iFrag directory. When you have collected all this information,
unzip the iFrag distribution archive (e.g. IFrag11.ZIP) into your
DOOM (or DOOM2) directory. Use your favorite ASCII text editor to
edit the file called WATTCP.CFG. Edit or add the following lines
in WATTCP.CFG:
- my_ip=
- gateway=
- nameserver=
- netmask=
On our example machine, the WATTCP.CFG file looks like this:
- my_ip=128.192.23.5
- gateway=128.192.23.1
- nameserver=255.255.255.0
- netmask=128.192.44.67
Save the changed file and exit back to DOS.
If you know your machine's IP address, but you can't
determine the other values, you can often get away with some
educated guesswork. For instance, the gateway for a subnet
usually has an IP address ending in .1, as is the case with our
example. Thus, if your IP address is xxx.yyy.zzz.www, try setting
your gateway's IP address to xxx.yyy.zzz.1. As for the subnet
mask, a common value for this parameter is 255.255.255.0. In some
cases, the gateway value can be something like xxx.yyy.1.1 with a
corresponding netmask value of 255.255.0.0 - if one doesn't work,
it can't hurt to try the other. Finally, if you don't know your
nameserver's IP address, you can probably get by without it for
the purposes of DOOM playing. Since you'll be specifying IP
addresses for all of your opponents' machines, a nameserver
lookup won't be necessary to resolve their addresses.
- Step 3: Test your TCP/IP setup.
Load your packet driver with
the appropriate interrupt, IRQ, I/O and memory addresses. Next,
unzip the TCPINFO and PING programs from the WATTCP apps archive
into your DOOM directory. At the DOS prompt, type:
TCPINFO and press the Enter key.
- If your WATTCP.CFG values are set
up correctly, and if your packet driver and net connection
are functional, you'll see a couple of screens of
information about your system, including your ethernet
address and the parameters you specified in the WATTCP.CFG
file.
- If everything looks OK, the next step is to use the
PING program to attempt to establish contact with your
subnet gateway. At the DOS prompt, type
PING yourgateway's.numeric.ip.address and press the Enter key.
- After a brief delay, you should
see a message telling you that the host is responding, as
well as the round trip time for PING's test packets. If you
see the "Timeout" error message, then something is wrong
with your setup; if your PC is unable to reach your gateway,
it will be unable to reach the rest of the Internet as well,
since all network packets which are sent to nodes outside of
your local area network must pass through your gateway. For
our sample system, we would type:
PING 128.192.23.1
-
If your gateway PING was successful, try PINGing your Domain Name
Server (at the IP address you specified in WATTCP.CFG) as well as
some well-known site on the internet (e.g. infant2, which is at
IP address 129.79.234.115). These will test your machine's
ability to connect with other machines outside of your subnet as
well as those outside of your site. All of these PINGs should
result in a "host responding" message with a response time. If
any of these attempts fails, recheck your entries in WATTCP.CFG
and/or get some help from your network administrator. Examples
for our test system:
PING 128.192.44.67
and
PING 128.174.134.150
- Step 4: Set up your IFRAG.CFG. Again using your
preferred ASCII text editor, modify the iFrag.CFG file in
your iFrag directory so that all entries are correct for
your system. You will need to specify the paths to your game
and patch WAD directories, your chosen nickname (the name by
which other iFrag players will know you), the number of
lines you want on your video display (25 or 50), whether or
not you want stealth (no sound) mode, etc. As an example,
let's suppose Joe Aydeume has chosen the nickname FragLord,
and that he has installed DOOM, DOOM II, and Heretic into
their standard directories on his hard disk. The IFRAG.CFG
file for Joe's system will look something like this:
- ;
- ; Sample iFrag Configuration File
- ;
-
- ; stealth
- nick=SuperNick
- tracker=206.126.32.200,6666
- doom=c:\doom
- doom2=c:\doom2
- heretic=c:\heretic
- hexen=c:\hexen
- doompwads=c:\doom\wads
- doom2pwads=c:\doom2\wads
- hereticpwads=c:\heretic\wads
- hexenpwads=c:\hexen\wads
- videolines=50
Edit your iFrag.CFG file to reflect your nickname as
well as the locations of your games and PWADs. If you don't
have one of the games installed, just leave the
corresponding entries blank. Save the changed file back to
disk.
Put Me in, Coach - I'm Ready to Play!
Q4. How do I use iFrag ?
- First, go find up to three of your most patient frag
buddies. Since this is your first attempt at Internet DOOM, it's
best to try and find someone on your local network who's willing
to put in a little frag time with you. Connections on your local
net will be faster and less problematic, whereas if you attempt a
long distance connection your first time out, you'll have a hard
time discerning problems caused by distance from problems caused
by an incorrect configuration.
- Decide amongst yourselves which machine will be the "server"
(the remaining machines in the game will all be "clients"). The
server machine (and there can only be ONE server per game) acts
as the coordinator for that session. The player operating the
server is in some sense "the boss" - she can decide when to start
the game, which parameters (e.g. -altdeath, -nomonsters, -warp, -
skill, etc.) will be used, whether to kick a player out, and so
on.
- The server starts iFrag as follows:
iFrag -server [other game parameters]
- Once the server has started iFrag running, the clients (all
remaining players) can then connect to the server. Each client
invokes iFrag using the command line:
iFrag -client
- As an example, consider several computers which are part of
a local area network in a computer lab. In this lab there are
identical machines sitting side by side, with sequential IP
addresses, i.e. 128.192.23.4, 128.192.23.5, and 128.192.23.6.
After stepping through the basic configuration process outlined
above on all test machines, my frag buddies and I are ready to
begin. First, we all agree to play our favorite DEATHMATCH level,
DOOM I episode 1 map 5. We also agree to play in -altdeath mode,
with -skill 5 and -nomonsters. On my machine, which we decided
will be the server, I type:
iFrag -server -warp 1 5 -altdeath -skill 5 -nomonsters
- The iFrag screen comes up, and a message is displayed
informing me that iFrag is entering server mode. This screen is
divided into several sections: the credits, the output window,
the status bar, and the input line. At the top of the screen is
the name of the program, its version number, and the copyright
notice. The large area beginning with the second screen line and
continuing to the 22nd screen line is the output window. Here is
where iFrag will display all status messages as well as the chat
text entered by the other players. Below the output window is the
status bar, where the current game settings are displayed. Below
the status bar is the input line where all the text I type on my
keyboard will appear. Finally, the bottom line of the screen
lists significant contributors to iFrag.
- Once my iFrag server is up and running, all the other
players can connect to it. The other guys type:
iFrag -client 128.192.23.5
- Each client's screen layout is identical to that of my
server. iFrag displays a message confirming that it is entering
client mode and connecting to the server. As each client's
connection is established, the arrival of each player is
announced by the server.
- During this phase of the game setup, all players who have
connected thus far can type messages to each other using iFrag's
built-in chat facility. To send a message to the other players in
the game, I simply type my message on the keyboard. My keystrokes
appear in the input line at the bottom of the screen, and when I
press , the text will be echoed to the screens of all
players (along with an indication of who sent the message). The
identical procedure can be used to send messages from each of the
client machines. The server itself will also send messages.
Messages from the server will begin with three asterisks ("***").
- When a client connects to the iFrag server, the client
receives a message containing the game parameters which will be
used during that session. These game settings will be displayed
on the status bar. The settings are abbreviated to ensure that
they will all fit within the available space. These game settings
may be changed interactively at the server console.
- My friend sees that I have selected E1M5 as the default
episode and map for our game. He reminds me that we've been
playing that one a lot lately, and suggests we change to E2M2
since we haven't played that one in a while. I agree, and issue
the commands /episode 2 and /map 2 to change the level. Our
status lines are immediately updated to reflect these changes.
- Once I have determined (via the chat facility) that everyone
is ready to begin the game, I press the F10 key. The iFrag server
signals the clients that the game is beginning, the chat facility
is shut down, and iFrag sets up the connections which will be
used for the actual game. Once these network links are
established between all the machines, the message "Prepare to
meet your DOOM!" is displayed, followed by the usual DOOM startup
information. Shortly thereafter, the screen melts away and there
we are, in E1M5, pistols at the ready!
- Give your buddies a good thrashing - you've earned it! Now,
after you've gotten DOOM working on your own subnet, you're ready
for the final step. Find a partner who is also capable of playing
Internet DOOM. Watch the posts in alt.games.doom, or tune into
the #doom, #tcpdoom or #iFrag channels on irc. You and he will
negotiate game parameters, such as which map to play, which skill
level, and so on. You'll also decide on who will be the server
and who will be the clients (experienced DEATHMATCHers will often
try very hard to avoid being the server, since that player's
uniform is colored day-glo green and is easier to spot in a
DEATHMATCH). Now simply add the parameters you've agreed on to
the iFrag server command line you used before. A typical
command line will look something like
iFrag -server -skill 5 -nomonsters -deathmatch
- When my iFrag client connects to the iFrag server, it
automatically receives the game parameters which will be
used during this session. These game settings are displayed
on the status bar in an abbreviated form to ensure that they
will all fit within the available space.
Q6. When I try to connect to the iFrag server why does it return to
DOS saying "Server is not responding" or "Remote reset
connection."?
This means that the player on the server machine hasn't
yet started the iFrag server. The server must be started before
the clients try to connect to it. Try again in a few seconds.
Q7. Why do I keep seeing an "ICMP: port unreachable" message on my
screen.?
This message is generated by the other machine when the
port being requested by the sender is unavailable on the
destination machine. I've seen this happen in some cases when I
started iFrag before the other player did. Once the other iFrag
was running, the ICMP: messages went away, and the game linked up
normally. If you see this message, you might also want to try
using a different port (see the iFrag documentation on the -port
command line parameter).
Q8. The music starts up fine, but all I see is a BSOD (Black Screen of Death) ?
Same answer as Q9.
Q9. Why does my machine lock up after the "sending network start info" or "listening for network start info" messages are displayed ?
- This problem can have several causes. Perhaps the server specified a DOOM II
game, but one of the players didn't have DOOM II. (using the /who command will
give you information about the players and the version of the game they have).
Perhaps one of the other players' machines is slower than the others, or
has a fragmented disk and takes a longer time to load DOOM
at startup. Or perhaps some packets were lost - iFrag uses
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets to exchange game
information between all machines in the game. UDP packets
are not guaranteed to reach their destination, and there is
no mechanism for the sender to even be informed that what it
sent never made to the destination machine. iFrag is
designed to compensate for these lost packets to the extent
possible, and occasionally this detection and correction
takes a few extra seconds. You should always wait for at
least 30 - 45 seconds for the other DOOM engines to sync up
before you abort the setup.
Pointers and Tips for More Fragging Enjoyment
Pausing the game
First, try not to use the "pause" key. Do NOT use the
pause key just so you can type a message. DO use the pause
key if you have to answer the phone; either find a hiding
place to hole up, or if you are fragged, just stay dead
(don't hit the spacebar) until your call is completed. It's
inconsiderate to make everyone else wait on you. Do NOT
release the pause after someone else pauses. It's hard to
yell at someone over an IP connection. It's really annoying
to play against people who like to pause just when they're
about to be shot. Argh!
Typing messages
Second, DO type messages. A pause at the beginning of
the game is OK just to see if the other player is there. If
you notice a sudden increase in game speed, another player
may have aborted or crashed. You might end up playing by
yourself if you are not alert... If you can monitor network
traffic (I have a repeater nearby that gets very busy when I
play), notice the difference between the amount of traffic
when connected and disconnected.
Be patient
Third, Be patient. It sometimes takes 30-60 seconds for
the connection to complete. The first phase, finding a node,
should be immediate. As mentioned above, if you cannot find
a node, something is wrong. The second phase,
looking/sending network start info, may take 30 seconds,
longer if one of the players has a slow or fragmented hard
disk (this is the phase where DOOM loads the info it needs
to play from the WAD file(s)). The third phase, sometimes a
blank screen just before the game loads, may take another
15-30 seconds. After finding a node, please don't abort
until you have waiting a sufficient time for a connect.
Also, if your connection doesn't work the first time, try
again immediately! If it failed on your end, chances are it
failed on the other end, also, and your partner will be back
in iFrag trying to connect and wondering where you are.
What to do if your game abort ?
Forth, Internet games will self abort sometimes with
errors. Don't panic, just restart iFrag. Sometimes one of
the computers will lock up - again, just restart. If you get
tired of restarting (this doesn't happen much), just walk
away! It's just a game!
Game speed
Last, hope for a fast connection. This isn't always a
problem, but when the connection is slow, the game sucks!
There's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes the game will
speed up and slow down throughout the match. Such is the
Internet. Re-connection will not help. Every packet that is
sent back and forth picks a new path; sometimes it's a fast
path, and sometimes not.
The Frag Tracker
The ability to play DOOM over the Internet isn't much good
unless you are able to quickly and easily find opponents against
whom to test your mettle. The Frag Tracker is a special program
(which is always running on a separate UNIX host) which helps
players from all over the net find each other. It keeps a list of
all the iFrag games which are currently looking for players. When
you start it up, iFrag contacts the Frag Tracker machine and
downloads this list of active games. It then allows you to select
one of these games to join. The Frag Tracker is very similar in
concept to the Bolo Tracker used by players of the Macintosh game
Bolo.
To play this way, just type:
IFRAG
- Then, the iFrag client-mode screen
comes up, and iFrag contacts the Internet Frag Tracker to
see which games are waiting for players at the moment. Once
iFrag has successfully contacted the Frag Tracker and
downloaded the list of available games, a pop-up dialog box
appears on the screen. Using the PgUp and PgDn keys, I can
view a summary of each available game. This game summary
includes the type of game (DOOM, DOOM II, or Heretic), the
nicknames of all the players currently in the game, a brief
description / comment, as well as the current game settings
(skill, episode, map, etc.). I notice that my friend (who is
known only as "ArchVile") is currently hosting a game of
Heretic. Since it's been a while since I have turned him
into a chicken, I press the key to select his game.
iFrag immediately contacts ArchVile's machine and I join the
game.
- Sometimes you want to play a private game with a few friends
and furthermore dont need to use the tracker. Let's assume you
are the server. The server will launch ifrag like this:
IFRAG -notrack -server
All the clients have to run:
IFRAG -notrack -client server_ip
- When my iFrag client connects to the iFrag server, it
automatically receives the game parameters which will be
used during this session. These game settings are displayed
on the status bar in an abbreviated form to ensure that they
will all fit within the available space.
- The server announces my arrival, and ArchVile greets me
by typing "re" (short for "re Hi," i.e. "Hi again"). I reply
with a "re" of my own. Gazing down at my status bar, I
notice that he has selected E1M8 as the default episode and
map for our game. I remind him that we've been playing that
one a lot lately, and suggest that we play something else.
"How about hl9.wad?" he asks, referring to the PWAD (user-
written level) which is a Heretic DEATHMATCH level based on
the famous DOOM "Ledges" PWAD. I agree, and he issues the
commands and "/map 1" and "/pwads hl9.wad" to incorporate
the new level. Our status lines are immediately updated to
reflect these changes.
- Once all players have joined the game and all
parameters have been set, ArchVile presses the F10 key. The
iFrag server signals the clients that the game is beginning,
the chat facility is shut down, and iFrag sets up the
connections which will be used for the actual game. Once
these network links are established between all the
machines, the message "Prepare to meet your DOOM!" is
displayed, and iFrag launches the appropriate game. We see
the usual Heretic startup information, and then there we
are, in HL9.WAD, crystal wands charged and ready!
Q10. How do I set up my own game on the tracker ?
- After dining heartily on Chicken Flambe' (courtesy of a
Morph Ovum, a Phoenix Rod, and a Tome of Power), I decide to
fire up my own game with a little scenario I call "Carnage-
DOOM." From the DOS prompt, I type:
iFrag -server
- Since I like this particular scenario
quite a bit, I created a standard DOOM response file called
"carnage.rsp" containing the parameters -doom2, -warp 1, -
deathmatch, -nomonsters, and -skill 5. I use iFrag's /load
command to load the response file by typing /load
carnage.rsp, and my status bar is updated with the new
settings. After a few moments, NoOne, Caitiff, and FragMastr
join my game. After exchanging a few jocularities, I confirm
that everyone is ready to begin and then I press the F10
key. DOOM II loads, and I grab the rocket launcher for the
first of many fabulously fun frags.
- That's all there is to it! Gone are the days of long
command lines with 4 IP addresses and tons of other
parameters, setting up games via email, and other
frustrations. Now getting into a game of Internet DOOM is as
easy as getting fragged with a BFG-9000!
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