Gamespy Alternatives

[Lord Azriel]

'Swoosh So' has opened a gamespy poll in the jousting field section. Although I think we already know the results http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

I am often dropped in the middle of a very good game and sometimes the lag really spoils an otherwise excellent game. There are other problems I'm sure all are familar with.

I was wondering if there is any other multiplaying alternatives through the internet. I know there used to some third party software with a game called 'Master of Orion 2'. If anyone knows of any can they please reply to this post.

If you happen to see me diappear during a game believe me it's not because I want too, or because I am losing

[Ashen]

Im pretty sure gamespy isnt the reason for ingame lag but we'll ignore that.

I know the program you mean for Moo2 (I used to play it online). It was a LAN Emulator but I cant remember its exact name. I actually think it was along the lines of Khan.

[Lord Azriel]

Yes MOO2 was the best, they broke MOO3 however so avoid

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

Anyway your right I can't really blame gamespy for lag. But why on earth does it keep disconnecting midgame, or taking a minute or more to log me in or out. I have broadband but it sometimes feels like dialup.

I dunno if this is the norm because apart from that MTW:VI runs just fine on my PC, only when I go on to gamespy does it start misbehaving.

[barvaz]

You probably mean “Kali” or “Khan”. When the Internet was young and many local networks were running Novell’s Netware, some games that offered multiplaying were using the, then popular, IPX protocol instead of TCP/UDP (which what the Internet is based on). Those games (like Warcraft II, Descent and others) were only playable on local networks until Kali (later followed by Khan) came with the simple, yet genius, idea of intercepting the IPX traffic and routing it over TCP across the Internet to machines running a compatible software on the other end.

This opened a new era in multiplay gaming - besides supporting popular games which were otherwise unplayable remotely, it proved that the concept of this gaming type is viable and has potential. Next, more and more games started to offer a built in support for TCP/UDP, removing the need for the middleware Kali type software which became obsolete after some time as the popularity of the older games declined (and some even released their own Internet compatible support, like Warcraft II). I think in the case of both Kali and Khan, their creators tried to adapt and move to providing a more general game match making services, very similar to what GameSpy offers today. Both didn’t do very well.

Ahh...those were the days…

As for GameSpy, as much as I completely hate this awful service, it isn’t to blame for disconnects and lag. GameSpy doesn’t host the game servers themselves but rather offers the “handshake” part of the service, where players get together, gather in game-rooms and initiate games. After that, it is up to machines running the game servers themselves and their connection quality.

What would be real cool if there was a dedicated service for Total War series offered by CA or other (fan supported?) third party. Similar to what Blizzard offers with their Battle.net. Maybe with RTW someone will pick the glove.

GameSpy is EVIL.

- barvaz