Multi-Player Gaming Computers are not only useful for work, they are also an excellent way to waste time by playing games. Computer games have come a long way since Pong, Breakout and Pacman. Using recent technology such as OpenGL, 3D, advanced environmental sound, Force Feedback joysticks and incredible game engines with amazing artificial intelligence have taken PC games to a whole new level of entertainment. Landscapes never looked so nice, race cars never drove so real, foot steps never sounded so scary, monsters never so smart. But even with all this amazing technology and realistic games, they are still limited as far as the opponents are concerned. After a while you figure out where the monsters are waiting - always in the same spot in the same levels - and the driving style of that computer race car driver you're competing against. You master all the levels, win all the races - what now? Is the game over? Not at all, the fun is just beginning. Mastering a game in single-player mode is just a way of getting used to the controls and familiar with the game, just a way of preparing you for the next step - multi-player gaming. Multi-Player Gaming Multi-player gaming has become very popular over the last few years and added a whole new level of excitement to games. Instead of fighting senseless and predictable monsters, you compete against other human minds that are sneaky, competitive and much less predictable. There are always new people to play, no game is ever the same, the fun never ends. There are now hundreds of PC games that have the capability of playing against other people over a network, either over the Internet or a local area network (LAN) at your house or the office. Probably the most popular and all-time favorite multi-player game is Quake, a first-person-shooter (FPS). The third installment of Quake will actually be multi-player only, no single-player mode. That should speak for the popularity of multi-player gaming. Other popular multi-player games are Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, Half-Life, Links, Need for Speed, Unreal, Mech Warrior, just to name a few. To play a multi-player game you need a game that of course supports multi- player gaming, a PC with decent performance, and a connection to a network, either the Internet or a local area network. Let's first take a look at how to set up a local network game. Setting up a Local Network Game A local area network means having a number of PCs connected so that they can communicate with each other. This could be a network in your office, or a network in your house. If you want to do this at home but haven't networked your PCs yet, take a look at the home-networking guide at http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/hmnetwk1.html to get started. First you need to install the game on each PC that is going to participate in the game. Depending on the game, you either just need one copy of the game and it comes with an option to install the full version on one PC and a network player version on all the other PCs - with this setup you only need the game CD for the PC that has the full version installed and serves as a server - or you might need a copy of the game for each PC if the game requires the CD in the drive during gaming. Starting a game Once that is done, you need to set up the game. The best way to do this is pick the fastest PC to be the game server, because it has to do a little bit of extra work to be the server, and go to the main menu of the game. Each game has a slightly different menu, but the concept is the same. There will an option for multi-player, and within that category you have two basic choices: Start a network game or join a network game. Since you want to set up a game, choose Start a network game. You will be presented with several options, such as choosing a name for this game, how many player are allowed in the game, what level or map to play in, any time limits, etc. After making all your choices and clicking OK, this PC will start the game. Joining the game Now that the game is created, the other players start the game on their PC and go to the multi-player menu as well. They want to choose to join a game - the one that you just created. If they are properly connected to the network, they will see the game you created listed, and all they have to do is select it and click Join. This will connect them to your PC and put them into the same game. Now you can race or battle against each other to your hearts content. This is pretty easy to set up and should work very well since you're on a local network meaning the PCs are very close together and the game should be very smooth and fast with such little delay between the game server and the other players that it is unnoticeable. Now let's take a look at how this works over a much bigger network, the Internet. Playing over the Internet The concept of playing over the Internet is the same as playing over a local network. But there are some differences. The advantage is that you can play against anybody over the Internet and have a much bigger choice of people to play with. Your opponent doesn't have to be in the same building as you, he doesn't even have to be in the same city, state, country or continent. The disadvantage is that the game speed will suffer a bit, especially if you have to use a regular 56k modem. But this doesn't really matter if you play card, strategy, or role-playing games online. Connect directly to game server To play a multi-player game online, you can go several ways. If you already know the server and the game you want to join, then all you need to do is go to the multi-player menu, choose to join a server and enter the server address, normally in form of the IP address, which is the number that uniquely identifies the computer hosting the game on the Internet. Most games allow you to store your favorite server names/IP addresses so you don't have to enter them every time. Choose from a list of servers But if you don't know the server yet and want to check out a few before deciding, you need to find a list of available games and servers. Some of the more recent games include a feature that loads a list of game servers and displays some basic information about them, such as what type of game, how many players, etc. But usually this feature is pretty basic and you can do a lot better than that. Online Gaming Services There are several web sites available that help people get together and play online, such as www.heat.net, www.gameworld.com, www.pogo.com (former Total Entertainment Network www.ten.net), or www.mpog.com. Most of them require you to register, some of them are free, others offer basic gaming for free and premium services for a monthly fee. Gamespy Gamespy is a shareware program that you install on your PC. It checks to see what games you have installed, then downloads a list of servers for each game. The options you have are mindboggling. You can filter to see only servers meeting certain criteria, such as games, maps, speed, etc., mark your favorites, keep track of the servers you've played on before, give great amount of detail about a game without having to join it, etc. A very handy tool to quickly and easily find a good online game. Once you found the server you want to join, simply double-click it and Gamespy will automatically launch the game for you and put you right in the action. It really doesn't get any easier than that. Miss Manners says: Online gaming is a great way to relieve stress, let off some steam, chill out. But please remember that even though you sit in front of your computer, there is still a person on the other end of the connection. It could be a 32 year old engineer in California on his lunch break at work seeking some distraction, or a 11 year old school kid in Pennsylvania, or a 60 year old college professor of physics in Texas. Either way, please treat each other with courtesy and respect. Everybody is there to have some fun, not to get insulted. Be nice, watch your language, play fair and obey the rules of the server you're on. Game Speed For some games, especially first-person shooters such as Quake, Half-Life, etc., speed is an important factor. The network speed determines how fast you are fed the information from the game server, and therefore how fast you see your opponents and how quickly you can react to them. Usually, this is called Ping time. Ping means a signal is being sent between your PC and the server and measured how fast the response comes back to you in milliseconds. Lower numbers are better because it means the signal travels faster. If you have a cable modem or DSL line or playing over your company network (just don't do it during work time), you can get pings of around 20-40. If you use a regular 56k phone modem, you probably will get a ping around 150-250, depending on your connection. Anything over 400 is considered unplayable. Enjoy the game Online gaming is fun. Don't be intimidated by the variety of games, different servers and types of games. Explore, try out several and find out what you like best. This can be a real blast. It is a lot more fun than playing against artificial intelligence in single-player mode. There is nothing better than the adrenaline rush of a Quake frag fest with a dozen players chasing each other where you're lucky to stay alive for more than two minutes. And for the more serious gamers, there are real tournaments, LAN parties and gamers conventions that take multi-player gaming to a whole new level. Have fun! http://www.PCNineOneOne.com