Networked Warcraft II under DOSBox
This is a guest post contributed by Richard Geoffrion. Thanks for sending this Richard, I hope others will find it useful!
First off, thank you so much, Adam, for the primer on getting Warcraft II working under DOSBOX. The “-t cdrom” option was the piece I was missing to get my game to recognize the CD and work.
After I installed my game, I wound up copying my entire Warcraft II CD to my C:\DOSGAMES\WAR2 directory, then I added “mount d c:\dosgames\war2 -t cdrom” to the [autoexec] section. By copying the CD to the same path as the installed game, I don’t have to duplicate the space to hold the files from the CDROM.
As for playing multiplayer Warcraft II in DOSBOX, it could not be made any easier. There is NOTHING that the user has to configure in Microsoft Windows (or Linux…or OSX) to get IPX gaming working under DOSBOX. The DOSBOX team has built an IPX wrapper right into DOSBOX. Once the Warcraft II game is operational on two or more computers on your network you are ready to setup networking in DOSBOX.
Instructions:
1) Identify the IP addresses or names of each computer that will be participating in the gaming session. (Windows users: To display the computer’s IP address click START, click RUN, type in “cmd” and click the OK button. At the prompt, type in the command ipconfig and press enter. Write down or remember the number on the IP ADDRESS line. If you want to know the name of the computer, you can type in the command ”hostname” and press enter to see the name.) (Linux/OSX users: run ifconfig from a terminal (you may have to sudo the command or su to root)
2) Once you have identified all of the IP addresses (or names) of the computers on your network that will be playing the game, pick one to designate as your IPX SERVER.
3) *OPTIONAL STEP* Sometimes the Microsoft Windows firewall is turned on and it could interfere with proper communications between the client and the server. If you want to run a test to make sure that everyone can connect to your server, then go to each computer that will be connecting to your designated server and start a windows command prompt. Once the prompt is open, use the ping command along with the IP address of the server -OR- the server computer’s name to make sure that the server can respond to the clients. [Example: " ping 192.168.1.100 " -or- " ping HP-PAV6330 " ]
4) Start DOSBOX on your designated server. Run the DOSBOX command:
ipxnet startserver
That is IT!! That is ALL YOU NEED TO DO on the server! It is THAT SIMPLE!
–we’re almost done!–
5) Now start DOSBOX on each client computer that will be joining in the multiplayer fun. Once DOSBOX is running we will be using the DOSBOX command ‘IPXNET CONNECT’ but we’ll be adding something to it. We will either add the IP address of the server or the name. If we were to use the IP address or name from the examples in the optional step 3, our DOSBOX command might look something like this:
C:\> IPXNET CONNECT 192.168.1.100
-OR-
C:\> IPXNET CONNECT HP-PAV6330
At this point, DOSBOX will handle wrapping the IPX packets in TCP/IP.
6) Start WAR2 on the server, Select Multiplayer, select the IPX Network connection method and
click CONNECT then CREATE GAME.
7) Start War2 on each client, Select Multiplayer, select the IPX Network connection method and click CONNECT then JOIN GAME.
8) Begin your game and race your peons out to the unclaimed gold mines to put walls around them to protect them from any players..especially computer players. Oh..wait….that doesn’t belong in this set of instructions! Now who let that slip by quality control?!!?
NOTE 1: It *IS* possible to play WARCRAFT II with a friend across the internet. The variety of the additional steps needed are a bit beyond anyone’s ability to document in a single document but I can briefly outline the requirements below.
A) The gamer who will be the server ( the server user) will have to know their real-world public IP address. If you don’t know your public IP address, you can visit a site that displays your public IP address. A google search on finding your public IP will reveal many. http://www.whatismyip.com is one. [#]
B) If the server user is behind a router/firewall, then the server user will also need to..
*) know their private IP address. This is the IP address that was discovered in the ‘ipconfig’ command from step 1 above.
*) configure their router/firewall to forward the UDP port 213 –DOSBOX IPX WRAPPER traffic– from their external interface to UDP port 213 on the private IP Address of the computer that is the DOSBOX IPX server.
Note 2: The DOSBOX command ” IPXNET help ” will display a list of available networking commands and a small bit of documentation — like the fact that the DEFAULT port for the IPX wrapper in DOSBOX is UDP port 213
Note 3: These same networking steps should work for any IPX DOS game that runs in DOSBOX. These steps have been successfully tested with “One Must Fall”. [Google omf21cd.zip to download this free game.]
[#] Please avoid http://moanmyip.com if you are ..oh I don’t know… at work setting up for a Christmas LAN party! Of course using that link as a secondary browser-start-up-home-page can be fun.
Happy Retro-Gaming!
Hi thanks for that nice tutorial.
but i dont know how i can designate one computer to the ipxserver.
can u help plz?
Use any method you want to choose which of your computers you will designate to be the server.
You can use the eenie-meenie-minee-moe method to pick one of the machines and on THAT machine you would run the ‘ipxnet startserver’ command.
You might want to pick the fastest computer and choose to run the ‘ipxnet startserver’ command there.
The key is, whoever will be hosting the game and picking the options for the multiplayer game…. THAT is the computer on which the ‘ipxnet startserver’ command needs to be run.
Any clearer??
Doesn’t work. Typing “ipxnet startserver” gives an error message, whether entered at the DOS prompt (start, run, cmd) or whether entered at the DOSBOX command prompt. There is no program called IPXNET. :-(
Been trying for over a month now to get WarCraft II to connect so we can play games at home. We have two computers, back to back … would love to get all four computers in the household connected so the whole group of us could play, but would be happy with getting at least two of them to connect.
The computers “see” each other (successful ping), and we can create a game in WC2, but it hangs at the “waiting for response” (or “waiting for other player to join”? Not at that system right now)
If anyone out there has an answer, I would *so* appreciate it (as would my son and GF, who are also dying to play as allies and to play against each other). How do we get this ipxnet program?
If anyone knows…. please please email me? Address is Dave (at sign) dpdlaw.com (hopefully setting out address like that will avoid spambots out there trolling for addresses)
Thanks in advance…….!
Well, halfway there on my own, but still frustrated. Apparently, the newest version of DOSBOX (DOSBOX .73) has a config file with a different default setting than the one in effect when Adam Pierce wrote the above article. In order to make Adam’s suggestion work, the user must change “IPXNET=FALSE” to “IPXNET=TRUE” in the DOSBOX.CONF file (learned by Googling around until I hit http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Battlespire:Technical_Info ).
Now, I just need to locate this DOSBOX.CONF file. A command prompt search (DIR ?DOSBOX.CONF /S and DIR DOSBOX*.* /S /P) hasn’t given me the location of it.
I’m sure there is actually a good reason that the DOSBOX folks changed this setting and that it’s not a case of Bill Gates possessing them in their sleep and screwing up something that worked fine.
Anyway, assuming I find it (I’ll update here when / if I do), readers of this page need to know that if they’re using the latest DOSBOX verios, ADAM’S SUGGESTION WILL NOT WORK UNTIL YOU CHANGE THIS CONFIG SETTING FROM THE DEFAULT.
I am becoming worried that this is, in fact, a case ofg Bill Gates possession during a too-lapse between taking communion.
The file that the user needs to modify to make Adam’s suggestion work (at least I hope that’s the end result of this, I’m still chugging through to changing the default IPXNET=FALSE to the needed IPXNET=TRUE) is located under documents and settings \ local \ [your user name] \ etc… In other words, it’s buried good.
And, since Microsoft makes the LOCAL directory invisible (you see what I’m saying about Bill Gates being evil?), you have to locate it through command prompt / DOS search thus:
CD\DOCUME~1 [ENTER]
DIR DOSBOX*.* /S [ENTER]
(Note that path it gives)
then:
DIR C:\DOCUM~1\[FIRST FEW CHARS OF PATH NAME]\ /X /AD
note the short form of the path it gives – you then need to type it -
cd [short form of path name] [enter]
utnil you eventually get to the director with DOSBOX…CONF file
Then EDIT the file – use F3 to find IPXNET
Change FALSE to TRUE
Exit from DOSBOX and restart….
I’ll keep you posted.
Only a dedicated Warcraft 2 addict would go through all this bullshit, btw….
Well, I don’t know what else DOSBOX screwed up with its newest version, but all goes well on Adam’s list up to:
6) Start WAR2 on the server, Select Multiplayer, select the IPX Network connection method and
click CONNECT then CREATE GAME.
When the user (server) starts WarCraft and goes to Multiplayer and selects IPX Network and enters a name and hits OK, you get:
IPXNET NET NOT FOUND
:-(
Damn. Well it’s almost 2:00 a.m., which is my quit time for crap like this Arrrgghh!
Anyone who beats this, PLEASE POST THE SOLUTION!
Well, finally got it and played a game. Yeee-haw!!!!!
To summarize what is needed to make Adam’s suggestion work with the newest DOSBOX version (.73 as of this writing):
1. Before Adam’s Step 1 above, you must locate (hunt around on C drive, it’s somewhere under the documents and settings\local\ … … path) the DOSBOX.CONF file. Use F3 to search for IPXNET. Change =FALSE to =TRUE. Close and restart DOSBOX (if it was open).
2. On an XP machine, you must install the IPX protocol. It wasn’t installed on either machine that we were using)
(Below is from http://www.computing.net/answers/networking/warcraft-2-windows-xp-ipx-network/13723.html ):
1. Open Local Area Connection properties.
2. Ensure NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol is checked.
If it’s not listed (and you therefore can’t “check”) it — Install it as a new protocol by right clicking on My Network Places & choosing properties. Right click on Local Area Connection and again select properties. Choose install. Add the NWLINK/IPX/SPX… protocol.
THEN make sure it’s checked.
3. Uncheck NWLink NetBIOS & select [OK]
Getting this to finally run took over a month of playing around with it in my spare time. Still don’t have it running on my home systems (and we bought two older “junk” computers for $40-50 each just to play WC2). We just got it working in the network at the office (but, hey, so I have to hang out at the office to play for now… could be worse and I’ll eventually get it going at home).