DescentBB

mmm looks like someone didnt do thier homework, http://www.tomshardware.com/game/200508 ... es-01.html
we were doing this with descent 2 years earlier. anyone else fancy griping to the editor?.

Doom too, but you know, none of them supported Internet multiplayer out of the box?

And it's not the history of gaming. It's the history of wargames.

THG wrote:The first truly three-dimensional FPS, Quake introduced a level of graphical realism and control that was previously unattainable.

Is that the line in question?

That article was crap.

Having TCP/IP support is not exactly what I would call having 'internet mutilplayer' out of the box. You still needed a program like Gamespy, Kali or Mplayer and the likes. Most people didnt even know how to get thier IP, much less set up a game with it. So if enabler programs are needed, whats the difference between playing via TCP or IPX? None in my book, therefore they missed a lot of games like Duke, ROTT and such that were playable far earlier.
Tribes was the first game to support 'true' internet multiplay out of the box as it was the first to have a server list in game.

If you want a good read, go find 'Masters of Doom', it is now in paperback.

Buef wrote:whats the difference between playing via TCP or IPX? None in my book

The difference is quite large when you think about it, in order to play a IPX game over the internet (such as Descent 1 or 2) the IPX packets from the game have to be wrapped in TCP/IP by an external program (KALI). This will make the packets larger then they were before, which increses lag and bandwidth use. TCP/IP support is the major requirement to internet play so it is safe to say it qualifies. Most games can work with external game lists today, but also have their own internal server lists. You don't NEED gamespy, kali or mplayer, but you can use them if you want.

I realize the technical difference, but the entire sentence was 'So if enabler programs are needed, whats the difference between playing via TCP or IPX? None in my book' Key part being that an enabler program was needed for most people playing back then. Groups connecting to a known IP they got from members of thier group or off of a server list on quakeworld or even hosted by thier ISP and such is still not true 'multiplayer out of the box' as additional knowladge is needed unlike later games which had a server list in the game itself. In THAT respect, the protocal used was not important.

IMME(in my minds eye) Doom wuz and still is pure 'carp'...heh Oh, and as I'm sure some of you will agree, so is the author of that articles mind.

I'd say that despite the fact that you needed to run QuakeSpy in order to find a server, QuakeWorld (1996) was the first truly out-of-the-box Internet gameplay experience. It didn't require a program to trick the game into thinking the Internet was a LAN, as Descent did.