Public Commander Keen Forum

I wonder if we can get some 4-player Netkeen action going. It seems to me there have been threads for this sort of thing in the past, and even an IRC channel iirc.

So who's up for a game, or two or three?

Hosting options:
I can't host due to the way I connect to the internet, but my sister can since she already has the right port set up on her router (we do two-player games on a regular basis and the lag is completely nonexistent). She doesn't have a static IP though, so that makes things a little annoying. She'd have to PM everyone her current IP or something.
Or someone else who's willing could host.

In-game chat? I have no idea. It seems like a very useful thing but I don't know how nice something like that would play with DOSBox. Alternatively we could just have a 4-person phone call.

What does everyone think of this?

I would be alarmed if you did have lag on a home network or local internet connection. The big issue is location - my high-ping fixed wireless in Australia will almost certainly create a noticeable lag when playing with any European or American players, and might even lag when playing against other Australians.

Where are you based? (I think you have said before, I just can't remember with any certainty.)

EDIT: The states, according to your blog?

Yeah, Colorado to be exact. But if my sister hosted, that's southern Idaho. Not too different I guess. As far as the Internet goes I guess you could say "The American West"

Hmm... I guess intercontinental Netkeen has been played before, though, judging by YouTube videos. We could just give it a try and see what happens.

Oh, I forgot to mention, there's also the problem (since Australia has a 17 hour difference to Mountain Time) of finding a good time of day that works for everyone across the globe. The window of reasonable times goes (I think) from 2:00 PM MST - 9:00 PM MST, which translates to 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM Australia time (if I'm not mistaken). But doesn't Australia have several time zones? Uhnn, so confusing And then we also have members in New Zealand, right?

Yes there is an IRC channel for pckf and keenmodding and I assume the netkeen channel still exists. I love the game and I'd love to participate but I know I never will.

I'd luv to play some more netkeen; we could try out what i have put together so far of Netkeen uTUIT. I can't host though.

troublesomekeen wrote:I love the game and I'd love to participate but I know I never will. Sad

Why?

{DARKDUNE} wrote:we could try out what i have put together so far of Netkeen uTUIT

YEEESS!

OK, if no one else wants to host or can host, I'll give my sister a call and see what she thinks.

What about communication? We could use a service like GroupMe or something, or, like I said before, we could just use the good old fashioned telephone service. Does anyone know a better solution?

keenmaster486 wrote:

troublesomekeen wrote:I love the game and I'd love to participate but I know I never will.

Why?

Online gaming requires the perfect situation which is rare for me. There's this job I have and it won't stop being busy. Pretty much 24/7. Just look at that clock on the wall. Already past 11pm. I don't even have enough time to sound design and figure out how my Minimoog Voyager works. There's no way for me to sit down and relearn the ipx commands and check ip addresses--just do any modding in general. There's NetKeen projects, Vorticon and Galaxy mods just waiting to be released. Now I have a gig on Thursday and the entire crew caught a cold. Maybe sore throats, too. And now talks of World War 3? Like I said in many previous posts, time is running out. All I want to do is stop time, unplug the phone, live by myself with internet and electricity, and tinker endless hours away with music and Keen until I wear holes in my shoes from sitting down all day. It's all rubbish.

keenmaster486 wrote:What about communication? We could use a service like GroupMe or something, or, like I said before, we could just use the good old fashioned telephone service. Does anyone know a better solution?

What about Discord? Seems like everyone's using that nowadays.

time takes too much of time.

tsk wrote:All I want to do is stop time, unplug the phone, live by myself with internet and electricity [...]

troublesomekeen wrote:There's no way for me to sit down and relearn the ipx commands and check ip addresses

I have some batch scripts that automate that stuff

But yeah, it is hard to find any time for it. I have a friend who might play it with me and you guys (not sure when would be good) He's in the EST [GMT-4] zone too, but he stays up pretty late for gaming. We'll have to see if/when we can get together and join in.

MoffD wrote:I have some batch scripts that automate that stuff Wink

Not to mention NKLAUNCH

Well, my sister and I are in MST / Denver Time (GMT-7 w/o DST). Pretty much any time during the weekend works, Saturday being the best.

Edit:
@troublesomekeen, Discord looks pretty cool. Let's go with that for now and if it doesn't work we'll try something else. Only thing I'm worried about is whether or not DOSBox will play nice with it, because depending on the DOSBox display settings I've had issues where it will completely block out any pop-up messages that might want to come up. Also it usually captures the keyboard so securely that I can't even use the function keys to change my music. But what do I know, maybe it'll work fine.

I'd join, can host, only available this week Friday 21st or Saturday 22nd after 6pm PST though.

I'm up for a round sometime, but my availability is highly unpredictable. Ad-hoc games become more likely if more people idle at the IRC channel.

As for the lag issue, using the magical lag buffer feature it actually is surprisingly less of an issue than it seems, even when playing internationally.

Oh crap, I had forgotten that I'm actually not available this weekend since I'll be in the mountains... sorry. Definitely any weekend afterwards though.

2nd-ing the irc suggestion, last night we got a game going between me, Spleen and Lemm. Naturally I was slaughtered, but it's the easiest way of getting a game setup.

let's all just hang out on netkeen irc more often and we'll probably get a game going.
also, i've compiled what i have done already of netkeen utuit:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4xk56w8jeujd ... Q7N1a?dl=0