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Multiplayer Games For Christmas Lull at the Office?
smallstepforman asks: "Christmas is almost here, and most companies will be running a skeleton staff during the holiday period. Since there will only be 8 people in the entire building where I work, you can guess what we'll all be doing - multiplayer LAN gaming. The team leader (who will be the acting manager for the holiday period) is asking about good games to play during this period. Most of the machines on the LAN are P3@733 with integrated i810 video cards, while some older machines (P2@45) have a Voodoo 3. Which multiplayer games can Slashdot readers recommend? The games need to be easy to pick up, and not require a lot of hard disk space. Free/shareware games or demos should be considered due to legal issues."
Starcraft. Need I say more?
Quake I
-Small [we all run it off of mini cds]
-Can run on anything from a p75 up
-There are things to make it nicer [GLQuake}
-Simple
-Tons of mods avalible [TF]
(Score:0, Interesting)
Free/shareware games or demos should be considered due to legal issues.
Er, what legal issues?
Free/shareware games or demos should be considered due to legal issues
Your boss'd be grateful to hear that you have in your mind the best of the corporate's interest while....playing games at the company's expenses.
Tetrinet need I say more?
next
My best hint is to avoid anything RTS or time consuming. Some of the best ones that you can get away with at work are the older games that can easily be ALT-TAB'd out of when the big boss (not your team leader) comes around. FPS' are probably the best bet. Try Unreal Tournament. You can still get it at most major stores like Best Buy etc... and it does have a spawn version built-in for situations like yours. It is also able to run on the systems that you describe quite well, but the size can be a problem... the spawn version is around 300mb I believe.
Just my 6 cents.
Erutangis ym si siht.
Definitely Counterstrike. The rounds are short enough to make you not realize how many hours you are wasting. It doesn't need an amazing computer to run, and the two teams are quite different so mastering each will take a bit. The levels are fun, and depending on how you do things you can cheat if you have a teammate near you who is dead! Give it a shot.. (it's an addon for Half Life)
Since there will only be 8 people in the entire building where I work, you can guess what we'll all be doing - multiplayer LAN gaming.
:)
I'm sure you are expected to work instead.
Squad action free. www.americasarmy.com
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Unreal Tournament, of course.
Articulos para gente geek: Poleras, linux, libros y mas
Give Liquid War a try...
http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/
It's pretty unique.
Here's some screenshots.
How about XPilot? Not much an eye-candy game, but extremely small and fun, free as in beer and available on many platforms.
classic...
There is practically no way that you can't become addicted to these games. Worms Armageddon isn't totally 2K/XP compatible but there is a patch for that on their website. Have Fun, Fritz
Spooooon!!!!!
Ready for networking! Since there's 8 of you I recommend initially starting off in two rounds, and eliminating each other, filling in with computer players eventually to find the eventual winner.
For some bloody, visceral shooting action, I'd suggest Soldat, which is very similar to Quake/Counter-Strike, except it's a 2D sidescroller. The chaos is immense, and it's easily one of the best side-scrolling 2D action games I've played. It supports multiplayer quite well, and is free (as in beer). It should run fine on your hardware, as well.
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Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
One word, Cube.
It is free (ZLIB software licence - similar to BSD), runs on win32, linux, linuxppc, and can be played in both server and single player mode. FPS style of play, using OpenGL and SDL, it is smooth, fun, and looks great! We need more opensource games like this.
Most importantly of all, cleanup is simple, just delete the directory you unzipped the archive to, and it is all gone.
Enjoy!
I haven't lost my mind!
It is backed up on disk...somewhere...
Starcraft 100% classic, great multiplayer, everybody enjoys it.
Quake N for positive integer values of N less than 3. Literally 1000s of mods.
Subspace This is the greatest game to hit multiplayer since multiplayer was invented.
Counterstrike The perfect complement to Quake. Must-have for any LAN party.
Daboo!
'nuff said.
-Bill
SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
What about FreeCiv? Perhaps it scores low on the easy-to-pickup scale, but I imagine anyone has played some Civilisation version before.
Bonus is that as a turn based game it can be easily paused when necessary, and it is heaps of fun.
Mart"I know I will be modded down for this": where's the option '-1, Asking for it'?
I would give a vote to Armagetron. I have burned many many hours at work with this, you just need to have geeks who like tron around. http://armagetron.sourceforge.net Be sure to grab the addons as well
Tank games require a combination of skill and luck that tends to reward skilled play, while still remaining accesible to newbies if that's a concern. Someone can learn to play decently in 5 minutes, rather than the 40-50 frustrating hours it takes to become decent at Quake/UT/Counterstrike/FPS-of-the-month.
Note that there's an ad banner, but that's just HTML, so it can be removed without any real hassle.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
TetriFast is a slightly updated version of Tetrinet but without the piece delay which makes it a bit more fun. They both, however, are tiny installs and, as requested, they leave no footprint on the machine. Just eliminate the directory they install into and you're fine.
However, it's worth noting that the game is insanely easy to cheat at with a custom client, so it's wise to stick to using a local server that only you and your work mates play on. Luckily, the client comes with a (slightly flaky) builtin server which you can use for that purpose.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
...while some older machines (P2@45) have a Voodoo 3.
;)
You guys have P2s that run at 45 MHz? And there's a Voodoo 3 chipset for it? Surely, *cough* that processor must be a smidgen faster...
Informatus Technologicus
Check out BZFlag!
Great little game. Also free as in beer.
Just watch out for people with cheat clients. Nothing ruins an evening like being on the receiving end of some +40's bullet, watching him BLATANTLY run through obstacles at about 40x the speed of a normal tank.
Scott
Because I don't have mod points
Nope, no sig
http://www.moonbasecommander.com/
Simple and fun to play, low system requirements. Only four players at once, though.
as far as i know the intel 810 graphics only has 1 meg of video ram. you might be able to get away with playing half life or mabie Unreal tournament, but quake 1 and doom are classics, and a heck of a lot of fun at that.
Check out the Quakeforge project on Sourceforge its made alot of advancements in the engine and now runs either with SDL, native GL or Software emu...its excellent and works sweet on my 98, 2k and XP machines, even with my p133 linux box as server :)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/quake/ or
http://quake.sf.net/
"What do you mean you have no ice? Do you expect me to drink this coffee hot?" - Random Customer, Clerks
... but did you not get the memo that the 90's are over and you'll actually have to do some work to stay in business? If you're manager wants to stay a manager, I'd advise him to keep a little tighter lid on things than playing away the holidays. But if you want his job, tell him to play away!
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
When we'd do this, half the guys would like the game, half wouldn't, and then there's 1 or 2 guys who just killed everyone else.
Pass the games out a day or two before so that everyone can get some seat time. That way, your boss isn't in the corner crying "WHAT KEY SWITCHES WEAPONS" while you've got the quad damage and you're sniping with the rail gun from the other corner of the map.
Age of Empires 1
Doom/Doom 2
Quake I, Quake III
Duke Nukem 3D
NHL/NBA/NFL 200x (any EA Sports games)
XPilot
Here's a thought... work? Yes, that old monkey on the back, the thing that pays the bills, the thing THAT YOUR EMPLOYER IS PAYING YOU FOR.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
What? It supports network mutiplayer games too, ya know.
Doom - work your way through pworld. E1M1 is good for multiplayer. E1M7 was a favorite also.
even though it's been out for a while, in my office we still love playing Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds (and the expansion pack Clone Campaigns)...it's a great time playing against each other on our network, or teaming up and playing against others on the zone...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
forgot one point...this game is good for those so called legal issues too..everyone can install the game, but to play multiplayer, you only need about half of the people to have it in their drive...for instance, if you're playing with 2 players, the game requires atleast one person to have the CD in their drive...if you're playing with 3 players, it requires 1 CD...4 players, 2 CD's, etc...and so on and so forth...not exactly free...but half of what you'd pay for a game that requires CD's for everyone!
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
You can get source and windows binaries from ftp://ftp.xpilot.org/pub/.
that that is is that that is not is not
In past Christmas slowdowns, I've taken the opportunity to do work-related things that are actually fun and are much easier to do without a lot of other people around:
- Writing new utilities
- Server stress testing
- Experimenting with new languages
This year, I'll be doing some long-needed data normalization on the Oracle DB while I'm less likely to disturb customers and my fellow developers.Try Abuse. It's an old DOS game, but with minor tweaks to let it run under Windows. (You may need to go to the Free Abuse site for the tweaked version.)
It's a 2D platform game. Run, jump, grab weapons, shoot. Mindless, but lots of good, visceral fun. The controls are trivial (move with arrow keys, aim and shoot with mouse) so even non-gamers can be up and fragging in no time. When my friends and I have LAN parties (which we've been doing since the DOS version was new) this is the "network test game" we run while people are setting up their machines. When you can jump into Abuse, you're on the net.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
bzflag (www.bzflag.org) is open source, runs on windows and linux, and is small and efficient. It will run on almost any hardware if you use basic graphics. A good video card is required to get the best graphics, but it really doesn't affect gameplay.
It is basically a first person shooter, where each player is driving a tank and tries to shoot other players. But these are no ordinary tanks, they can take on special "powers" like the ability to jump, bounce shots off walls, aquire laser weapons, quided missles, etc.
There are many variations that can be introduced to make play easier or harder or just to change strategies. There is also a Capture the Flag variation.
Its good fun and downright addictive. And its free, so you've got nothing to lose - give it a try!
Hey, who else could go for some flapjacks right now?
It is busier now than it has been all year! Who has time for games???
BZFlag is THE multiplayer game! http://www.bzflag.org
My potato gun was confiscated by the United Nations. They said I wasn't allowed to have weapons of mash destruction.
Last night we had a 78+minute game of Quake 3 Arena after work. The best part was that the score limit was 10. It was 2 on 2 with no bots, ctf4, and the excessive server mod. I thought it was pretty good for amateurs like us.
I think our slowest computer is a PIII-600, I used to be the slowest with a PII-400, but then I got a second processor. I run NT4.0, but we've installed Q3 on linux and a mac once here and played fine across network games. I also used to play with an Evans & Sutherland 15mb(no, not 16) AGP video card (rocks for all openGL except games), but I have been recently upgraded to a Voodoo3 16mb AGP(sux for all openGL except for games), also my ram has been upgraded from 128mb to 256mb. The most helpful upgrade was my $8(after rebate at bestbuy) IBM optical mouse which I bought myself. Q3 played fine before all my upgrades so you guys should be fine running it.
The downside is that its like $30(totally worth it) and requires about 500mb on your hard drive. If you can't spring the dough or spare the space, then Quake 2 or even the original Quake, are decently addicting enough to keep you occupied.
THERE IS NO DATA. THERE IS O
Yes, we know you're all good little workers who _always_ work. But the poster's not asking if they should play games. They're asking which are good games. And since it sounds like the acting manager is in on it, I would surmise that it's not really a problem.
Sheesh.
I 2nd the Quake1/2 games.
is gcc. The point of the game is to send a file to gcc and see
if it runs or not. If it gives an error message, then
you have to change the file. Although not a networked game
you can play with others. For example, try to send files
that gcc likes along with your friends. Whoever can get the
most complex file that results in something happening
when done can be declared the winner. Get a trophy for that
guy. You should try it, its fun.
My favorite is Carmageddon. It's more of a driving destruction game. If you ever saw the movie "Death Race 2000", it's the same idea -- you get points for running people over and running into other cars. There are several multi-player games you can play -- a simple race, tag, fox and hens, most points. There are 3 releases. Carmageddon 3 (aka TDR 2000) may still be on store shelves, and I've seen the first 2 re-released into the bargain bin.
Muti-player is a blast -- the game play is great, so you won't notice if your graphics cards aren't the most modern.
As far as legal issues, I think you can play it directly from the CD. You can even make copies of the CD, as long as there is 1 original CD on the LAN.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Linux World review
Game homepage
It's an FPS, it currently runs on Win32 and Linux (including ppc). It's at the early beta stage (current version is something like 0.3) but already very playable, and it's been reasonably stable for me on SuSE 8.0 with the stock kernel. YMMV, obviously. It's also Open Source.
The graphics still need some work, but I'm getting up to 300fps on a 700MHz Athlon with 384M RAM and a GeForce 2 GTS, so it should run fine on all of your machines. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, so I'm not sure if that works as well as the single player.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Subspace is a kickass game.... I can't even begin to count how many hours I spent on that game. Until I ended up with a vid card that it didn't like :( Would run horribly on it. The new client is called "Continuum". It's an updated, free version of Subspace. Try here to get it.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
It's called "Do Some Fucking Work". Way to power up this economy in time of need. ;)
I've actually always loved working the week between xmas and NYE. There's virtually nobody in the office, so interruptions are kept to a minimum and the hours are slightly more flexible.
-- jimmycarter
Sorry, no link, but supah cheap, and was written by a guy so they could play during lunch at work (go fig). Turn based, good, addictive. A mix between Scorched Earth and Starcraft.
Front-line support kind of relies on customers calling in. You keep a skeleton staff in, but they're not going to be run off their feet. Would you want Level 1 phone guys running server stress testing or normalising your Oracle DB?
Another good one to try is Abuse.
Pretty sweet game by the now defunct Crack Dot Com
Play some XEvil. Very small footprint, fast download, easy to learn, and insanely fun to play with 3-8 people.
I'd love to do this with the family over the holidays, but with nieces and nephews (not to mention Grandma) all First Person Shooters are out. Any networked free (demos OK) sports or driving games out there? Anything without blood and guts will do -- violence (car crashes) is OK, but it can't have blood and guts and death. Thanks.
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
This is sort of similar to the Worms games I think, but I've never played those. It's basically a side scroller where you run around and shoot everyone else. It's in a beta period right now, so it's kinda buggy but still fun. Has a couple different play modes, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, CTF, and some rambo thing (haven't played in a while;).
http://www.soldat.prv.pl/
Happy Holiday Fragging!
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
The most fun multiplayer game I've ever played was the original Grand Theft Auto, with the overhead view. I've seen copies of GTA2 in the bargain bins at places like Staples for $10 or less.
Other than that my favorite multiplayer games are Age of Empires 2, and Battlefield 1942. Yes, I know the latter is WAY beyond the specs of the poster, but hell - not everyone here is so constrained, are we ? This is the first game I've ever played which actually made me go out and buy hardware ( a joystick) to play it. The only problem is the shell-shock-induced nightmares I've been having....
Better FX and it will easily run on a 733 (it's Quake II based).
Plus if you run counterstrike it's team oriented for better action in my opinion than just shoot the nearest person.
Free...
Multiplayer...
Lightwieght....
Did I meantion its free...
Better yet its civilization, can kill hours(days) easily...
Just my plug for my favorite time waster
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
1942!!! the multiplayer demo has the entire map and can support massive amounts of players!! Plus variants on types of soldiers one can play! - User lost due to ALT-TABbing cause boss is commin -
- my $.02? - you can't have it...it's all I have!!
Some of these?
No TiVo and no caffeine make me something something...
BZ Flag Is an open source multiplayer tank shooting game, runs on just about anything.
We played it all the time during class last year at my school.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
Do you mean "begs to differ"?
Is English your first language?
You _need_ this game.
:)
Runs fine on a Pentium-100 (Yes, I know, I've tried), and is an absolute _BLAST_!
We played this thing over the network, and it was probably the most fun network game I've ever played.
You'll be hooked, I promise. Just be careful the first time you order a napalm strike; JUDGE THE WIND.
"The first of many!"
--NBVB
Red Alert "Battle Pack" err something can be had cheap and comes with like 7 CDs (including spawn ability) so getting a 8 player game going isn't hard.
:)
It plays like chess, but lacks the "wacthing paint dry" luster. Simple build, fight, destroy, requires some thought and speed.
If memory serves any high end P-1 running 95+ LAN works ok, no specific 3D support required.
I wasted way too much time playing CnC in college, but that was the DOS version and I probally couldn't build a dos based IPX boot disk anymore.
Westwood.COM was the publisher, but I think the are more interesting in selling RedAlert2 or games with higher system requirements.
This is where Auto-Hide earns it's keep. Right click the Taskbar, select Properties, and under Taskbar Options, check "Auto Hide".
Works for me...Unreal! It's only like 14 bucks! Unreal Tournament is the best, better than quake in my opinion.
Pick a server and invade it with your players! Run your own tournament. There are many chess servers you can borrow, and many free clients.
tribes is a definate must for any liking FPSs. the first major team-oriented FPS that was any good, in my opinion (but thats up for debate, i suppose). the install is small, everyone can use the same CD, and you havent played computer games till you know the fun of killing the flag-carrier with a mid-air disc or jumping out of a scout vehical a split second before it plows 3 or 4 enemies.
you need very little in the way of processor power and graphics cards to run tribes. i used to run it on a 333 with a 4mb integrated video card, and the only thing that would hold me back would be my horrible AOL connection (*still* playable, though, i might add, because of tribes beautiful ability to scale all options to fit your comp and connection).
yes, yes, yes. although i would go with worms world party, its all up to opinion. however, worms isnt the same unless all players are within hearing distance, and preferably closer than that. theres a sort of small party atmosphere that comes with that game, with all the trash talk and what not, that reminds me of a game called bomberman for super nintendo. great multiplayer game, but thats another topic.
emulators. get an atari emulator and run a little game called warlords. very basic game, but extreamly fun. for snes, some multiplayer secret of mana would be nice. bomberman is always tons of fun. the list goes on.
little fighter. try it, its amazingly fun, though short.
Ever played bomberman? xblast is a bit like it.
People running around mazes laying/kicking bombs. There's a bit of a learning curve due to the variety of different rules given different maps, but most people get the hang of it after a short while.
Has some bugs but pretty good fun.
Um...I think we did Warcraft II over the christmas break of um...1996?
Although the need for only one CD per 3 people was nice, it's only useful if you can organize all people joining in at the same time. [It's been a while, so I can't remember what happens when someone leaves, however].
Warcraft II also had a problem that it'd take people fairly long to get used to all of the subtlety of the game (don't turn sappers invis or they blow up, etc)
The real problem is when one person gets taken out, and they have to wait for everyone else to finish to start a new game...you end up with lots of people getting frustrated, starting up lots of 2 player games, etc, which defeats the whole purpose.
The only real game of that genre that we found worked for larger numbers was C&C...played with the highest tech level, and the speed cranked all the way up. [Someone would be launching nukes within minutes....games never lasted more than 15..and that was in the days of a P200 being top of the line]
Another options is having everyone gang up against a team of computer players (AoE supported group victory and 8 players, but you'd need space for computers), so every human player normally gets done at about the same time. [Once in a while, someone woud get rubbed out by the computer early on, but it's still better than waiting for those last two humans to finally finish].
The FPS genre might be your best bet, so long as you don't have anyone who gets motion sickness, just because someone can just sit dead as they answer phone calls, or have to run to the john, without screwing up everyone else.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
You always play games!
Just did this Friday. Played on PIII/700's with Intel 810's fine. 10.00 per copy at BJ's and Wal-Mart. Not bad.
Think about it for a second. Which is going to concern you more- your employees wasting a little time blowing off steam during a slow period or your employees installing unlicensed software on company computers that would get the company $ued if an audit was done?
For my part, our group got busted playing Half Life just last Friday- not by my boss, but by HIS boss! The place was dead- all work orders were complete, we hadn't gotten a ticket from the help desk in hours, and even the piddly paperwork stuff (timesheets, etc.) was finished. We have a small LAN that's off of the corporate network that we use as a test environment, and decided to do some "bandwidth testing". Less than an hour into the game in he comes. We all got the deer-in-the-headlights look (God help us if we ever try to play poker!). He smiled and said "should I start wearing a bell around my neck?", then verified that all of our work was done. He didn't seem too terribly upset, and given how much (unpaid) overtime we've all put in this year I don't feel guilty about it, but it's certainly cast a dark shadow on my vacation.
-Cybrex
Doom II is much fun on an office LAN. Just let it live happily in a tiny directory (buried somewhere people won't look), customized with maps/mods as desired. Just make sure you got IPX installed on each PC.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
You would not say "Squaren't," would you?
Ask any "gamer" about the "must play" game the response is predetermined - Counter-Strike. They would also add that it has been the king for many years and everyone now plays it. However, most people use Microsoft software but that doesn't mean it's any good. Choose games that appeal to you. Don't ask anyone else. Another note - I have hosted many LAN parties and I have found that you buy allot various games. Then choose what your are going to play on the day. As peoples moods tend to change.
We found Half-Life brilliant fun (P3/800 + onboard i810), a day or so of that so everyone's got the hang of it, then break out the TF mod :)