OS/2 eZine - http://www.os2ezine.com
Spacer
16 October 2001
 
Robert Basler is the president of Aurora Systems, Inc. and a dedicated OS/2 user since he tired of rebooting Windows 3.1 twenty times a day.

If you have a comment about the content of this article, please feel free to vent in the OS/2 eZine discussion forums.

There is also a Printer Friendly version of this page.

Spacer
Previous Article
Home
Next Article


Lone Peak Automation, LLC


Quakeworld for OS/2

I came across Quakeworld 2.40 for OS/2 on Hobbes this month, and after a couple of evenings of fragging people from far and wide, I have to say, it is rather a lot of fun.


Installation

You can get Quakeworld on Hobbes you will need to get qwclos2_1.zip to play on the internet, and qwsvos2.zip if you want to set up your own server to play on a LAN. You'll also need an installed copy of Quake, I'm not sure if the shareware version will work or not. Since this package uses EMX, you'll need the latest emxrt.zip as well.

To run the server you'll also need to get qwsv230.zip from ID Software (their server is pretty busy) and a sample server.cfg file.

Unzip everything and copy cwcl.exe and qwsv.exe to your QUAKE directory. Unzip the QWSV230.ZIP package with the -dir option to preserve directories into your QUAKE directory. This will create a QW subdirectory. Copy the server.cfg file into the QW directory.

Playing Online

To get started playing online, connect to the internet, then point your web browser at Gameaholic to get a list of active Quakeworld servers. This will give you a list of servers, the number of players playing, the map they are playing, and a description. The only maps I had any luck with started with "dm". Note the IP address of a server you like then start the Quakeworld client. You will see a prompt appear, type

connect 123.123.123.123

to connect to the server where 123.123.123.123 is the IP address of the server you selected. Some IP addresses also have a :12345 number after them, be sure to enter that as well as it specifies the TCP/IP port that the game server is running on. After a moment you should see a "Connected" message.

You can now hit the ` key (at the top left of your keyboard) to get rid of the console screen and you should be ready to play. If you find you can't pick up any weapons or shoot, you are in as an observer. I'm not entirely up on everything yet, but it seems on some servers you need to join a team to play. In my case, I just tried another server until it let me play without any extra steps.

A word of advice, learn to use the mouse to aim, left click to shoot, right click to walk, and hold the Shift key down so that you run. The more you move, the harder it is for others to shoot you. If you try to play just using the keyboard you will get fragged constantly.

The Console

The console is used heavily in Quake. To get to the console, hit the ` key at the top left of the keyboard. Some handy commands are:

COMMANDS - List available commands on the server.
DISCONNECT - Disconnect from this server.
CONNECT 123.123.123.123:12345 - Connect to server.
QUIT - Quit Quakeworld, press Y to confirm.

Anything you type at the console that isn't a command will be broadcast as a message to all other players within the game. Fortunately, when people start seeing command-like messages on their console, they'll ask you what you're doing and offer to help.

There's also online help available by pressing F1, but it isn't too helpful. You'll do much better with the text documentation in the Quake directory.

Other setup commands for screen size, sound level and key bindings are available through the main menus by pressing the Esc key. Hit Esc again to leave the menus. A word of warning, use the T key to test video modes for 5 seconds in the video mode selection screen before you select one with Enter. Most of the modes didn't work on my system and you don't want to be trying to find a mode that works blind.

Setting Up your own Server

Running your own server is a matter of modifying the SERVER.CFG file with your own hostname and serverinfo settings and running QWSV.EXE. I don't think it really matters what you put there if you are just playing on a LAN.

Playing on a LAN

Once you have your own server running, you can connect to it by running the client and typing a CONNECT command with the IP address of the server on your LAN. If you are running both the server and client on the same machine, type CONNECT 127.0.0.1 (provided you have enabled the loopback interface in OS/2 System|TCP/IP Configuration.)

Summary

If you're looking for some fast paced action gaming with friends or strangers, Quakeworld for OS/2 is definitely worth taking a look at. While the game isn't the newest, there is a lot of good quality gameplay left there, and if you don't have anyone to play with, there are a lot of public servers to choose from.

The only problem I had while playing is that sometimes it would think the Alt key was stuck down and only let me go left or right rather than turning. Touching each Alt key once fixed this up. The author is continuing to update it to get the bugs out, although I didn't have any other problems while running it if you don't count a little motion sickness after playing for about an hour on a 19" monitor. There is also an X version which I didn't try, the author describes it as "very slow." Now go, have fun!


Quakeworld for OS/2 Version 2.40
Download: Hobbes qwclos2_1.zip and qwsvos2.zip
Author: Mikulas Patocka and ID Software.

Previous Article
Home
Next Article

Copyright (C) 2001. All Rights Reserved.