Just a quick update on BT Wireplay:
I got my trial software pack this morning. The software includes a
graphical front-end for wireplay and a couple of game demos (Descent 2
and Warcraft 2). Wireplay supports the following games at the moment:
Descent 2 Demo
Descent
Warcraft 2 Demo
Doom (most variants)
Command and Conquer
The bad news -
1) No racing games. Not even F1GP ! I have sent an email to wireplay
for information about using games other than the ones listed, so we'll
see about that one.
2) Head to head only. What a waste of time ! True multi-player
software similar to Kali is apparently in the pipeline but for the
moment Wireplay isn't worth connecting to.
Admittedly it is early days for Wireplay, but I expected something a
little more substantial than this. There is (I believe) a local (i.e.
Manchester, UK) BBS which does support true multi-player games for the
price of a local phone call. You'd think BT would have pulled its
collective finger out and at least offered the same level of service !
With the Wireplay software pack, by the way, you also get an
interactive questionnaire on a disk which you are invited to complete
and return to BT. I haven't had a look at this yet, and I think I'll
leave it for a few days and see how things develop. Any comments I
make now would surely be a little :) negative !
: Admittedly it is early days for Wireplay, but I expected something a
: little more substantial than this.
It simply doesn't work for me - I suspect it's because my modem is
on COM3. The software seems very flaky. I can't be arsed with
paying for a call to the helpline and wasting hours explaining that
I've already tried every stupid thing I'm sure they will suggest,
when, as you say, there's not much of interest there anyway.
If I'm wrong, and someone else does have it working on COM3, do
please let me know, and I'll have another go.
Quoted text (11 lines)
>: Admittedly it is early days for Wireplay, but I expected something a >: little more substantial than this. >It simply doesn't work for me - I suspect it's because my modem is >on COM3. The software seems very flaky. I can't be arsed with >paying for a call to the helpline and wasting hours explaining that >I've already tried every stupid thing I'm sure they will suggest, >when, as you say, there's not much of interest there anyway. >If I'm wrong, and someone else does have it working on COM3, do >please let me know, and I'll have another go.Now here's an idea I've been pondering...
I haven't received an e-mail reply from BT about using unlisted games
over Wireplay. Either they don't read their e-mail very often
(probably) or don't know how to read their e-mail (time will tell :) -
anyway, I rang them to ask and the conversation went something like
this:
Me: Why can't we play unlisted games over Wireplay ?
Wireplay-type person: You can only play the games listed. They are
(goes on to list the games). We will add more games soon.
Me: Yes, but why can't we simply play *any* game over Wireplay ? After
all, Doom, Command and Conquer etc. have not been specially modified
to work over Wireplay. Your software is simply a TSR which pretends to
be a null-modem link to another PC.
Wireplay-type person: You can only play the games listed. We will add
more games soon.
You get the picture...
In case you were wondering what my point was :) here it is:
The list of games to play is in the file called GAME.DAT in the
Wireplay directory. This simply lists the title of the game (as it
appears on the list you choose from in the Wireplay software), the
path to the game and the name of the program to run.
I have tried simply adding a new game to the list. The software will
quite happily accept the new game, but as soon as you log on to
Wireplay you get a message saying "<name of game> is not a Wireplay
game".
I think we're going to have to be a bit sneakier. Instead of trying to
add a new game to the list, I plan to simply change the path and
program information for one of the existing games to point to a game
of my choice et voila ! A new, unlisted, Wireplay game !
One slight snag. I need a volunteer for my little experiment :) We
will choose a game to play and a time at which to connect and try this
out. If we succeed, we will complain loudly to BT about them
restricting the games we can play for no good reason. Maybe then
they'll get their a***s in gear and give us the decent multi-player
*** facility we want.
Any Wireplay trialists who are interested please e-mail me.
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* "What ? Are you mad ?" * Glenn Davies *
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Damn !
You guessed it, it didn't work. We tried F1GP and the game refused to
run, probably due to an out of memory error (I don't know how big
Wireplay's TSR is, but I think this is the most likely cause). We also
tried Duke Nukem 3D, but that simply crashed as soon as the Wireplay
software tried to load the setup.exe program.
Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that. Looks like
we'll be stuck with Doom, Virtual Pool and other rubbish.
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* "What ? Are you mad ?" * Glenn Davies *
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