Anyone playing Nascar99 over a home LAN? please let me know what HW/SW you are using

Planning on setting up a home LAN this summer Nascar99 is a must, therefore a Windows-only solution will not do Prefer a setup that does not require me to pull cables Any suggestions??? --------------------------------------------- "Today's problems were yesterday's solutions" Delete the 999 to email

I just picked up a D-Link Network-In-A-Box kit from Fry's Electronics for $60 (10 mbps, the slow kind, but plenty fast for games) Since both computers are next to each other, there was no cable pulling :) I also have a little text file I ended up writing on how to make the PCs see each other, since it was a pain and some of my friends got the same kit too (it's not ***ce you have the settings, oh, and Windows 95 and 98 don't like each other. Works much better if both are 98.) I run the Nascar99 DOS executable in Win98 with no problems. Here are my computers: PC1: ASUS P2B Motherboard 64MB PC100 SDRAM IBM 8.4 GB Deskstar Samsung 32X CDROM Matrox Millenium G200 8MB AGP D-Link DE-528 network card (ISA IIRC) Soundblaster AWE64 Value Diamond SupraMax 56K Winmodem PC2: Abit BH6 Motherboard 64MB PC100 SDRAM Western Digital 6.4 GB Hard drive Matshita (Panasonic) 24X CDROM Diamond Stealth II S220 Rendition 4MB PCI card D-Link DE-528 network card SB16 clone, ISA ZoomModem 33.6 'real'modem -- Kirk Lane Tempe, AZ ICQ: 28171652 BRT #187 "I read dead Russian authors volumes at a time I write everything down except what's on my mind 'Cause my greatest fear is the sucking sound And then I know I'll never get back out" -'Narcolepsy', Third Eye Blind >Planning on setting up a home LAN this summer >Nascar99 is a must, therefore a Windows-only solution will not do >Prefer a setup that does not require me to pull cables >Any suggestions??? >--------------------------------------------- >"Today's problems were yesterday's solutions" > Delete the 999 to email

On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:52:45 -0700, "Kirk Lane" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>I just picked up a D-Link Network-In-A-Box kit from Fry's Electronics for >$60 (10 mbps, the slow kind, but plenty fast for games) Since both >computers are next to each other, there was no cable pulling :) I also have >a little text file I ended up writing on how to make the PCs see each other, >since it was a pain and some of my friends got the same kit too (it's not >hard once you have the settings, oh, and Windows 95 and 98 don't like each >other. Works much better if both are 98.) I run the Nascar99 DOS >executable in Win98 with no problems. Here are my computers:

[snip] Jim Burlis starting here: First, our hardware: celeron 300s @ 450 64 to 128 meg of ram Verbal Commanders Voodoo Banshees or Voodoo III's (all varieties) SB Live Values various wheels (not an issue for LAN play) Mostly PCI Realtek chipset generic combo 10baseT/10base2 cards. We do run Dlink drivers though, seem most stable. Had lots of problems with Win98's generic Realtek drivers, mostly with drive sharing and printing One thing you definetely want to do is under your IPX settings change frame type from auto to 802.3. I don't remember if this was ever an issue for NASCAR, but it was certainly an issue for several games. We have used coax and generic hubs, usually mixed, though for troubleshooting we have run all coax and all hub and everything in between. Are you successfully racing? We ran into many, many, problems with N99. Last year we ran a full season running 4 races every 7 weeks with N2, had a few issues, but with N99 we have experienced the following: -player car spinning wildly at start of race (seemingly no throttle or wheel response to input) Irony here is practice and qualifying seemed fine... go figure. -random reboots (not just F2 at Rockingham... see below) -if ANY player drops from race, that's it for the race (N2 only cared if the host dropped) -endless tweaking of the driver list still resulted in everyone seeing themselves in the host's car (we had this working perfectly in N2 (i.e. we understand the concepts behind the order of the driver list)) I'm sure there were more issues, but that was enough to discourage us from even trying our season races again. Unfortunately, we didn't want to go back to N2 because we were so psyched about: -double file restarts -engine blowing is much less frequent in 99 at arcade damage (a very big deal when it comes to enjoying a full day of points racing) -improved 3dfx performance We got together for a plain old LAN day last weekend and tried a short Bristol truck race with no AI drivers for fun... same problems... There was a post in this newsgroup right when we started our season that documented alot of this (Believe me, the first thing I did after everyone packed up and left was go looking for a magic bullet to fix these issues). Let me see if I can find it.... Here it is: old post starting here: ******************************************************** This is a list of the errors discovered by myself and several other drivers in an offline league. All are in Nascar Racing 1999 Edition and all occur comonly! In fact we discovered a new one today! At Las Vegas the screen will freeze but sound continues, then when screen unfreezes the car is either further down track or into the wall. That is, *when* the screen unfreezes without requiring a full reboot of system. Ron Patrick Shumar <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>What you game you been playing. I have only experienced two of the problems you >mentioned. >R. II wrote: >> From: Ron Riekens II (on behalf of self, and several drivers in a top 10 league) >> To: All Sierra Development Staff involved in creating Nascar Racing 1999. >> Re: Use of Customers as Beta Testers (Report on "testing" thus far). >> CC: Numerous Sim Racing League Directors, the rec.autos.simulators >> newsgroup, Sierra tech support. >> Dear Sierra, >> Many, many of us, have purchased your software known as Nascar Racing 1999 >> Edition in anticipation of being able to have full Craftsman Truck physics, >> as well as presumably better quality in the BGN and WC physics and AI >> behavior while awaiting the release of Nascar Racing III, or 2000, or >> whatever it is being called these days. >> At this point I feel safe in saying that many of us feel that 1999 Edition >> would have been better named Nascar Racing Y2K. >> This program, as we in one of the top 10, indeed recently listed at or near >> top of list, offline sim racing leagues in the world feel, has far more >> bugs, and indeed, more serious bugs, than its parent version Nascar Racing >> II. And yet to date we have seen little or no indication of any patch in the >> works toalleviate these problems which seriously degrade playability, and in >> fact may even have potentially harmful effects for some computer systems! >> Below you will find brief, yet still clear summaries of the problems which >> at my request, have been reported to myself in less than a 24hr period. Many >> of these I have experienced myself as well. These are commonly occurring >> bugs and problems experienced by a large percentage of simulation drivers >> and do not apear to be isolated incidents. There also will be found some >> word for word quotes of received messages from persons who have approved my >> use of their full info in this letter, and in some cases still have replays >> and or documentation of the bugs available on request as evidence to these >> problems. >> Please read the whole listing as there is further info/discussion following >> the listing. >> The errors/bugs are not listed in any order of severity, but more in order I >> received them in. >> Hardware Problems: >> 1: Sim suddenly shuts off, dumping back to the Win98/95 desktops. (this is >> on same systems as last year with N2, (multiple systems listed which had no >> N2 problems last year)). >> 2: Graphics in some turns stutter in 3dfx & rendition modes. (this occurs >> under Win95/98 with a large variety of system configs from the basic to top >> line setups). >> 3: High pitched audio making sound effects sound like "chipmunks" in 3dfx >> under DOS mode bootup on Win98 system, if boot first into Win98 and don't >> play any sounds before running it works ok. >> 4: Sound driver probs with Win95/98 booting to desktop, often requiring full >> shut down to restart. >> 5: Loss of sound followed aprox 1-2 minutes later by hard lockup of system >> requiring full power off restart. >> 6: All AI stop behind pace car in turn 4, player still able to drive around >> field, system records no further continuation of stats. The only solution >> found thus far was to shut down & restart. >> 7: (so far known to happen at Rockingham): 2 occurrences of system shutting >> down and rebooting on its own when F2 screen displayed in the in car view, >> same system no probs reported if don't use F2 key. >> 8: Screen blanks while sound continues. >> 8a: Screen blanks and sound stops. >> 8b: Screen turns purple and sound stops. >> (all required full system restart) >> Again, these problems have been reported as occurring on everything from >> base line systems, to full blown brand new systems with maxed sound, video, >> hard disk, and ram. Many of these systems functioned with absolutely no >> problems reported when running N2! >> AI Code Related Probs: >> 1: Cars stopping suddenly in various turns at green flag then rapidly >> speeding back up at start of race and occasionally on restarts. >> 2: On last lap of cautions AI in mid pack will suddenly stop for a beat, >> then continue on rapidly. They stop far too fast for player to keep from >> ramming if is in correct pace lap position. >> 3: Pace car will fly past player at an apparent speed of "mach 2" (reported >> by many people with that description, also occurs with an occasional AI racer). >> 4: Pace laps at over 200mph. >> 5: After green flag pit stop every car stops on the apron coming out of turn >> 1 & won't continue. >> 6: In turn 3 after a caution AI car flys up off apron at 45 deg. angle and >> T-bones player at 75mph+. On review of replay all AI cars which were on >> apron did same thing, continuing on to bounce off outer wall with no damage >> except to player. >> 7: When viewing replays of qualifying laps full AI field reported to be seen >> sitting on track with player car driving through them, cars not seen during >> actual lap, only in replay (ghost cars). >> 8: AI cars observed crashing, then after yellow when go back to review >> replay the cars are still on track being driven through. >> 9: Caution comes out, players finds whole field plus pace car stopped just >> past start line. player stops and gets creamed by AI car. After player pits >> to repair damage returns to track and whole field still sitting on track by >> starting line. >> 10: On cautions when player slows to follow line AI car blows through player >> at high rate of speed, destroying player car but no damage to AI car. (also >> happens on pit road) >> 11: AI cars blowing past player under caution, in frame by frame replay >> driver and most AI advance aprox 2-3 feet of track in 1 frame, the speeding >> AI car will clear entire back straight at Taladega in 4-5 frames (while all >> other cars advance aprox 1 car length!) >> 12: Spotter calling player to move ahead of a AI car, AI won't yield correct >> position to driver. >> 13: When AI on apron in turn 1 returning to track from pits racing AI slow >> way down going by. >> 14: On large AI wrecks cars will not move again. >> 15: Smaller AI wrecks that don't clear track have been seen to have rest of >> field one car at a time continue around track and pile into wrecked cars, >> never clears

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