PLAYING WORMS OVER A LOCAL AREA NETWORK --------------------------------------- This document is laid out as follows; A) Introduction B) Configuring your network card using a Novell Driver C) Configuring your network card using a Packet Driver D) Playing WORMS using WINDOWS drivers E) Playing WORMS over the Modem or Null Modem Connection F) Playing the game G) Trouble Shooting, Getting hold of appropriate driver-software A) Introduction --------------- Wormss offers network play, with the addition of being able to message any or all of the players - adding to the espionage factor! Worms is still turn based and you get to watch your opponents every move! Each game of Worms can be played by up to four players on a Local Area Network network. The network "language" Worms speaks is called IPX. If you are familiar with playing games over a network, chances are that you already know how to make your network card "talk" IPX. More people can join the network "group" (actually up to 16) but only 4 may play at once, the rest may "spectate". B) General Conditions for Network Play -------------------------------------- You will need the game in each machine you`ll be using. All must use the equivalent version (ie. Floppy OR CD) Any network card can be used as long as: i) The network card can be used on a Novell NetWare network. Most network cards come with a driver for Novell networks. Check your cards documentation for more information. These differ from card to card and are copyright, we cannot supply you with drivers. -or- ii) You can find a Packet Driver for it. Packet drivers for most cards are available from Internet Sites and Shareware resource sites, we have details of such sites on our World Wide Web pages. (http:\www.team17.com) -or- iii) You can find a driver for Windows or Windows for Workgroups/Windows 95 for it. Check your cards documentation for more information. C) Playing Worms using a Novell driver -------------------------------------- Three different drivers are needed to enable Worms to be played using a Novell driver. Some cards come with all these drivers. The three drivers are: LSL.COM, IPXODI.COM and a "MLID driver" that matches your card. The filename for this depends on what card you have. Your cards documentation or network administrator should be able to give you the filename. Example: If you have a NE2000 compatible card, the MLID driver is called NE2000.COM The three drivers must be loaded in the following sequence: 1) LSL.COM Type LSL.COM 2) NE2000.COM Type NE2000.COM 3) IPXODI.COM Type IPXODI.COM You are now ready to start playing Worms over the network. D) Playing Worms:Reinforcements using a Packet Driver ----------------------------------------------------- Two different drivers are needed to play Worms using a Packet Driver. The name of the Packet Driver depends on which card you have. In addition, you need an IPX driver. The most commonly used is called PDIPX.COM which is available from good shareware resources and on the Inter net. The Packet Driver usually needs additional options to be specified. If you are not sure which options to use, check the documentation for your Packet Driver. These options specify which "interrupt vector" the Packet Driver should hook on to, etc. If you are unable to find a Packet Driver for your card, a very popular set of Packet Drivers, called Crynwr, is available from good shareware/freeware suppliers - our website can offer directions so that you can pick these up easily enough. Example: If you have a 3Com Etherlink III ISA network card, the packet driver is called 3C509.COM The drivers must be loaded in the following sequence: 1) 3C509.COM Type 3C509 0x65 2) PDIPX.COM Type PDIPX You are now ready to start playing Worms E) Playing Worms using Windows ------------------------------ Microsoft Windows for Workgroups and Windows 95 come with drivers for most cards. If the network drivers are not already installed, follow the documentation on how to add a network card to Windows. Make sure that the driver for IPX is installed: Windows for Workgroups: ----------------------- Open the Control Panel and click on the Network icon. Click on the Drivers button and a list should appear. Look for "IPX/SPX-compatible protocol". We recommend that users do NOT run WORMS under Windows 3.0 or 3.1 or 3.11, but under DOS or WIN'95. If possible, set up your network card through DOS using IPX. Windows 95: ----------- Choose Start, Settings and Control Panel. Click on the Network icon and a list should appear. Look for "IPX/SPX-compatible protocol". If it's not in the list, click on the Add button, and choose Protocol. Select Microsoft from the list to the left, and then "IPX/SPX-compatible protocol" from the list on the right. After the machine has restarted, you are ready to play Worms. F) Starting Worms for network play ---------------------------------- After you have started your IPX, Worms can in most cases be started without any additional options. In some cases you might have to tweak the settings to match your environment. You can specify options by using the SET command in DOS before starting Worms. The options you can specify are: -W Time limit for waiting for other players to join the network. -S Socket number. In some cases, you can not use the default socket 7777 on your network. You should check with your network administrator before choosing another socket. Set NETINFO=1 (Turns on network) G) PLAYING WORMS VIA MODEM -------------------------- Playing games like Worms over the modem is not an easy task due to the technicalities of actualling getting two remote machines to talk to each other reliably. We have made the Modem configuration as configurable as possible to ensure that users can modify the set-ups for their own modems. Worms by Modem does require at least some technical knowledge of your Modem, or at least your modem's manual to hand! A modem is connected to your machine via a so called serial port. First of all you need to find the correct settings for the serial port the modem is hooked up to. Check the documentation for your machine. If you are unable to find the settings, at least make sure the modem is hooked on to serial port 1 or 2 (COM1 or COM2). Settings for serial ports cosist of an address and an IRQ number. The standard settings for COM1 is address 3F8, IRQ 4 The standard settings for COM2 is address 2F8, IRQ 3 The most common settings for COM3 is address 3E8, IRQ 4 The most common settings for COM4 is address 2E8, IRQ 3 The next step is to find the correct speed for your modem. This depends on your modem, and in some cases your serial port. Check your modem documentation for a suitable speed. SET NETINFO=-CWORMS.CFG -W120 -S1212 -T10 -P0 -M_P2F8 -M_I3 -M_B9600 -M_T14 -M_P Com port in hex -M_I Com ports IRQ level -M_B Baud rate -M_T Trigger level (Fast FIFO UARTs only ( exclude this if uart not present)) -M_D Send command string to modem (using Hayes command set) Note specifying any -M option makes game use COM port otherwise IPX is used. The calling user should type MODEOUT before running Worms, the recieving user should type MODEIN prior to running Worms. When the modems have connected, press a key to commence the game. Play as per the network instructions. A connection of 9600 is acceptable. Users with performance machines, Fast Uart chips and quality modems, may try for a higher speed connection. You will have to edit the MODEOUT and MODEIN batch files (found on the CD) so that they match your modems operation. To play locally over a null modem cable, type SERIAL before running Worms. If you have any questions regarding WORMS over MODEM, then please EMAIL us at 'wormsmodem@team17.com' A support area on our web-site will be set up and we hope to supply information from your feedback. We also ask that users who are enjoying the game over modem to let us know their configurations and what is in their batch files, so that we can make other less proficient users aware of the required configuration. Unfortunately Team17 cannot guarantee successful Modem-Modem connections when using WORMS over MODEM. G) PLAYING WORMS ---------------- Play is as per usual, with one extra feature... MESSAGING! On your turn, press T to TALK. You`ll be given a selection of players to talk to, or press A for ALL. Type your message and hit return. If time runs out, your message is aborted. If you send a message to a single player in a multi-player games, only that player will see the message and the sender name. Other players will see "WORMS ARE TALKING"... Get ready for Paranoia! Note: On the menu, Each player must select their own team in the roster as this dictates which terminal will control each team. TROUBLESHOOTING --------------- If you have problems, please EMAIL us at SUPPORT@TEAM17.COM GETTING APPROPRIATE DRIVER SOFTWARE ----------------------------------- In case of difficulty, please pay our website a visit at the following URL... You will find that we offer shortcuts to most IPX software solutions. http:\\www.team17.com