============================================================================= DOOM Front End v3.10 ============================================================================= ------ NOTICE ------ To those of you with a previous version of this program, or any other programs that I have released, you will find that my EMAIL address has changed. My previous address was: joshjackson@delphi.com My new address is: jsoftware@delphi.com ---------------- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ---------------- Thanks Id for such a KICK ASS game!! DOOM is a registered trademark of Id Software. Hank Leukart for the "OFFICIAL" DOOM FAQ. Matt Fell for the Unofficial DOOM Specs v1.3 Greg Lewis for his DeHacked source -------- CONTENTS -------- =SECTION ONE= Introduction [1-1] What is DFE? [1-2] Distribution of DFE [1-3] Obtaining the Source [1-4] Disclaimer *[1-5]*Installing DFE (New to DFE v3.00) =SECTION TWO= Using DFE [2-1] Single Player Games (Updated for v3.00) [2-2] Serial Link Games [2-3] IPX Network Games [2-4] Modem Link Games [2-5] Sprite Viewer [2-6] Map Viewer [2-7] Configuring DFE [2-8] Using IPXFER [2-9] WAD Sound Player [2-10] Item Locator [2-11] LineDef Tag Associator [2-12] Map Statistics Collector *[2-13]*Exe Hacker (New to 3.10) =SECTION THREE= Misc Info [3-1] Known Bugs [3-2] Trouble Shooting [3-3] Version History [3-4] Setting up an IPX Network for DOOM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION *1*: Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1-1]: What is DFE? DFE is a Front End for that wondrous program DOOM! For those of you that are not familiar with the term "front end", well, it is simply a way of configuring DOOM without all of the hassles of trying to remember the which of the bazillion command line parameters you can pass to DOOM and the SERSETUP/IPXSETUP programs you need to use. DFE gives you an easy to use, text based user interface for selecting things like: Starting Episode, Starting Map, Skill Level, Number of players, etc. [1-2]: Distribution of DFE PLEASE distribute this utility to anyone and everyone that can make use of it. There is no registration fee or any other such BS. The only thing that I do request is that you include this document, in its entirety along with the program. The following files are needed for DFE: DFE.TXT (This document) TECHNOTE.TXT (Technical Information on DFE) DFEINST.ZIP (Install ZIP) DFE.EXE (The Front End Loader/Intercommunication program) DFESYS\DFESYS.EXE (The Real Mode system program) DFESYS\MAPVIEW.EXE (DOS Protected Mode map viewing program) DFESYS\EXEHACK.EXE (DOOM.EXE hacking/patching program) DFESYS\RTM.EXE (DOS Protected Mode Interface Manager) DFESYS\DPMI16BI.OVL (DPMI Manager Overlay) DFESYS\DFEVIDEO.DRV (The 256 color Video Driver for DFE) DFESYS\THING.DEF (Things Definition file for the Map Viewer) DFESYS\SOUND.DEF (Sounds Definition file) DFESYS\THNGLIST.FIL (Thing List for the Exe Hacker) DFESYS\UNIVBE.EXE (Universal VESA driver in case your card isn't VESA compatible) [1-3]: Obtaining the source for DFE If you would like a copy of the source to this program, I will gladly mail you a copy. It was written in Turbo Vision for Borland Pascal v7. Mail your request to the following: Jackson Software 10506 Bayard Rd. Minerva, OH 44657 Please include $9.95 for a 1.44 floppy containing the source, or if you make any donations of $5.00 or more, I will send you the latest copy of both the compiled version and the source code over the internet. [1-4]: Disclaimer This program come with with no warranty, expressed or implied. Anyone who uses this program, uses it at their own risk (what risks these are, one can only guess). The Author excepts NO responsibility for anyone who should become clinically insane, or otherwise incapacitatied for any reason during the use of this program. Nor shall the Author be held responsible for anyone out there that obtains the source, and thinking they are a brain, should modify it and cause damage to themself or their computer. *[1-5]* Installing DFE (New to v3.00) If you are running an older copy of DFE, I would recommend that you delete the DFE program and any of its associated files. This version of DFE is COMPLETELY different. To begin, unzip the DFE310.ZIP file into your DOOM directory. Next you will have to unzip the embedded ZIP file. Do this with the -d parameter! eg: pkunzip DFEINST -d The -d parameter will ensure that the DFESYS directory is created. It is necessary for the DFE system files to be in this directory. NOTE: DFE be installed in your DOOM directory to function properly! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION *2*: Using DFE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2-1] Single Player Games After Loading DFE (this should not be too difficult!) you will receive a menu giving you selections for Single Player, Serial Link, IPX Network, and Modem Link. To play a single player game, select modem link (just kidding) After selecting your game type, you will be prompted for the episode name or an External Wad file. If you choose a predefined Episode (1-3), you will then be given a list of your game options. This area will differ depending on the game type and episode selected. For a single player game, you will be given the option to select your level, skill, no monsters, and respawn. The option of No Monsters is exactly what it sounds like, NO MONSTERS. In a single player game, the only use I can think of for this is when you just feel like poking around, trying to find secrets and the like. Respawn is a rather nasty option. If selected, anything you kill will return to life 8 seconds later. After you have made your selection, press the OK button or Enter if you haven't already selected the cancel button. The option of loading and External WAD file is not a whole lot more difficult than the above. From you Episode selection box, simply select External WAD File. You will then be given a file list dialog box. Select the appropriate WAD file. DFE will then open the selected WAD file to ensure that is both valid and contains a level to play. If both of these criteria are met, it will then load the level names out of the WAD file. At this point in time, you can only have up to 9 levels in a patch wad file and access it from DFE. [2-2] Serial Link Games If you have not read 2-1 yet, please do so, as I only explain the difference between a the two here. In a Serial Link game the only real differences from a single player game is the selection of your COM port and whether or not you want to play a DEATHMATCH or DEATHMATCH 2.0 (DOOM 1.4 only) Before DFE will spawn DOOM, it will attempt to locate the DOS external command MODE.COM. It uses this utility to set the Baud rate and parity of your selected COM port. If it can not locate MODE, it will simply display a message box, pause briefly, and then continue with execution of SERSETUP.EXE. [2-3] IPX Network Games If you have not read 2-1 yet, please do so, as I only explain the difference between a the two here. In an IPX Network game the only real differences from a single player game is the selection of the number of players and whether or not you want to play a DEATHMATCH or DEATHMATCH 2.0 (DOOM 1.4 only) Please do note that an IPX driver must be loaded before DFE will even enable the IPX Network menu selection. It is NOT necessary to be connected to a Local Area Network (LAN), nor does there need to be any form of server present for IPX Network DOOM to work. Simply installing LAN cards in more than one machine, linking them with cable and loading the IPXODI packet drivers is all that is necessary. (See section 3-4 for information on setting up your own DOOM network!) [2-4] Modem Link Games If you have not read 2-1 yet, please do so, as I only explain the difference between a the two here. In a Modem Link game the only real differences from a single player game is the selection of your COM port, whether or not you want to play a DEATHMATCH or DEATHMATCH 2.0 (DOOM 1.4 only), and the type of modem connection you will be making. The possible modem connections are: Dial and connect, Wait for call, and Already connected. If you specify Dial and connect, you must fill in the Number to Dial field. [2-5] Sprite Viewer This function has been dropped from the main menu and has been incorporated into the Map Viewer. [2-6] Map Viewer This Function allows you to view the DOOM maps before you play the game. It will display monsters, weapons, and "goodies". The goodies include keys, ammo, health kits/bonuses, armor, soul spheres (supercharge), invisibility sphere, light goggles, radiations suits, berserk, and computer area maps. If you select this option from the main menu, you will then be prompted for the desired episode. You can also specify an external WAD file, this is real handy when downloading DEATHMATCH WAD files from various BBSs, etc. After selecting the episode or WAD file of your choice, you will be given a list of viewer options. First of these options is the level that you wish to view. Next, whether or not you want it to display the monsters, weapons, or goodies, the skill level you want to view (Viewing a skill level will show you just what you are going up against.), and finally whether or not you want to view it as a MultiPlayer game (some items will only appear in a multiplayer game). Once you are viewing the map, the following keys will have effect on the map: M (Toggle monsters on/off) G (Toggle goodies on/off) W (Toggle weapons on/off) P (Toggle Multiplayer on/off) 1-5 (Select skill level 1-5) S (Toggle secrets on/off) + (Zoom in on map) - (Zoom out) Home (Return view to original) Arrows (Move map around on the screen, handy for zooming) You will also notice the status display in the upper left hand corner. This display shows the current status of the display toggles. Using the mouse to select any one of these options is allowed and works the same as pressing the keys to do so. Note: if you have an FAST computer (486/33 or better with VLB), you may experience a double click effect on the buttons. This is cause by the map viewer redrawing the map fast enough that it doesn't give you time to get your finger off the mouse button. If this happens, simple press the letter on the keyboard rather than clicking on the Toggle buttons. (This will be fixed in future verisons) The color scheme used by ViewMap is as follows: Blue Walls (Lines) Lt. Blue Doors (Lines) White Secrets (Lines) Green End Level triggers (Lines) Red Monsters (circles) Yellow Weapons (circles) Green Goodies (circles) Note for DOOM TechHeads: New to v2.10 of DFE is the ability to view not only secret LineDefs, but also Secret Sectors. This will allow you to see ALL area of the map that the Game will consider a secret. Any sectors that Are marked as secret will add to your percentage of secrets found at the end of each level. New to v2.50 is the displaying of end of level triggers. These items will be displayed as green linedefs. To view a sprite from the map viewer, simply click on the dot on the map. This will give you a picture and description of the selected sprite. Do note that the map viewer does not display obstacles (such as barrels, candles, etc.) [2-7] Configuring DFE (New to DFE 2.00) If version 2.00 I have included the ability to save a default configuration for each of the game types. To setup your game configurations, select "Configurations" from the games menu. The first configuration option you will want to setup is your PWADS list. This list contains upto 5 PWADs that can be automatically loaded with your game. This will allow you to specify PWADs that contain sounds/ graphics replacement and do not include any playable levels. (Previous versions of DFE only allowed for the loading of one PWAD and only if it contained a playable level.) Do note that the PWADS list must contain names of PWADS that are in your DOOM directory (No path names can be specified). Once you have selected your favorite PWADS, you are ready to setup the rest of DFE. To begin with, I will explain setting up a one player game and then explain the differences between a one player and the other multi-player options. First select One Player from the configurations sub menu. You will be given a list of the 5 PWADs, your default skill level, and whether or not you wish to have NOMONSTERS or RESPAWN active by default. By selecting any of the PWADs, they will automaticall be loaded when you start your game. Do note that the PWADs that your have selected from the list will one be active in the game type specified. To specify any of these PWADs for other game type, you must configure them individually. Once you have selected your desired game options, click the OK button. Your default game options have now been saved. For serial link games, the additional options in your configurations will be the selection of your default COM port and whether or not you wish to play in DEATHMATCH mode. For IPX network, additional options are the number of player, DEATHMATCH, and the default IPX socket to use. NOTE- the IPX socket number is in DECIMAL format. You should be careful when specifying a socket when you are attached to a Novell Network or other server based LAN. For modem games, you will be given the option of selecting your default COM port, DEATHMATCH, and the default phone number to dial. [2-8] Using IPXFER (New to v2.00) In v2.00 I have also built in my IPXFER utilities. This is a powerful set of IPX file transfer programs that allow you to send and receive files over an IPX network VERY rapidly. >>WARNING<< These utilities are VERY sensitive!! If you are having trouble getting your IPX network to function properly in the first place, IPXFER more than likely will not work. Unlike the stand alone versions, the send and receive functions in DFE can not be terminated by a CTRL-BREAK. During most of the IPXFER processing, you can press ESC to abort the file transfer, but during some, the processor time is devoted almost completely to your IPX driver. If you experience a "LOCKUP" while attempting to establish a connection between the two computer, it may be necessary to reboot. If this happens, you can switch over to my stand alone versions. (IPXFER11.ZIP contains sendnet.exe, recnet.exe, and closes.exe) If you are still having difficulties getting your IPX network to run, get yourself a copy of my IPXNET12.FAQ or contact me. IPXFER is designed to send files to one computer at a time. When using this function, DO NOT begin multiple receives. This will cause a packet sequence crash. Sending files: Select Send Files from the IPXFER menu. You will then be given a change directory dialog box. Change to the directory that contains the files that you wish to transfer. After clicking the OK button, you will be prompted for the file specification. The default file spec is *.WAD. (Even though this program gives you a VERY high CPS, it is a good idea to avoid sending the 10Mb DOOM.WAD file.) Once you have entered the file specifications to send, your computer will begin an attempt to establish a connection with the receiver. Receiving files: Select Receive Files from the IPXFER menu. You will then be given a change directory dialog box. Change to the directory that you wish for IPXFER to place the received files into. After changing directories, your computer will begin an attempt to establish a connection with the sender. [2-9] The sound player (New to v2.10) This option has been added so that you can preview the sounds contained in either the DOOM.WAD file or a PWAD file. Before using this option, you must set up your sound blaster settings in the Configurations menu. If you do not have a sound blaster, you want to disable the sound blaster option in the same area as the Sound Blaster setup. Once you have set your Sound Blaster options, DFE will prompt you if you wish to restart. This is similar to the way Windoze works. If you do not restart DFE, your Sound Blaster options will not take effect. Once you restart, DFE will attempt to inialize your Sound Blaster. If it is successful, the Sounds option will be enabled. If it is not, it will inform you and the option will remain disabled. NOTE: you MUST have a sound blaster compatible card! The options for setup are the following: IO Ports: 220h, 240h IRQs: 2,5,7 (I didn't include 10 because DOOM won't support it) DMA: 0,1,3 These are the valid options for a standard Sound Blaster, it you are using a clone, make sure to set your emulation for any of the above options. Once you're set up, select Sounds from the Resources menu. You will be given a Dialog box that will allow you to select and WAD file you wish (Including but not limited to the DOOM.WAD). Once you have made your selection, DFE will attempt to locate any valid sound enties. If none are found, you will be told so. If DFE does find sound entries, it will only present you with a list of sounds that are contained in the specified WAD file. This eliminates the headache of trying to figure out which of the sounds come from the DOOM.WAD and which ones come from the PWAD. Simply select a sound and press enter or double click on it. Oh, by the way, make sure your speakers are turned on! :) ***New to version 2.20*** You will notice that the Sound Player now has a button labled "Export". This button will allow you to save any WAD file sound into Wave file format. [2-10] The Item Locator This feature is handy when downloading PWADs. It will allow you to locate any item on any level. It will also inform you of which skill levels the item appears on, as well as whether or not is only appears in multiplayer games. To use this option, select Item Locator from the Resources menu. Your will then be given a file dialog box to choose the desired WAD file from. Note that is you wish to use a DOOM internal map, simply select the main WAD file. After selecting the desired WAD file, you will be given a list of all of the available WAD file objects. Select the item you wish to locate. After doing so, you will be given a list of the levels that are contained the the WAD file (support all 27). Next, the Item locator will begin initialization and search the map for the specified object. If it can not locate any on this level, it will inform you so. If it DOES find matching items, you will be given a graphical map with all of the selected items apearing in yellow. This current item will have a small red box around it. If you look up in the upper left hand corner of the screen, you will see a "Next" button and a message the reads something like: "Levels 1 2 3 4 5 Multiplayer" This would indicate that the item appears on skill levels 1-5 and only in multiplayer games. If you click in the Next box, the next item will be selected and its properties displayed. To view any of the items, simply click on them with the mouse pointer, this will give you a sprite viewer window similiar to the one seen in the map viewer. Note: Clicking on an object that is not selected with the red box will cause it to become the current item. If a object is inside an area of the map that is outlined in white, this is a secret area. *[2-11]* LineDef Tag Associator This option was VERY highly requested, so I figured it was time to add it to DFE. The associator is accessed through the resources menu and then the Maps sub menu. It will allow you to locate those tough to find trigger locations for lifts, doors, and other such moving areas. Once you have selected your desired map and level (either a PWAD or the DOOM.WAD), you will be given a graphics display of the selected map. By default, the search method is sector based, but can be canged to linedef by clicking the Mode button in the upper left hand corner. When viewing a map with the Tag Associator, any linedefs or sectors that have a tag association will be displayed in purple. With the exception of the secret areas (which are white) and the end of level trigger (green), all other areas of the map will be displayed in gray. NOTE: the white areas (secrets) may have associtation, but will still be displayed in white. To select an area of the map, simply move the mouse cursor to it. The selected area will appear in red and any areas with the same tag number will aprear in yellow. The associator does not yet inform you of the action required to activate a specified linedef. This will be implemented in future releases. Many thanks to the authors of DEU for the formulas for selection of sectors and linedefs! (and the goofy little sound when selecting either) *[2-12]* Map Statistics Collector This feature was another highly suggested feature. It is located in the resources menu, under the Maps submenu. It will display the number of cooperative/deathmatch player start positions, as well as the number of each weapon and the number of each type of monster that is present on the map. It does not yet distinguish beween items that only appear on specified skill levels, or in multiplayer mode only. These options will be implemented in future releases. *[2-13]* Exe Hacker This feature was added to enable you to create DOOM.EXE patches that will drastically change the way the DOOM engine performs. New monters can be created, properties changed, plus an infinite amount of other details altered. If you are not familiar with DeHacked, I suggest that you get yourself a copy. This section was based on the source code obtained from Greg Lewis, author of DeHacked. I would also suggest obtaining a copy of Matt Fell's DEHACKER.ZIP which contains vital information that has been used to help all of us DOOM hackers develope EXE hacking code. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>WARNING<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< -THIS FEATURE IS FOR REGISTERED DOOM 1.2 ONLY. -IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN USING THE EXE HACKING FUNCTIONS - STOP! YOU WILL UNDOUBTEDLY CRASH THE GAME!! -SINCE THIS FUNCTION DOES MAKE MODIFICATIONS TO THE DOOM.EXE ITSELF, IT RECOMMENDED THAT YOU EITHER BACKUP YOUR DOOM.EXE -OR- SAVE A PATCH FILE THAT CONTAINS A PATCH FOR RETURNING YOUR DOOM.EXE TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE. (THIS IS DONE BY LOADING UP THE EXE HACKER WITH AN UNALTERED COPY OF DOOM.EXE AND THEN SAVING A PATCH.) =SECTION THREE= Misc Info [3-1] Known Bugs At this point in time, the only bug known is with the sound player. On some machines, it will only play the first 32k of the sound and then fill in the rest with screach like garbage. It will also refuse to play sounds on some Sound Blaster compatible cards. New sound code development is underway, it should be fixed in the near future. [3-2] Trouble Shooting The following is a list of problems that you may encounter while running DFE. Q) Why am I running out of memory when running DOOM? I used to have plenty. A) Beats me! DFE only uses about 1k of memory when it has swapped out! Personally, I have a 386dx/40 with 8Mb of RAM, I have never had a problem with memory, even when I am running a series of IPX network drivers and a 2Mb disk cache. Q) Why is the IPX Network selection disabled? A) You don't have an IPX driver installed! (Same goes for the IPXFER selections) Q) Why won't the Serial Link work? A) Welp, there is slew of problems that you could be having. Mainly, you should make sure that you have the DOS command MODE.COM in either the current directory or the Path. (DFE uses this to ensure that your COM port is set correctly) Secondly, I have not had much luck with Serial Link, especially when linking two computers of different speeds together. After about 2-3 minutes of play they will begin to bog down until the game becomes unbearably slow. Q) Why is Modem Link DOOM so slow? A) Make sure that you are connected at 9600 baud, N81. Also, make sure that any error correction or data compression is turned OFF! This makes a big difference in the way the game performs. Q) Why won't the Map Viewer allow me to view maps or sprites? A) DFE was unable to set 640x480x256 color mode. This can be caused by any of the following: 1) An incompatible SVGA video card 2) Lack of an SVGA video card (DUH!) 3) Not enough video RAM (265k SVGA cards don't support this mode!) #1 can be corrected on most machines by installing the supplied UNIVBE driver or a vendor provided VESA driver. [3-3] Version History v1.0 Allowed you to only select the level you wanted to play from existing levels. v1.1 Added Map Viewer and .OVL file to save on memory. Map Viewer was in a separate executable file. Allowed the selection of external WAD files. v1.2 Removed .OVL and added memory swapping. Saves an extra 150k of memory Integrated the Map Viewer into DFE. v1.21 Fixed a small bug in v1.2 that would not allow you to view a map if the filename was 8 characters long. (Sounds weird, but thats what I get for using so many stinking pointers and linked lists in this program!) v1.3 MapView has been COMPLETELY rewritten into fully object oriented code, allowing for better control over the map (Internally). MapView also now allows you to "Click" on any sprite on the map and view it. v1.31 Fixes a Memory allocation problem when disposing of a Map Viewer. v1.32 Fixes a bug when loading an external WAD file, it would not present you with the correct list of contained level names. v1.33 Ok, Ok, I know, another bug. Hopefully, this will be the last release before v2.0. The problem of loading multi-player games when loading an external wad file (on some computers) has been fixed. (SHEEZE, why don't you guys ever tell me these things?!?) v2.00 Well, it's here. Its not quite what I had anticipated though. It does not incorporate a new GUI for the map viewer (This has been put on hold for a while), nor does it include the mentioned MAP SEARCH. HOWEVER, I have rewritten a boatload of the DFE main code to include a configuration option and I have built my IPXFER program into the DFE code. The IPXFER code used is 100% compatible with either v1.00 or v1.10 of my seperate IPXFER (sendnet and recnet) utilities. The overlay file is back, this is due to the mass amount of memory needed by the MAP/SPRITE viewer. DFE still swaps itself out of memory before playing DOOM, however. v2.10 Added Sound Blaster WAD file sound playing option. MapView now displays secret sectors as well as secret Linedefs. v2.20 Added the Item Locator. The main DFE code has been broken up and MAJORLY overlaid. The size of the executable file is almost as small than the .OVL file. Also added the capability to export the DOOM sounds to WAV file format. v2.50 Added the LineDef tag associator to enable you to figure out many of those nearly impossble secrets. Also added the capability to export sounds from a WAD file into WAV format, and a Map Statistics collecter to gather information about the items contained in a PWAD, as well as the number of each type of player starting position. v3.00 Main system code has been rewritten. The Map/Sprite viewers (this included the Item Locator and LineDef tag associator) has been moved from the main executable to a DOS Protected Mode program. This will ensure that you have enough memory before attempting to view large maps and sprites. IPXFER has been very highly optimized, with most of the code rewritten in assembly language. DFE now reqires you have a DFESYS directory off of you DOOM directory. This will keep things nice and tidy, considering there are now over a dozen files to the DFE system. All that is required to be in your DOOM directory is the file DFE.EXE, this is now a tiny little (about 20k) file that loads and executes the DOOM Front End System. SWAP code has been rewritten so that it will not interfere with resident programs that reside at the top of low memory (just beneath the 640k boundry). This was causing some systems to hang when you exited DFE. If anyone is still experiencing this problem, PLEASE let me know. v3.10 Added the EXE hacking capabilities to DFE. The patches saved by DFE are compatible with DeHacked v1.3. It can read DeHacked v1.2 and v1.3 patches. It will also allow you to compile your patches into a COM file so that they can be executed from the command line. HACKERS BE WARNED: The executables that are contained in the DFESYS directory will report that they are for internal use only, THEY ARE! The DFE Loader program (DFE.EXE) sets up an intercommunications buffer so that the loader, main system, and any DPMI programs can communicate with one another. Attempts to override this (so that you could use the map viewer by itself, etc) will more than likely result in a system crash. Future programs: Soon, DFE will include the following items: - A PWAD tracking system to keep track of your PWADS and allow you to enter decriptions of them. - A PWAD compiler. This feature will allow to to disassemble your favorite PWADs and regroup them into one PWAD. [3-4] Setting up an IPX Network for DOOM If you have never played IPX Network DOOM, you are missing out BIG TIME! Imagine playing up to 4 player DOOM with very little or NO slowdown in game performance. Unlike Serial Link or Modem Link DOOM which can very seriously slow down the game if one of the two players (and ONLY two players) is running on a 386 based or a slower 486 based machine, IPX networks give you high speed, fluid game play. The reason is simple, DOOM is designed to communicate with a serial device (this includes modems) at only 9600 baud. At this rate, you are only transferring around 800-1000 bytes per second. A SLOW network transfers about 1,250,000 bytes per second!! Some of the faster networks can transfer up to 16,000,000 bytes per second! (Talk about a speed increase!) Welp, Jackson Software can help. I am currently selling everything that you need to setup a full blown EtherNet IPX driven network. This may sound a bit expensive, but its not too bad. (I have one myself) Do note that it is not necessary to set up a Novell LAN or any other such outrageously priced network just to play Network DOOM. All that is needed is a set of EtherNet (or similar) cards, the cables, your computers, and DOOM! My current setup for IPX DOOM is 1 386dx/40Mhz, 2 486sx/33Mhz, and 1 486dx/50Mhz With these machines I can not tell the difference between a single player game and a multiplayer game as far as speed is concerned. If this sounds appealing to you, here is how to obtain your network hardware: Send check or Money Order to: Jackson Software 10506 Bayard Rd. Minerva, OH 44657 Phone: (216) 868-1169 EMAIL: jsoftware@delphi.com Network Pricing: One EtherNet Node.........................................$75 LanPro NE2000 EtherNet Card Software Drivers Instructions for NetDOOM Setup The latest copy of DFE 10ft EtherNet Coax Cable 2 50ohm EtherNet Terminators Two EtherNet Nodes........................................$145 2 LanPro NE2000 EtherNet Cards Software Drivers Instructions for NetDOOM Setup The latest copy of DFE 10ft EtherNet Coax Cable 2 50ohm EtherNet Terminators Three EtherNet Nodes......................................$215 3 LanPro NE2000 EtherNet Cards Software Drivers Instructions for NetDOOM Setup The latest copy of DFE 2 10ft EtherNet Coax Cables 2 50ohm EtherNet Terminators Four EtherNet Nodes.......................................$285 4 LanPro NE2000 EtherNet Cards Software Drivers Instructions for NetDOOM Setup The latest copy of DFE 3 10ft EtherNet Coax Cables 2 50ohm EtherNet Terminators The following is included on disks FREE of charge for each purchase of any of the above Network packages: The DOOM Hacker's tool kit (Disk 1) The Latest version of the Unofficial DOOM Specs The Latest version of the "Official" DOOM FAQ The Latest version of the DEU level editor Includes a demo and all C source The Pascal Source for DFE Includes MANY routines for accessing a variety of info in the WAD file. The Jackson Software's "Outstanding DeathMatch WAD collection" (Disk 2) This collections includes many of my favorite WAD files created by varying authors especially for DEATHMATCHES! !ATTENTION! Tired of the old dog of a computer that you have? Need something with a touch more zip for DOOM and anything else that requires some decent speed? Call Jackson Software today and ask about setting up a real screamer of a computer. I am currently selling everything from a super cheap 386/33 to a full blown Pentium/90! Prices on Pentium systems start at under $2000 Happy Hunting! \ / (O) (O) | \_____/ JJ