Doom NetBIOS Interface V1.01
Information File (DOOM4NB.TXT)
-------------------------------
CONTENTS
1. Loading the Drivers
2. Running Doom
3. Example
4. Loading Sequence
5. Doom Parameters
1. LOADING THE DRIVERS
To enable your NetBIOS network to run Doom, you must load the
drivers as described in this section. You can load them in any order.
> Make sure your NetBIOS is running. If it is not running, the
DOOM4NB driver will tell you. If it is not running, consult your
network documentation. DOOM4NB only needs the NetBIOS portion, but
should have no problems if the entire network software is running.
> Copy the Doom driver, DOOM4NB.EXE, to your DOOM subdirectory.
2. RUNNING DOOM
Now you're ready to run Doom. This is the command line syntax:
DOOM4NB <PARAMETERS>
Parameters are listed below under the heading "Doom Parameters."
Before you specify your parameters, be sure to read the "Example" and
"Loading Sequence" sections below.
3. EXAMPLE
The first person to load Doom is the game master computer. If this is
a four-player game using new deathmatch, nomonsters, level 11 play,
type:
DOOM4NB -WARP 11 -NOMONSTERS -ALTDEATH -NODES 4 -SKILL 1
As you can see in this example, the game master can put any game
parameters on the same command line with DOOM4NB. They must
follow the command DOOM4NB, and each must be preceded by a space
and hyphen.
The people using the second, third and fourth computers simply type:
DOOM4NB
4. LOADING SEQUENCE
Each player should wait until the preceding player has come to the
"Waiting for other players..." message before loading DOOM4NB.
If two computers attempt to connect to the first computer at the same
time, one will probably be locked out of play and everyone will have
to start over. If the second player gets DOOM4NB to load before the
first computer, the second computer becomes the first computer.
Consequently, you may not be playing the game with the parameters you
expect, since none were loaded from the second computer's command line.
5. DOOM PARAMETERS
The list of parameters can be any combination of DOOM parameters
and any parameters that might be needed for the DOOM4NB driver.
The order of the parameters does not matter.
-launch game
Name of the Doom game to play (DOOM, DOOM2, HERETIC) (default DOOM)
DOOM4NB supports games that use the Doom engine.
-nodes #
2,3 or 4 player game (default 2)
The first player to start specifies the number of players in
the game. The game won't start until all the players have
connected to each other.
-adapter #
NetBIOS adapter number (default 0)
NetBIOS allows for more than one network adapter. Specify an
adapter number if you need to use one other than adapter #0.
All players must be accessible through the same network adapter.
-set name
Game set name (default none)
It's possible to have more than one multi-player game active on
the network at one time. To allow this, each set of players
must use a unique set name. The name will be truncated to 11
characters.
-vector #
PC Interrupt vector (default automatic)
The NetBIOS interface and Doom need an interrupt vector to pass
information back and forth. The system attempts to find an
available vector. If none are available, you must specify an
available vector number.
-send or -sendnoack (default sendnoack)
NetBIOS Send command number
Some NetBIOS implementations can send data between players
faster by not requiring an acknowledgement for each send.
Specify the NetBIOS send command to force the Doom/NetBIOS
interface to use this feature, if available.
-framerate #
Number 1-5, used to reduce frames sent (default 1)
By default, the system sends 35 frames per second to each
player. On busy networks with four players the framerate may
need to be reduced to increase game speed. The framerate number
is a divisor with 1 as the default: 35/1=35 35/2=17 etc.
-test
Test the NetBIOS communications
The NetBIOS interface has a built-in self-test mode. This can be
used to determine whether the users can communicate with each
other over the network.
-help
Displays the parameter information contained in this section.
