Just like that there is a post left at our forums that the infamous teamplay issue has finally been resolved. Incredibly enough, the post was left by the developer himself… an invitation hand delivered for the MechWarrior 3 Community. What is GameRanger? It’s a gaming service that functions just as GameSpy or the MSN Gaming Zone but without all the ads and bloatware. As I said earlier… what sets this service apart is the enabling of the teamplay function that was lost when the Zone discontinued support for CD-ROM games.
And yes… it’s FREE. There are upgrades to enable additional features but the basic package allows you to host games with teamplay or deathmatch options. Rooms can allow up to 16 players! All the usual features that the gaming tables had at the Zone are there such as a title for your room, kicking players, passwording the door in addition to a couple of new features such as allowing only friends to join, allowing only premium accounts to join, conducting ladder competitions and my favorite… voice comms is available for all premium accounts. Even the free accounts can hear the comms but they can not transmit.
I’ve tested the software on my current machine:
AMD Sempron Processor
Win XP Pro SP 2
1GB RAM
nVidia 5600LE AGP GFX card w/ 256 MB’s Memory
Cable Internet
DLink DI-604 Router w/ built in Firewall
Initial game launch was almost instantaneous. Teamplay function was enabled with no glitching while creating teams. Gamelaunch was fast too and I could see anyone that was in my lobby after locking the settings. After the game terminated, I was back in my lobby. Although some of the people I gamed with said they had problems exiting out of MW3… I had no hang ups. The only drawback that I have come across so far is that GameRanger is not compatible with anything less than W2K. Legacy machines will be unable to use this software.
Ok everyone, there are no more excuses to make. We have a stable and reliable place to meet. We have the ability to once again have team games. And as always… you all have this site and the Mech3.org forums for continued support. Let’s start populating the GameRanger servers and have some fun. You can also see the extensive list of other games supported HERE. If you’re thinking about getting a premium account… they even offer a 30 day Refund. A free account is “Bronze” and then there is “Silver” and “Gold” accounts.
I’d like to personally thank Scott Kevill, the developer of GameRanger, for taking the time to register at our forums and extending the invitation for us to try his great software.
Click HERE to download GameRanger
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Well… for starters… they’ve moved servers and have a great new look. They had their “re-grand-opening” a few days ago and it’s good to see that MekTek is back online and ready for business. Speaking of which… a new MekPak is in the works and some great new features are being thrown into the mix that some of us old-school MW3 players are sure to enjoy. There are some video clips at Youtube showing directional jumpjets and a free floating reticule that are being proposed for MP4.
Many hardcore mech fanatics were disappointed with the look and feel of MW4 despite the numerous add-ons and enhancements that have been integrated over the years. I’m no expert on MekTek’s previous MekPaks but the looks of this latest one just might prompt me to find my copy of Mercs and give it another try.
Stop by MekTek and tell them what you think about some of these classic game features. Don’t forget to watch the video clips at Youtube HERE and HERE. Enjoy!
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Has anyone noticed the ad for the World Community Grid on the right pane of this index page? Let me tell you a bit about this “Community Project”. Did you ever think as a kid that you would be able to change the world? Would you like to be a part of something that could very well do that on a grand scale? I know I’ve asked lots of questions but it’s something I’d like for you to think about. If you’re reading this then obviously you have a computer… and if you’re like me you don’t always turn the thing off when you’re done surfing because of the inconvenience of a boot up. Unless of course you have some super quad cored mega RAMmed l33t m4ch1n3 that turns itself on when you sit in front of the monitor and says “Good morning, Dave”. Anyway, why not donate your PC’s idle time to run a small numbercrunching program in the background that will actually chew on significant global detriments such as famine, cancer or AIDs? (I know, another question!)
Well here is your chance. Click the link, register yourself and download an application and join the MechWarrior 3 Community Project along with the rest of the participants of the Grid to find answers to just such things. I personally have two or three antique PC’s that I plan to network and connect to the internet so they can all be running 24/7 on research… provided that I have no power outages here. Let’s work together to find some answers. Here is a LINK to our team page.
Thanks in advance
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It was revealed yesterday at our Community forums the real truth behind MicroSoft’s XP Service Pack 3 release. Here is an excerpt of the summarized proposal of what was guesstimated to be the inclination of the great Bill Gates:
Gates: Darn that Battletech.
Ballmer: What’s wrong with it?
Gates: SILENCE YOU FOOL! HAVE I TAUGHT YOU NOTHING?!
Ballmer: Google is bad?
Gates: AND BATTLETECH! BATTLETECH IS VERY BAD!
Ballmer: Um… why?
Gates: Because it provides competition.
Ballmer: To WHAT?!
Gates: To my giant army of mecha that I plan on taking over the world with
Ballmer: we don’t have-
Gates: YES WE DO!
Ballmer: Oh. But how would a bunch of fictional robots fight our REAL ones?
Gates: It… I… go make it suck. NOW!
Ballmer: YES! But how?
Gates: First, we’ll make a game.
Ballmer: And make money from it!
Gates: NO. Money is irrelevant. I simply want to destroy Battletech. We’ll call is, say, MechAssault and make it suck. Badly.
Ballmer: Can we afford to do that?
Gates: People will buy anything. Remember Windows ME?
Ballmer: Oh, that’s right. But what about the people who already own a BattleTech game?
Gates: Umm…. let’s see… we’ll create a 3rd service pack for XP.
Ballmer: Didn’t we already fix XP and make it perfect?
Gates: Yes, but this 3rd service pack will break BattleTech games.
Ballmer: I think that’s asking for another lawsuit.
Gates: Fine. Make up some crap it’ll supposedly do and make it break ALL the good games.
Ballmer: ALL of them,?! WHY?!
Gates: Because that way no one will catch on to my diabolical schemes to break Battletech! NOW GO!
*Ballmer leaves the area*
Ballmer: OK EVERYONE LISTEN UP! I HAVE A NEW ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL YOU CODE MONKEY FREAKS!
CMF: *adds in Windows ME code to replace the game support that XP had*
And that’s all I got to say about that
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We are not alone. Someone from our Community found a dedicated MechWarrior 2 site that supports everything you need to get your game up and running…and they have Netmech DOS to play online! I’m happy to see another site that (A) is dedicated to MechWarrior and (B) will not allow a great game to fade into obllivion. Please stop by to register at Mech2.org’s forums if you are a MW2 enthusiast. Tell them Mech3.org sent you there!
http://www.mech2.org
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Sorry for the lack of updates.
Currently I’m cleaning up the Help Room Forum to make searches faster and more productive. We now have a “unresolved issues” forum for abandoned threads or problems that were beyond our experience. Anyone who would like to resurrect an old thread is more than welcome to come back and do so.
There is a “solved issues” forum for the solutions that lack any pattern such as “how do I unlock my reticule” and “why can’t I get to the next mission after completing the previous one”. This forum is locked so they will not be hijacked by other Members posting new problems.
The “announcements and FAQs” forum is for just that. These are known issues that have been solved or for installation guides concerning XP and/or Vista systems. We’d love to hear from anyone with success stories with these operating systems so their system specs could be posted for future reference.
Lastly… there is a “working on” forum for problems currently being deliberated. Anyone with skills, experience or time is welcome to try and help these folks out to get MW3 running on their system. Our meager Staff would be very appreciative of the volunteered time.
Please be patient while the cleanup continues,
Thanks
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