I got the GOG version today (thanks for it, it's really an appreciated present) and convinced a buch of friends to create a gog account in order to have some old-fashoned deathmatch fun with them.

unfortunatly, I haven't been able to create a network game with them, either with me or somebody else hosting.

is there a particular port I have to forward in my router?

*edit:
I'll be more specific, I was in a hurry because I had my friends in skype making a lot of noise because they couldn't play :D

so basically I start a network game as host, give my friends my public IP address, they start the network game as well (as client), but when dosbox starts, just before the settings menu it says "IPX Tunneling Client failed to connect to server at [my ip address]", while I'm silent and sad at the "attempting to find all players for a [x] player network game", with all that sad dots that keep coming :(

Please help <3

I'm actually about to attempt this my self and I'll actually be able to test here in the next hour or so but so far my research has found this to be the easiest way:

Download the latest version of EDuke and get it installed (you might as well get the high-res pack too).

Create a shortcut to the EDuke launcher EXE and add -server to the target in the shortcut properties. (Mine looks like this: "C:\GOG Games\Duke Nukem 3D\eduke32.exe" -server ) Then run the shortcut. This person is the Host! When the game shows the main menu, just go to New Game and set your options. (Just a note, sometimes you have to press Enter to change the option)

For your friends to connect, all they have to do is run the game normally in EDuke then open up the in game console (press ~ or `) and type in: connect <ip address>

So far I know -server works for the host I'll post back when I've tried an actual game

EDIT::
So I got lazy waiting for my friend so I tried this out on my local computer. I ran two instances of EDuke (one with the -server command one without) and got them both to connect to each other. So, if you don't have a firewall in the way (or use hamachi) this would work!

Just a note I'm running Windows 7 x64

Thanks for your reply, I'll try that for sure (Win7 x64 as well here).
I was just hoping for a solution that wouldn't involve extra software, not for me but because my friends aren't very ... hmm, let's say they're a bit lazy when it comes to solve issues with pc games :D

I think I'll just make a pack of D3D + eDuke and send it to them with all the shortcuts already done.

btw, if anybody manages to make it work with the simple client please let me know! thanks :)

eDuke really isn't that complicated to install, all you need to do is simply extract it (or copy it) to the Duke3D folder, but I understand my friends are the same way.

I do have a few things to say about network play with and without eDuke.

The latest version of eduke is horrible with multiplayer and unplayable. We were able to connect, but after a couple of minutes the client got out of sync with the host and the game crashed.

So after eDuke failed, we tried the "Launch Multiplayer" that's included with the GOG release. We were able to connect, but like with the latest version of eDuke, we got out of sync with each other and the game crashed.

After doing research, I found this is pretty common. The only way to get around the out of sync issue was by using an older version of eDuke (source.

So for people of the future, here is the solution I found:

All players:
Download the last version of EDuke32 to contain the old multiplayer code: http://dukeworld.duke4.net/eduke32/synthesis/old/20091203-1551/

Host:
Copy the old version of EDuke32 to your Duke3d Folder
Right click on EDuke32 then click "create shortcut"
Now, right click on the shortcut then click on "Properties"
In the Target field add "-net -n0:X" without the ""s and X being the number of players
Click apply then OK then launch the shortcut, you're now hosting a server!

Client:
Copy the old version of EDuke32 to your Duke3D folder
Right click on EDuke32 then click "Create Shortcut"
Go to the new shortcut's properties
In the Target field, add "-net -n0 XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" without the ""s and the Xs being the host's IP address
Click apply then OK and launch the shortcut and wait for the host to start the game