WalterwickJack: Does the GOG version of Empire Earth 1 work with Gameranger? I have attempted a multiplayer game with someone else who also has a GOG version of Empire Earth 1. It absolutely failed. When joining a game if you switch to "direct connect" from whatever the default thing is that Gameranger tries to use (which initially fails), there is a game visible. It's possible to get as far as the "join game" room screen but when the host tries to start the game a CD key is asked for and it's not possible to get past that.

We tried to bypass Gameranger and just do a direct connect multiplayer game directly without any intermediary service, but ran into similar errors. The game seems to have trouble identifying IP addresses.

Is it best to just ask GOG for a couple CD keys? Does this make the problem go away?

Is it better to switch to the "save-e-e" client thing that other people are talking about?

Does the GOG version of empire earth work with the "save-e-e" service? I have read the odd thing suggesting they might be incompatible with each other.

In general, are there any official/unofficial or user/community created patches worth getting? Either something that fixes the issue, makes the game more playable, or is worthwhile for some other reason.

what course of action do people recommend?

I remember the multiplayer of this game being amazing once a person can get through to it.