TrueDosGamer: I'm using TROTT which is just one of the few "multiplayer" network capable games on GOG Galaxy. I have not tried any other of the other GOG Galaxy supported muliplayer games since I do not own those. I have seen others post a screen shot of the servers showing up in Multiplayer mode for TROTT so I know it's not working only for me.
skeletonbow: FWIW, that game is extremely buggy. I couldn't even get it to run at all until one of the more recent patches finally fixed it so it'd start. If I had to wager on a multiplayer related problem I'd put my money on "game bug" TBH.
TrueDosGamer: As for specifics it would be better if GOG tried to add support for GOG Galaxy multiplayer games that were smaller like a couple hundred megabytes download so it would be easier to test out. TROTT was pretty massive. I already suggested they try to add support for Worms into GOG Galaxy multiplayer. That would take 30 minutes to download and install rather quickly. It would easier to network test that or get games going.
skeletonbow: I understand what you're saying, and I think it'd be awesome to have as much of the game catalogue add support for GOG Galaxy multiplayer as possible in the future where it makes sense. What a lot of people do not realize however, is that multiplayer is not something that GOG or anyone else can easily just tack onto the side of a game because they'd like to have it supported, rather it involves having the actual source code of the game and the legal right to modify and add features to a given game and sell the results. GOG does own the rights to some games as they are now a publisher as well, but the vast majority of titles in the GOG catalogue are owned by other companies, and it is my understanding that GOG does not have the source code of the majority of games in the catalogue. As such it is virtually impossible for GOG themselves to add GOG Galaxy multiplayer support to the majority of games in the catalogue even if they had the legal rights to do so and both the desire and the manpower to do it.
We all would like our games to be as functional as possible of course. I mean why wouldn't we? I'd love to see all multiplayer games support LAN multiplayer and direct IP/peer to peer multiplayer personally even much more than centralized online multiplayer matchmaking, but I'd like to see that in games it makes sense for also. For the most part however, the overwhelming majority of games are owned by third party publishers/developers who not only own the rights to decide about what features their games will support, but they exclusively own the source code of their games which is required in order to add the support (if they even have the source code, which for many games was lost years/decades ago).
Unfortunately, what we all would love to have in the perfect ideal fantasy, is just not technically and/or economically possible as a whole. It might be on an individual game by game basis though, and if any distributor out there is likely to make any inroads to see these things happen of course it would be GOG.
TrueDosGamer: At the moment until I confirm via troubleshooting to isolate if it is an OS issue or network issue preventing me from seeing the multiplayer games in TROTT I'm probably going to wait for a newer version of GOG Galaxy before attempting it again.
Maybe a year from now if this is a GOG Galaxy issue it will be patched. But since the number of games supported is still limited at this stage it's better to wait until they support more games.
skeletonbow: I don't have the game installed at the moment or I'd poke around with it a bit as well and offer to help diagnose. I'd suspect a local configuration issue first, and second to that some kind of obscure game bug, but I wouldn't rule out anything either. I too hope to see Galaxy mature over the next year and while I do test it and experiment, I mostly install games manually and launch them directly or via the Steam client (for overlay functionality) these days. I hope they get the major features rolling soon and stomp out the worst bus etc. as the platform looks quite promising.
Hopefully in the future as they grow, they'll be able to convince more publishers to enhance their games, or even acquire the rights and source code to more of them to be able to do it themselves. That would rock. :)
Interesting I spent the most time troubleshooting TROTT. In my own opinion it isn't really that great of a game. I even went through 2 levels just to give it a chance since multiplayer servers could not be seen including the bot ones. Not sure how the original compared but it seemed to be a poor man's version of Castle Wolfenstein 3D but with HD graphics update. Not saying other people wouldn't enjoy TROTT. It just seemed like other multiplayer games for GOG Galaxy testing would have been a better choice. Perhaps TROTT is very popular and I just don't know. But if that's the case the the quality has dropped over the years and focused on eye candy fluff. I also moved the video trailer for the Apogee intro because it delays me getting into the game and after seeing that intro over a dozen times and not being able to bypass it from the start it just gets annoying. If was fun watching the first few times. At first I was thinking man the graphics are pretty dated then the HD transition. LOL.
I think the DOOM 2 DOS with IPX network or dial up was a lot funner with quick frag and respawn despite the ancient pixelated graphics. I'm sure these games would barely tax GOG's Galaxy bandwidth. The small install size and great MIDI music makes up for its outdated graphics. I can't remember if DOSBOX emulates the Sound Blaster MIDI properly since I used the real deal to play mine. But if the DOSBOX Sound Blaster MIDI emulation is authentic enough people should still be able to enjoy it despite its age. This would a funner "compact" alternative with lots of fun. I think it could handle up to 8 players at a time.
Although you are correct that GOG doesn't own the source code rights for a majority of these digital titles however there is no need to reinvent the wheel. All they have to do is obtain software source code rights from www.kali.net to include DOS IPX / SPX emulation over the TCP / IP. I was playing on Kali over two decades ago and I can tell you it works. If Kali and GOG got together they could add this code into GOG Galaxy and make a majority of DOS network titles work without any tweaking of the source code. All it's doing is tricking the game to think they are on a LAN when in fact they are on the internet.
As for the newer games that don't offer LAN multiplayer or are only adapted for Steam servers I can understand it would be harder to implement and I'm not saying that needs to be done. It's much harder for newer games without the source code since it's probably hard coded to a specific gaming servers which eventually get shut down whereas the older titles with LAN support aren't dependent on those and can be played indefinitely.
You can take a peek here to see what titles could be instantly supported without tweaking the source code.
http://www.kali.net/games.asp I think focusing network multiplayer on older titles that have IPX / SPX or dial up modem multiplayer capability would be the easiest. I can't remember if Kali had dial up modem to TCP / IP emulation but there might be some older games that didn't offer LAN support but just serial / null modem / dial up modem multiplayer support.
Then for any new titles to be released GOG would have to step in and negotiate a deal to have GOG Galaxy servers supported from the start to avoid the need to post modify the source code. They'd probably have a better shot with indie titles rather than big companies like Origin, Ubisoft, Blizzard, et cetera.
However if GOG wants to get titles supported easily without modification strike up some deal with Kali so they can implement the IPX / SPX to TCP / IP emulation into GOG Galaxy. Any game that has LAN support should work instantly once they've accomplished this. How many titles have LAN support? A lot. Today probably not so much but we are still talking thousands of titles.
It just makes sense since GOG already has a majority of these older DOS and Windows titles with LAN support. This would just be an extension of actually rejuvenating older titles interest and sales. Probably a good chunk of these titles haven't been played multiplayer.
