OK - after my failed
SNES netplay experiment I decided to give myself another go at another project.
This time I'd like to play some arcade games with you guys! :-D
The advantage of this concept is that we will be using Kaillera to play the games, which features a client-server architecture to make the gameplay experience equally shitty for everybody, not just the guy connecting to somebody hosting the game locally. ;-)
Since large parts of emulation are highly illegal (ROMs, BIOSes etc.) while everybody will be required to have exactly the same settings, game versions and so on I'll be contacting you via PM if you're interested.
To kick off and test the initiative I'd like to try out Battle Circuit - a game I very much like and which plays similarly to Final Fight - what can I say, it's a side-scrolling beat'em up, no surprises there. I'm copying some parts of the SNES netplay tutorial I posted before.
1. What you needed
1.1. Mumble
Seriously - if we are to emulate the awesomeness of playing on a home console with your friends (ah, good old times when gaming didn't lead to twisted internet-only friendships :-P) we NEED to speak to each other.
Since the configuration involves basically running the audio wizard and connecting to specialattack.net using your forum login details I won't be explaining much - just download it.
http://mumble.sourceforge.net/
1.2. FinalBurn Alpha Shuffle
A very good CPS1, CPS2 and NeoGeo Arcade emulator - by now it emulates some other unique arcade systems as well.
http://code.google.com/p/fbashuffle/ (
fbas_bin_######.7z)
1.3. Mame32++
Supports some games the other two emus don't (and vice-versa) and is pretty easy to set up. Worked great for Ninja Baseball Bat Man.
http://www.kaillera.com/files/mameppk_b ... 070914.zip
1.4. P2P Kaillera Client
For testing purposes. I have to check out if this works well or results in gameplay similar to Snes9X/ZSNES. This modification is under active development (unlike the original Kaillera system) which makes me hopeful. ^^
http://www.codclan.org/kailleraclient.dll
2. Making everything work
2.1. Mumble
Run the audio wizard (should be ran automatically after the initial installation), click on Server -> Connect and fill out the details:
Seriously, if you had any trouble so far stop reading the guide since more complicated things will abound. =)
2.2. FinalBurn Alpha Shuffle
There are SHITLOADS of different settings to play around with but I won't go into any details here - use whatever works for you (might be the default options). Just for reference I'll show some of the settings I'm using.
First of all you'll need to download the game ROM which I will provide you with -
do NOT unpack it. Put it in any directory and after that choose File -> Load Game... (F6) in FB Alpha Shuffle, click on the System tab, then the Edit Rom Paths... button and point enter the path to your ROM directory. Alternatively you can put it in the ROMs subdirectory of FB Alpha but if you plan on having a large ROM collection and/or many emulators you might want to organize everything differently.
After that you should go to Game -> Load Game... (or hit F6) and after editing the options to only show available ROMs hit the Rescan ROM sets... button in the System tab to refresh the collection.
After that you need to set up your input.
Launch the game in question by selecting it from the list and while it's running choose Game -> Map game inputs...
Set up controls for Player 1 since Kaillera will assign the controls to different players automatically.
Now we're ready for some NetPlay (Game -> Play via Kaillera or Ctrl+F6) - proceed to points 2.4. or 2.5.
Additional shortcuts you should know: Alt+ +/- and Alt+Ctrl+ +/- to adjust the volume - especially if you're on Mumble.
P.S. I changed FinalBurn Alpha to FinalBurn Alpha Shuffle since it supports more games - the screenshots aren't accurate now but it's virtually the same thing. Geez - open source development is annoying since there are SO many different forks of all the Emulators. :-\
2.3. Mame32++
Yes, this advanced from unwanted child to the preferred emulator position, since it's so easy to set up.
First of all unpack the files to any directory.
Copy any ROMs I will send you/point you to into the roms sub-directory
without extracting them.
Launch Mame32++, select "Available" on the left side and hit F5 to refresh your ROM collection - after a while all available ROMs should pop up (sadly Mame32++ doesn't list all of them since it's based on an older MAME version).
After that launch the game and press Tab to bring up the settings menu. You will only need to change the "Input (this game)" portion.
After that you can select Kaillera NetPlay... from the File menu and follow the directions below.
Additional shortcut you should know: Alt+O to adjust the volume - especially if you're on Mumble.
2.4. Kaillera (P2P)
This is something I want to test. First of all you'll need to download the .dll from this site (already listed in the prerequisites):
http://www.codclan.org/kailleraclient.dll
Then you should
BACK UP your kailleraclient.dll found somewhere in your Emulator's directory (FinalBurn Alpha Shuffle already comes with the correct version) or subdirectory (Mame32++ -> kaillera).
The user hosting the game will have to open the port listed here on his router/firewall/whatever.
After that it's just a matter of selecting "connect" and typing in the host's IP.
Hosting is also pretty obvious. Select and the game you want to play and press the Host button.
I don't know what the best Smoothing options are yet so we'll start with Always (+1 frame) or Extra for DrMcMoist (:-P). Click ready when you're ready to play! From what I read the experience should be the same for the host and the client since this plugin uses automatic delays and whatnot.
2.5. Kaillera (client-server)
Choose "2. Client" from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
If you want to download the server list, click on the Master Servers List button (*doh*). If we're on Mumble (and we should be) we could bypass this step and simply join a specific server via the "Custom IP" button.
IMPORTANT: Set the connection type to "Good (20 keyframes/s)" or even lower if you're DrMcMoist (he, he).
After joining the server we'll set up everything via Mumble/chat and see how it works out. ^^
You can basically join a game someone hosts or create a new one from the list of supported games. No big deal - you'll figure it out. ;-)
The game list is visible in the lower portion of the screen and the cryptic "Cr" button allows you to host a game yourself.
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Ah - you might want to check out the Battle Circuit FAQ if you're not sure about special moves etc.
http://db.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/fi ... cuit_a.txt
PROFIT!
P.S. The games can be played with up to 4 players but we'll start with 2. =)
P.P.S. We can try out some NES games with Nestopia later on. :-D
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