A solution for LAN play

[Sapiens]

If you're having trouble starting a coop session over a LAN connection like I was, I found an easy solution that might work for you. I tried for quite some time to get the TCP/IP option working with poor results. Sometimes the game was found, other times it wasn't. When it was found successfully, the joining player received an error and got booted. Very frustrating.

The workaround involves using a program/library called IPXWrapper to allow the game to use the IPX multiplayer option. Download it from http://www.solemnwarning.net/ipxwrapper/ and extract the archive to a temporary folder, then move the DLL files (dpwsockx.dll, ipxwrapper.dll, mswsock.dll and wsock32.dll) to your Darkstone folder (.\SteamApps\common\Darkstone). You'll also need to run either directplay-win32.reg for 32-bit Windows or directplay-win64.reg for 64-bit Windows and reboot. I didn't have to change any other settings or run ipxconfig.exe but I suppose YMMV.

After that the host should be able to start up an IPX multiplayer game normally, and clients should be able to find and join the session painlessly. Please note that this is for LAN play only; coop games over the internet will probably need to find a different solution, or at least use something like Hamachi/GameRanger/Tunngle/TeamViewer VPN etc. first to fool the game into thinking you're on the same local area network.

Hope this helps!

[Jon Maciel]

It helped me very much!
Then I used hamachi as VPN, and now i can play online! :)
Thank you!

[Bele]

Thank you for this! Tried everything from Hamachi to Tunngle to Gameranger, to no avail. But this worked!

P.S. I played the game on PS1 years back as a kid and always wished to play this co-op, until now that hasn't been possible because of NAT-problems. So thank you very much.

[Rally]

I'd say use Evolve instead. Then you can connect to other players via lan connection.

[Phobic2]

Do all participants need to install IPXWrapper or just the one hosting ?

[Sapiens]

Boy it's been a long time since I set this up, haha. I'm pretty sure everyone needs to have it since everyone will be using IPX to connect.

[Phobic2]

Thanks [PTH]Sapiens.

I've 2 more questions, hope you know the answers.

It was my understanding that IPX was abandonned because of the major security risks it presented (though I've no clue what they are : I'm no IT profressionnal.) Wouldn't using IPXWrapper leave our computers open to the same risks ?

Someone on another thread even said that "even if you install it correctly, your computer will never function correctly once you do so." Do you know if that's right ?

[Sapiens]

I don't see how emulating IPX support for DirectPlay would open you up to any security vulnerabilities but...who knows. I suppose I can't offer any guarantees. ^^"

I also don't see how anyone would break anything using IPXWrapper, at least with Darkstone.
The installation process is pretty simple: move three DLLs to the game directory and run a registry patch. Uninstalling is deleting the DLLs and reverting the registry changes. You can open the .reg file in Notepad to see what's being changed and it's nothing that should affect any other part of the system.

If that part still worries you, just back up the following keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Service Providers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Services

If you're somehow still on a 32-bit system then go for these instead:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Service Providers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Services

[Phobic2]

Originally posted by PTHSapiens:

I don't see how emulating IPX support for DirectPlay would open you up to any security vulnerabilities but...who knows. I suppose I can't offer any guarantees. ^^"

I also don't see how anyone would break anything using IPXWrapper, at least with Darkstone.
The installation process is pretty simple: move three DLLs to the game directory and run a registry patch. Uninstalling is deleting the DLLs and reverting the registry changes. You can open the .reg file in Notepad to see what's being changed and it's nothing that should affect any other part of the system.

If that part still worries you, just back up the following keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Service Providers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Services

If you're somehow still on a 32-bit system then go for these instead:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Service Providers
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectPlay\Services

Reassuring to know. many thanks !

[YungPro]

Not sure why steam hasn't done anything to update this? lol Aren't they like raking in money by the second?