Hey everyone,
I just wanted to let you know that I finally got at least one way to play Diablo via IPX working (and other multiplayer games confined to IPX protocol) on both Windows Vista & Windows 7. After several futile attempts to get IPX working natively in Vista & W7, I decided to think inside the box.
Yes, inside the box. VirtualBox. Clearly OS emulation isn't the most ideal or convenient solution to this problem, but it is much easier for the average user to configure VirtualBox and install Windows XP with it than configure and maintain something much more complicated, such as a dual-boot system.
I recently installed Windows 7 on my laptop, then installed VirtualBox and used it to install XP as a virtual machine that runs inside of Windows 7. VirtualBox was fairly user friendly and easy to adjust to, and once you install VirtualBox Guest Additions inside the virtual XP, you have XP running in a window and your mouse can glide from your W7 desktop right onto the XP desktop. It's beautiful, really.
But to get to the point. I installed and patched Diablo on the virtual XP system, installed and configured IPX protocols, then started a LAN game between my laptop and Windows XP desktop. Both games were able to see and join each other. It ran smooth as silk.
So, quite simply, if you have Windows XP laying around after you've upgraded to Vista or W7, I'd hang onto it, especially if you are into classic games. I had it up and running in about an hour. Might take someone else two or three if they're a little less tech savvy or can't be bothered to read some of the VirtualBox documentation.
The ONLY issue I had with this configuration is that fullscreen applications on the guest/virtual system run inside the host/real system's resolution. My laptop is a 1280x800 display and since Diablo runs at 640x480, it really didn't full up much of the screen. You can alleviate this some by reducing the host's current resolution - say to 800x600 - then Diablo takes up a good portion of the screen. And before someone asks, sorry, no, changing your video configuration to stretch the image to fill the screen doesn't work.
I realize this is an imperfect solution, but it is one that's somewhat accessible in terms of complexity and system requirements (the laptop is several years old; 2.0ghz dual-core processor, 2gb of RAM, 128mb NVIDIA). Considering the alternative to having ANY solution is no IPX-based multiplayer games on Vista or W7 at all (beyond modifying the games to use other protocols, obviously!), it's worth sharing.
Hope this helps someone else out there get some of their old multiplayer LAN favorites up and running again on their newer operating systems. Please post here if you find or develop better solutions, either for Diablo specifically or for all IPX games.
I just wanted to let you know that I finally got at least one way to play Diablo via IPX working (and other multiplayer games confined to IPX protocol) on both Windows Vista & Windows 7. After several futile attempts to get IPX working natively in Vista & W7, I decided to think inside the box.
Yes, inside the box. VirtualBox. Clearly OS emulation isn't the most ideal or convenient solution to this problem, but it is much easier for the average user to configure VirtualBox and install Windows XP with it than configure and maintain something much more complicated, such as a dual-boot system.
I recently installed Windows 7 on my laptop, then installed VirtualBox and used it to install XP as a virtual machine that runs inside of Windows 7. VirtualBox was fairly user friendly and easy to adjust to, and once you install VirtualBox Guest Additions inside the virtual XP, you have XP running in a window and your mouse can glide from your W7 desktop right onto the XP desktop. It's beautiful, really.
But to get to the point. I installed and patched Diablo on the virtual XP system, installed and configured IPX protocols, then started a LAN game between my laptop and Windows XP desktop. Both games were able to see and join each other. It ran smooth as silk.
So, quite simply, if you have Windows XP laying around after you've upgraded to Vista or W7, I'd hang onto it, especially if you are into classic games. I had it up and running in about an hour. Might take someone else two or three if they're a little less tech savvy or can't be bothered to read some of the VirtualBox documentation.
The ONLY issue I had with this configuration is that fullscreen applications on the guest/virtual system run inside the host/real system's resolution. My laptop is a 1280x800 display and since Diablo runs at 640x480, it really didn't full up much of the screen. You can alleviate this some by reducing the host's current resolution - say to 800x600 - then Diablo takes up a good portion of the screen. And before someone asks, sorry, no, changing your video configuration to stretch the image to fill the screen doesn't work.
I realize this is an imperfect solution, but it is one that's somewhat accessible in terms of complexity and system requirements (the laptop is several years old; 2.0ghz dual-core processor, 2gb of RAM, 128mb NVIDIA). Considering the alternative to having ANY solution is no IPX-based multiplayer games on Vista or W7 at all (beyond modifying the games to use other protocols, obviously!), it's worth sharing.
Hope this helps someone else out there get some of their old multiplayer LAN favorites up and running again on their newer operating systems. Please post here if you find or develop better solutions, either for Diablo specifically or for all IPX games.