Rocks'n'Diamonds

RnD originally allows only local multiplayer games in Windows, but with this freeware tool: http://www.hamachi.cc you can create your own internet network, which behaves like a local area network. You will get a virtual LAN IP (5.x.x.x) which you can use as your host address for RnD ("rocksndiamonds.exe" -network 5.x.x.x).

Unfortunately, RnD runs a little slower than in singleplayer, but it works and it's very funny. I spent 4 hours playing Darkon's great multiplayer levels with two friends and we nearly died of laughter.

For better communication you can use TeamSpeak/Skype/Ventrilo/... and you'll never want to play alone any more.

I gather you never knew of the -n command? rnd allows you to play online anyway

host just uses
-n
in the command parameter, and the people who want to join use
-n hostip

And im glad you liked it, I plan to release an update with more powerups/downs and new graphics for the rnd elements I used sooner or later...

Uh, I interpreted this

- network multiplayer games (upto 4 players) for Unix platform
- local multiplayer games (upto 4 players) for all supported platforms

like internet games were only possible for Unix platforms. Didn't even try it for Windows.

But anyway, with Hamachi you have no trouble with routers/firewalls/portforwarding and even situations like 2 players in LAN and 1 in internet are no problem.

Ah, I understand your interpretation but Darkon's right. Since version 3.1.0 or 3.0.8 or something, RND can be played in network with Windows.

Welcome to the forum by the way. Enjoy your stay

Hello Jannik,

Yes, the documentation is lacking here..
You can play LAN games in Windows up to 4 players I belive.
Set these switches in the shortcuts.

Serverside:

rocksndiamonds.exe --network or
rocksndiamonds.exe -n

Clients:

rocksndiamonds.exe --network x.x.x.x (x = IP number to server) or
rocksndiamonds.exe -n x.x.x.x


You should have 2 shortcuts for the game, one for Network and one for Single play.

The levels MUST support multiplayer with many fellows included (up to 4).
You select your little fellow on the right side menu before start.
You should select different colors.
You MUST have the same levels locally on all computers.

Both server and client can restart level by pressing Escape,(Y(es) if ask on exit in setup), then Space.
Both server and client can select level also.

The level MUST also use the Rocks & Diamonds engine.
The Emerald Mine engine is not supported yet.(version 3.2.0-6)
These two engines are quite alike but not fully compatible.
You can check the level engine in Level Creator =>Info
You can change any level to R&D engine if not and try them for Network play.
(If made for single play only you must convert them if possible manually
to Multiplayer of course)

The network game is working quite well I must say
but still has some graphical artefact bugs (3.2.0.6).
and work is under progress I belive.

If there's significant slowdowns which there shouldn't really be
try setting windows resolution to 16 bit
and check your graphics driver setup for clues..


CEEL

The "documentation" does not mention the networking capabilities of the Windows version of R'n'D for two reasons:

1: I was too lazy to update the docs,
2. I want to add a graphical interface to network gaming.

As most Unix users are comfortable using command line options, but most Windows users are not (or do not like it, or don't even know that such a thing exists, which is perfectly OK), currently only the Unix version "officially" supports network gaming. Thanks to a patch to Flumminator, also the SDL (and therefore also the Windows and Mac) version works fine with networking, but due to the lack of a nice graphical setup menu for this feature, I advised the people in the Artsoft marketing department not to add this feature to their R'n'D marketing campaign for the Windows version. ;-)

Sorry to post in this old thread, but I would like to try RnD over Internet with a friend, under Windoze XP.

So far, I have been able to play a 2 players game on a LAN without problem, using the method explained above. But I can't get it to work over the internet. It's probably because the hardware firewalls are not configured properly.

Someone can explain what to do exactly? Should I open a specific port? Should I use TCP or UDP? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Opening port 19504/TCP in your firewall setup should help.

You can also use any other port you like instead by adding a port number to the hostname or IP address on the command line:

So, instead of ...

> rocksndiamonds.exe -n x.x.x.x

... just use "rocksndiamonds.exe -n x.x.x.x p" with the port number instead of "p". (See "rocksndiamonds.exe --help" for all command line options.)

OK. Thanks a lot!

I think that the port number should be documented somewhere very obvious, such as in the command-line parameter documentation.

Yes, the usage message doesn't give the detail:

Actually, a few lines higher:

Yep, it's there, but indeed badly documented... :-(

It doesn't say what the default port is.