I’d never heard about this before, but a group reverse engineered Commander Keen, and re-built it as a network playable game!
Check it out at their site.
To build the source, you’ll need Borland C++ 5.0.2 and TASM 5.  Earlier versions may work but I haven’t tested.  The interesting thing with the networking is that they use the same code out of DOOM.
NetKeen
pppsssstttt, you should add a category browser to the sidebar – makes browsing the archives more fun!
hmmmm… it has grown a bit out of control over the years..
A little bit off topic here: NeoZeed, have you ever used allegro for DOS?
How about AllegroGL (w/3dfx suppot!) for DOS?
I was wondering if Netkeen could be easily ported to Allegro.
Or maybe having something like DosQuakeGL 😉
I tried to use it a long while back and I don’t remember liking it. I never had a 3dfx as they were oddly never sold retail… But I think pcem emulates it now. I just fear dosquakegl would be too niche, even for me!
There are several versions of DosBox that support 3dfx:
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=25606
Aaand a list of DOS 3dfx Games if you wanna checkt it out:
http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=14486
this mod is super fun I tested it with friends 🙂 but only in DOSbox I wonder if it can run under pure DOS with pocket driver ?
I’d the idea to compile netkeen for myself, downloaded the source (and binary) archive and then I got only problems.
Borland C++ 5.02 is a kind of “hybrid” (16 and 32bit) development tool.
That does not just mean it can produce 16 and 32 bit binaries. The command line tools itself are a mixture between 16 and 32 bit programs. Now imagine what happen if you start BCC 5.02 on a modern 64bit Windows OS…. the IDE itself loads, but TASM 5.0 (which is needed also to compile netkeen) is primarily a 16 bit tool and so has to be installed using DOS, not Windows.
Also, the tlink.exe application which is needed mandatory is a 16 bit app.
So even if you rename TASM32.EXE to TASM.EXE it stops when trying to use TLINK.EXE – on a modern PC it seems to be an impossible mission.
Have to try it with an older PC with Windows XP (32bit), may be even the DOS apps will run then. But it’s not easy to “make” the netkeen binary.
I use MS-DOS player for my 16 bit tool needs
http://takeda-toshiya.my.coocan.jp/msdos/index.html
“transforming” tlink.exe with that worked, is now called without an error message, netkeen.exe was build.
Within DosBox, this netkeen.exe can be even played 😉
But using MSDOS.EXE to start netkeen.exe always reports:
Started Up MM
Quit: MM_GetPtr: Out of memory!
But doesn’t matter, most important for me: tlink.exe could be used from Win 7 x64 … so thx for the info.
MS-DOS player is really only for command line stuff.. But it certainly does a great job!
I was running DJGPP 1.0 with it, and it ran fine too!