[Marscaleb]

I suppose this is really just an empty rant. I would love to direct my complaints somewhere that someone who could do this might actually hear my complaints and maybe agree with me and take action; but I have no idea where that would be. So all I can do is just yell at the empty sky...

I want a Duke3D port that works the same way that ZDaemon does.
A dedicated app for Duke that connects people to a server and launches a modified version of the game. From the user's perspective, it's all just one program.
But it doesn't just run the basic default Duke multiplayer. It has to have added features to do things like end matches after a score count and/or time limit, and cycle to the next map. An ability to customize your controls and character from within the game would be nice too. The stuff that just wasn't done in the DOS days but is so critical to multiplayer today.
And it needs to support LAN as well. I'm getting downright tired of all these efforts to revitalize Duke's multiplayer but that require using the internet. I'm not opposed to having internet matches, but I just want the ability to set up my own private server and play with friends under the same roof, no internet connection required. No depending on someone else's server.
I'm also a really big fan of the way ZDaemon starts you off in a spectator mode, and you just gotta hit E or fire to actually play, (and inactive players are dropped to the same mode.) I don't see other games doing this but its just super convenient, especially for a game with a strong modding community making new maps. Honestly what I really like about it is that you can get up and step away from the keyboard after a match, and you don't hold up everyone else waiting for you to get back, and neither have some brainless body just sitting in the map taking hits. I suppose this isn't exactly the most important feature, especially for a game that doesn't have bots to fill out a roster, but I've just really grown to appreciate that feature and would like to see it become more commonplace.

That's what I want.
I'd build it myself if I could code at that level. I can't, and I don't want to ignorantly claim it would be easy, but I do wonder if one could actually just copy a lot of code straight out of ZDaemon and paste it into a fork of eDuke, just to get a lot of groundwork done. Obviously not everything, but maybe the launcher program. But I guess that's just me reaching for something; I don't know.

I'm just dreaming, but that's the program I want.

[dnskill]

Just curious.. Have you heard of and/or tried NetDuke32?

It includes the following:

• 16 player support, vs Duke3D's original 8.
• Improved networking code that is more reliable and less prone to desynchronization than vanilla Duke3D.
• Rewritten prediction code that gives immediate and smoother response to weapon and inventory use.
• New, easier to understand scoreboards for both DukeMatch and CO-OP, including ping display.
• Lifted limits for number of spawn points allowed in a map, and maps with fewer spawns than players no longer cause broken behaviour, allowing SP maps to be played online.
• Smarter DukeBot AI that's better at pathfinding, can swim, use jetpacks, use steroids, retreat and/or prioritize items based on combat situation, and understand how elevators work. They can also be used online with other players, too!

While it may not have all the features you're wanting, it should at least allow you to have a fun experience. You can join the Duke4 discord sever, enter the #dukematch channel, and see if anyone's up for Dukematch, coop, or other game modes like Duketag.

[Marscaleb]

dnskill, on 24 June 2026 - 01:53 PM, said:

Just curious.. Have you heard of and/or tried NetDuke32?

Yes, and hands down the biggest problem with it is that it cannot operate on a LAN without internet connection. I'm looking for a way to play Duke without having to be connected to the internet.
Secondly, it won't run in Windows XP, so supporting 16 players doesn't mean anything to me because I couldn't run it on more than six of the computers I have.
I'm also very displeased about the inability to join a match ad hoc; we have to have everyone connected at the beginning of a match and no one can join once a connection has started. Shutting down the whole server to add a player is even more annoying considering that you have to type in the IP address to join. But honestly, I could deal with that, and I'm probably more upset about the lack of having a time limit on matches.

[NY00123]

I suggest to check this thread about NetDuke32: https://forums.duke4...duke3d-netplay/

To make this short, after working on NetDuke32 during 2015-2023, Striker basically took a break for most. He's been back to working on TerminalFury during the last two years.

In the meanwhile, I prepared two separate maintenance releases of NetDuke32. The last of them introduced - still possibly in an experimental form - a time limit option. Striker was also briefly back to NetDuke32, adding the new "unlagged" toggle in 2025. That's also found in the last maintenance release. See most recent posts in the thread above for details, but for the maintenance releases themselves, you may currently check this page: https://voidpoint.io...ctor/-/releases

Better assume in general that what I prepared for NetDuke32 is what you may give a try.

Yeah, good chances are the Windows executable requires an OS newer than Windows XP.

LAN games should be supported, I'm wondering what problem did you have. The bundled NetLauncher might require internet access, but NetDuke32 itself supports LAN games via command-line arguments. Alternatively, if using Windows 7 or another compatible OS, the IRC-based NukemNet launcher may be used for creating a chat room and then starting a new game - it should also allow some configuration for LAN games.

Unfortunately, in-game joining is still not a possibility in any Duke3D source port, as far as I know. Striker wanted to get there, and not just him, but technical barriers have been there along the way.

[Marscaleb]

NY00123, on 28 June 2026 - 09:57 AM, said:

LAN games should be supported, I'm wondering what problem did you have. The bundled NetLauncher might require internet access, but NetDuke32 itself supports LAN games via command-line arguments. Alternatively, if using Windows 7 or another compatible OS, the IRC-based NukemNet launcher may be used for creating a chat room and then starting a new game - it should also allow some configuration for LAN games.

When I tried launching it on a LAN with no internet connection, it went through its process and was trying to connect to addresses it could never find. It never even got to the part where I can tell it to stop looking for more players and launch it with bots. If there is support via command-line arguments, this was not mentioned in the read-me file. And there was no NukemNet launcher in the zip file, unless you are referring to the NetLauncher exe which is what I was using. (And if that's the case, then it was still asking for an IP address I had to type in. Not exactly the desired interface, but I used DOS, I can manage.)

I'll take a look at the newer build you linked the next time I have a free day. Thanks for the update. Maybe it will do the trick.

And I for one would be interested in a Win XP compatible version. I know that sometimes (but not always) that compatibility is basically a setting in how Visual Studio compiles the exe. So long as there is no functionality within the code that has any problems with XP, it really comes down to some settings with the compile that are generally not left on by default anymore. I know this from talking with some people working with source ports of other games when they lost XP compatibility after an update.

[NY00123]

Marscaleb, on 28 June 2026 - 09:55 PM, said:

When I tried launching it on a LAN with no internet connection, it went through its process and was trying to connect to addresses it could never find. It never even got to the part where I can tell it to stop looking for more players and launch it with bots. If there is support via command-line arguments, this was not mentioned in the read-me file.

I suppose it's about the last zip released by Striker, i.e., netduke32_v1.2.1.zip? The included readme documents usage of NetLauncher. Emphasis was indeed on online internet games and less on local ones, and I recall NetLauncher potentially not supporting LAN games at all.

Regarding command-line usage: NetDuke32 v1.1 RC1 removed peer-2-peer mode, leaving just master-slave. Command-line syntax should remain more-or-less the same for this mode as it was beforehand, actually being the same in JFBuild and VoidSW. Note that JFBuild did change the syntax for peer-2-peer mode at some point, but that's less relevant to NetDuke32 as said.

Details are currently found here:

https://wiki.eduke32...iki/Multiplayer (under "Old-Style Lockstep Multiplayer" as of now, since the page is mainly about EDuke32)
https://www.jonof.id...tml#multiplayer

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And there was no NukemNet launcher in the zip file, unless you are referring to the NetLauncher exe which is what I was using.

NukemNet is a separate program created by aaBlueDragon. Albeit saying "Nukem" in the name, it supports various other games. It lets people configure supported games and source ports of them, create and join chat rooms for communication and start games after creating such rooms. There are also some workarounds/solutions for possible (internet) connectivity issues, like STUN and relays.

I've just added a post to the NukemNet thread within these forums with a status update, given that the last releases were from October 2025: https://forums.duke4...post__p__387387

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I'll take a look at the newer build you linked the next time I have a free day. Thanks for the update. Maybe it will do the trick.

You're welcome! As hinted earlier, I currently expect that to be the latest build (at least from me) - unless that changes one day.

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And I for one would be interested in a Win XP compatible version. I know that sometimes (but not always) that compatibility is basically a setting in how Visual Studio compiles the exe. So long as there is no functionality within the code that has any problems with XP, it really comes down to some settings with the compile that are generally not left on by default anymore. I know this from talking with some people working with source ports of other games when they lost XP compatibility after an update.

In NetDuke32's case (and also for EDuke32 and other derived ports), the included makefiles are used in general, also for Windows builds. MinGW-w64 is used for them. What makes NetDuke32 different from the related ports is that it hadn't migrated to 64-bit Windows binaries for releases - Striker didn't do so at the time, and so I didn't for the last 2 maintenance release. I could still make 64-bit builds, and I had often done so for Linux; That said, different builds (even debug and release ones for the same platform) might desync, as found out beforehand.

Support for Win XP or other older operating systems might really be a matter of luck - if the codebase and executable allow that, then it'll be allowed. Otherwise, a newer OS is required.

[Marscaleb]

NY00123, on 29 June 2026 - 09:14 AM, said:

You're welcome! As hinted earlier, I currently expect that to be the latest build (at least from me) - unless that changes one day.

Okay, I've finally gotten around to testing this out. First of all, thanks for all the information you gave, it was a big help.
I pulled out four computers to test it with. First off, Net Nukem failed to launch on a machine that was running Windows 7. It gave an error of "Caught exception 0xC0000005 at 0x00000000: Access violation." I have the whole crash log but I don't know if anyone cares.

The next issue I found is that, even if this new version of Net Duke I got from you will support time limits, Nukem Net doesn't let me configure that option. Can I add any "Extra manual arguments" to the game settings to make use of the time limit?

But apart from that, it worked! I'm not sure how many machines I will be able to get this to work on, but I can at least offer it on some of them, which is better than nothing.
Again, thank you for the help.