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GameSpy 3D has quickly become one of the must-have utilities for anyone who plays first-person shooters like Quake or Quake II over the Internet.  This utility allows you to search the Internet for servers running your favorite games and join them at the click of a button.  You can also search for servers running specific mods, such as CTF or Rocket Arena, and even search for your buddies playing on the Internet. Among the many games currently supported are Quake, Quake II, Unreal, Half-Life, Shogo, Blood2 and SiN.

Probably the most attractive feature of GameSpy, however, is the ability to see a list of your ping times to all the servers out there. You can quickly see what servers you can get the best connection to and thus reduce your chance of suffering lag, the nemesis of most online gamers.  You can even add these servers to a "favorites" list for later use.

While no one has yet figured out how to completely eliminate lag, the team at GameSpy surely has found a way to dodge it a little.


Index

Gamespy 3D v2.08

     creator: Joe "QSpy" Powell and Team GameSpy
     HomePage: www.gamespy.com
     Install files: gamespyinstaller208.exe


Installation

  1. Download the GameSpy installation file from the above location(s).
  2. Double-click on the install file and follow the instructions on the screen.
Gamespy Quake II Setup
  1. Run GameSpy from the icon the installation installed.
  2. The first time you run the program, it will do a quick search of your hard drive for games that it supports. Make sure your correct Quake II directory is displayed and click OK.
  3. At the "Modify your settings" box, select "Quake2" as your game of choice. Enter an on-screen name and click OK.
  4. At the black "Select Player" screen, your player name should be selected. Click "always use this player at startup" and click OK. You will be taken to the main Gamespy interface screen and hear a "welcome to Gamespy" message.


Using GameSpy 3D

The first time you use Gamespy, you'll need to do a quick search of the Internet for Quake II (or any other game's) servers.  Notice that the "passed filters" button is pressed and most of the screen is blank.
  1. On the tab bar, click the All Servers tab.
  2. On the menu bar, click Tools, GameSpy Updates, Update Master Server List (or press Alt, T, G, M from the keyboard). This will populate your server list.
As shown below, there are three panes to the main screen.
  • The server list window (top pane) shows a list of Quake II servers currently registered with GameSpy.
  • The player window (lower left) shows player information for a highlighted server.
  • The server information window (lower right) shows game settings for a highlighted server.

GameSpy screen
Column Headings

Server name - A server may have a mark in front of it, which can mean different things depending on what color it is.
  • Yellow dot - server is empty.
  • Red dot with a minus sign - server is full.
  • Dark maroon dot - server not responding.  May be out of use.
  • Red "x" - server failed a filter setting.
  • Green dot - a "favorite" server.
Ping - tells you what your connection speed to a particular server is. The lower the ping, the faster your connection to the server and the better your response time will be.

Map - what map is currently being played

Players - tells you how many players are currently on a server and what the server limit is.

Game - what mods (if any) are being played.  Make sure you know what game you’re playing before you join a server!

You can click on the heading of any column to sort on that category. This way, you can alphabetize the server list - or see servers in order of lowest ping times.
Joining a game  (and other features)
Once you've populated the server list, joining a game is as easy as double-clicking on a server name.  There are a host of other features, though, which I'll only touch on here: 


refresh server

 Refresh

To recheck your connection to a server, highlight a server (or a group of servers) and click the Refresh button (or press CTRL+R).



refresh visible list

 Refresh visible list

To refresh an entire list of servers on your screen, click the Refresh Visible List button (or press CTRL+T).



update server list from all sources

 Updating server lists

Over time, new servers may spring up and others may vanish. To update to the current list of servers, click the Update Server List button (or press CTRL+U).   NOTE: If you refresh a list and the server list appears blank, try right-clicking on the column heading bar and select "Autosize all display columns". This should expand all the columns so you can see them.



busy server redial

 Busy Server Redial

If one of your favorite servers is full, it's possible to have GameSpy continually check it and connect you when someone drops out. To do this, highlight a server and click the Busy Server Redial button (or click CTRL+B). You can then have GameSpy either alert you that a slot is open or automatically connect you to the server. Make your selection and click OK.


Making a "favorites" list
It's also possible to add the servers you commonly play on to a "favorites" list. To do this:
  1. Highlight a server that you want to add to the "favorites" list
  2. On the menu bar, click Server, Add to Favorites.
  3. To see the contents of the "Favorites" list, click the Favorites tab.


Using custom tabs

Most Quake II mods have tabs that can be inserted into GameSpy. This makes it much easier to search for Quake II servers running specific mods (such as CTF or Jailbreak). 

To add a GameSpy tab:
  1. Download the tab for the mod you want to search for. Most Quake II mods nowadays include the GameSpy tab with their installation files or have links to them on their home page. You can also go the to GameSpy tab library or find links to most Quake II tabs here.
  2. Once you've saved the saved the tab, go into GameSpy3D and click on View, Custom Tab, Import.
  3. Browse to the location on your computer where you saved the tab and click Open.
  4. Click on the tab and refresh the list (which may take a few minutes).  You now have a list of servers all running your favorite mod!


    5.
And that's the Quick and Dirty™ guide to GameSpy3D!  Be sure to check the included documentation and the GameSpy3D homepage for complete information.  And by all means, register the darn thing!  It's only $20 and more than worth it.


FAQ Created: 8/15/98    /   Last revision: 05/08/99

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