For example Project Cartographer describes itself as the following
Project Cartographer is a modification for Halo 2 PC (Halo 2 for Windows Vista) that restores online play (Microsoft abandoned the LIVE servers) and adds additional features that are not present in the base game.
Before the release of Master Chief Collection it was my go-to for playing online.
Similarly H1-Mod exists for CoD: Modern Warfare Remastered.
I’d be interested to hear which ones you’ve tried and how active the community is. They don’t need to be currently active or a replacement for a game’s existing multiplayer services. It could be something like Zandronum which allows you to play the classic Doom or NVMP-X which allows you to play Fallout New Vegas with friends.
Most of these services don’t contain DRM so you can use Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle, or any other version of the game and because they are community run you don’t have to worry about servers going down as time goes on and can potentially host your own games.
I also like to make a special mention of X Link Kai which allows you to play system link games remotely. If you are curious I’d check out ConsoleMods.org for setup instructions and their website for a list of supported games.
There’s plenty of other similar services out there depending on what console you are using such as Insignia for the original Xbox.
I’d love to see these communities grow.
Titanfall 2, with the Northstar client.
it works with pirated versions?
GTA San Andreas with SAMP, although that was yearrrssss ago now. I miss a couple of those servers…
Are they inactive right now? I’m not sure if they went the way of re3 (a reverse engineered version of GTA 3 designed to fix bugs, port the game to several platforms, and expand modding capabilities) and were shut down under pressure from Rockstar.
I think so - last update was released in 2015
I was looking forward to trying re3 but rockstar’s lawyers decided to be a killjoy. There was another mod that joins the GTA3, VC and SA maps together and uses a modified version of SAMP for multiplayer (gta underground IIRC), I believe they got spooked by Rockstar too and pulled the plug
There are archived versions of re3 and reVC if you wanted to give it a try. I can’t say I’ve had any issues running the latest release.
Freelancer is 2003 Microsoft abandonware which still has an online mod community. Most prominent is probably the Discovery mod, which hosts a 24/7 RP server.
Not sure if it’s still active, but Just Cause 2 Multiplayer added an insanely chaotic Multiplayer mode to an originally entirely singleplayer game
America’s Army 2.5.0 with https://aao25.com/.
But since Insurgency Sandstorm got released, I mostly play that one.
GamesRanger is a pretty dope RTS client for a ton of RTS games. I use it for Battle for Middle Earth 2 to this day.
OG Halo 3 with Sunrise plugin
Stardew Valley Expanded, it gives us huge tracks of land to work and a metric fuckton of extra content.
I have used a certain “online-fix me” (not sure if I’m allowed to promote) website that offers patches for games so you can connect to the official multiplayer servers.
Of course there’s a possibility of getting banned if they detect it, but I’ve played a lot of the Forza games online with this throughout the years without issue.
I realise it’s not strictly on topic for community run servers, but it may be of interest to people in this thread.
Thug Pro for Tony Hawk’s Underground 2.
Plutonium for multiple older Call of Duty games.
IW4x for Modern Warfare 2 (2009), IW4x was DMCA’d semi recently but the mod still works, it’s just no longer being maintained and the server browser has a few bugs.
Even for games I’ve bought off Steam I still use community run multiplayer mods a lot because they tend to either add more functionality or replace dead servers for older games.
Super mario 64 multiplayer! I have spent several hours in it with my bf. https://github.com/djoslin0/sm64ex-coop/
I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit playing EQ on Imperium.
I don’t even know how many hours I have in 5m
Another classic. It’s a shame the client cannot run on Linux due to the lack of shared resources in DXVK.
From what I recall Doitsujin of DXVK seems to think it’s a ways away from getting fixed.
I have recently been playing Resident Evil Outbreak again, an cooperative online PS2 horror game. It’s community has build a custom server called Outbreak Resurrection. At first, it was very cumbersome to set up, but it was definitely worth it. It is very niche, but I still was able to spot around 2-4 players everytime I booted it up.
It is honestly heartwarming, seeing people go the extra mile and try to revive an old experience. Sometimes also trying to enhance the experiences by fixing and updating the game. Everything without asking for a penny.
These community should be supported and shared to let them know that we appreciate them 👍
Do you play on original hardware and justtunnel into a private MP? I really want to play that game again, it was such a great time as a kid.
No this would be too troublesome for me, especially because I just wanted to check it out with a friend really quickly. We played it on the pcsx2 emulator and connected via custom IP. Worked great, but sadly the game aged badly and therefore loading times are unbearable. Every door, every major action, and every lost attempt means sitting back and waiting. Lost it’s fun very quickly :/
When I use AetherSX2 on my Retroid Flip, games take longer to load than in PCSX2 on my gaming pc. I’d hate to see what the loading times are on my Retroid if they’re that long on your PC!
I haven’t ever tried out the network functions of emulators, except ZSNES back in the early 00s, and my internet wasn’t good enough then. Other than the loading, how was the performance over network? Was latency acceptable?
I have not opened this app in quite some time, sorry for the very late response. If you are still interested, here are my answers:
Performance was great and latency not an issue. It is a slow-paced game, so even if there was some, I would not have noticed it.
The long loading times are the result of the game itself, because it separates nearly everything into its own scene. Also restarting runs takes ages because of all the menus you have to navigate through, but that is also a badly aged design decision, plus the hardware limitations of the ps2 and its unstable network archetucture. The community patch fixed most of the issues of the networking, but it can not speed up the hardcoded transitions and the slow menus.
Hope this gives some helpful insights
I play Phantasy Star Online on the original Xbox using Insignia (sometimes on the Dreamcast, too)
I played a bunch of PSO with the DreamPi. It’s good fun!
