Qconnect .99 (c) Copyright Sean Allen and Enigma Software ---------------------------------------------------------- This program is released into the public domain. Permission is granted to use this program for any purpose you desire as long as you give me credit somewhere and as long as you derive no monetary benefit from the use of this program. This program is provided AS IS, and I'm not responsible for any effects it has on you or your system. If your computer blows up during use, or you fall over foaming at the mouth, I'm not responsible because you have been warned ;) I would like to thank Steve Jankowski for releasing his code into the public domain, without it I would have had a hard time figuring out the server init string. Installation ============ Unzip qcon_99.zip to your Quake directory. It HAS to reside in the same directory as Q95.bat or it will not work correctly. The qcon.bat file runs Qconnect using the servers.txt file. Edit this file (servers.txt) or create a new one with all your favorite Quake server hosts in it (can be IPs or hostnames). Enjoy! Overview ======== Qconnect is a Windows 95/NT character based program that lists active Quake servers and lets you quickly connect to them. I wrote the program after becoming tired of scrambling to write down an IP address and losing it among the 1000 others or so I've already written down, starting Quake, typing the IP address only to find the server full. After seeing qstat by Steve Jankowski, I thought I'd take it a step further and have my program kick off Quake (Q95.bat actually) and automatically connect to the server selected. Here is some sample output while running the Qcon.bat file(included): 1. 206.248.16.205 206.248.16.205:26000 Quake e1m2 08/08 400ms 2. quake.intersurf.com 206.151.208.134:26000 Jamal e1m3 07/10 340ms 3. quake.phantasy.com 156.46.216.101:26000 Quake e1m5 08/08 380ms Simply type the number "2" and press enter. Qconnect will spawn Quake and connect to 206.151.208.134 (quake.intersurf.com) automatically. Ping Times ========== Please note that the displayed ping times are not "true" ping times that you would receive if you used a ping program. It actually displays the time it takes from requesting server information until the time it receives it. This is a better measure of actual server response time but will probably average 100ms or more higher than a ping program would. Please remember that ping times are only one way to measure game play on a server and that there are other more important factors. Command Line Parameters ======================= I tried to make this program as flexible as possible, foreseeing web page use, etc. Here are the command line options: -f filename Will search through all hosts listed in the file filename -s Will list all hosts searched, even the ones with no responses -b Don't display the banner (but still give me credit;) -l Don't display the line numbers, spawning will be disabled but you still have nice formatted output -r n Repeat if no response "n" number of times, the default is 3. Since Quake uses datagrams, it is possible for packet loss, so the higher this number the more reliable yet slower it becomes -t n Cycle through the list every n seconds (please set this to at LEAST 10 seconds or above to reduce net traffic and ease the load on Quake servers...) -x Exit after spawning Quake. Otherwise the program will Pause while it tries to connect to the server. *** This is highly recommended - I just relized how much time Qconnect sits there waiting for a key press - made a HUGE difference in playing speed, ALWAYS USE THIS PARAMETER (will be taken off in future releases) -p Don't display the ping times -host[:port] You can enter a host and port number directly on the command line if you wish Web Masters =========== You will probably want to run Qconnect with the following parameters: qconnect -f filename -s -b -l -p This will display nice formatted output without any numbers or ping times. Quakers ======= You will probably want to use something like the following: qconnect -f filename -r 2 -t 30 -x This will allow you to select numbers to spawn Quake and cycles every 30 seconds. Future Enhancements??? ====================== A windows interface where you can highlight the server and just double click to launch Quake. An option to highlight A server and have Qconnect log into it and retrieve the current list of players playing and their frag counts (has to be an available slot open though). Maybe some kind of statistical tracking, etc. Contact Info ============ I welcome all comments. Please let me know what you think or of any problems, suggestions. Just remember, that this is free software (you can send money if you want), so don't flame me too hard. Thanks. You can contact me at: Sean Allen Enigma Software srallen@nando.net "SirAllen" on the Quake servers and IRC. Next on my list - Quake'bots! Happy hunting!