v2.0

Second main release of this project.

Supports all Windows Internet Games from Windows 7 and XP/ME, the servers for which were officially shut down on:

• Windows XP/ME: July 31st, 2019
• Windows 7: January 22nd, 2020

Those games include:

• Internet Backgammon (XP/ME, 7)
• Internet Checkers (XP/ME, 7)
• Internet Spades (XP/ME, 7)
• Internet Hearts (XP/ME)
• Internet Reversi (XP/ME)

[TUTORIAL] Connecting an Internet Game to a hosted Internet Games Server

On Windows XP/7

1. Ensure you have access to a hosted Internet Games Server, either on localhost, your local network or via the Internet.
2. Down below, under "Assets", download the "Release" package which matches the architecture of your Internet Games (x64/64-bit or x86/32-bit).

Note

You must download the x86 package to get the Client DLL and Injector for Windows XP games.

3. Extract the downloaded package, containing the Internet Games Server, custom client DLL and injector.

Note

Ensure the custom client DLL (InternetGamesClientDLL.dll or InternetGamesClientDLL_XP.dll) and the injector (DLLInjector.exe or DLLInjector_XP.exe) are in the same directory!

4. Start an Internet Game of your choice.
5. Run the DLL Injector. After it finishes, a dialog for you to enter a host and port to an Internet Games Server should appear!

Warning

DLLInjector.exe is likely to be flagged by antivirus software as a threat. That is normal, since DLL Injecting is behaviour
commonly used in malware to inject malicious code into other processes.

DLL injecting, however, is required for preparing the Windows 7 Internet Games to connect to a custom server.
Make sure you add DLLInjector.exe as an exception in your antivirus software!

On Windows ME

No supported DLL Injector or Client DLL are available for Windows ME.

I could not get modifications to the hosts file to work on ME. Thus, as an alternative, you can patch the game executables and CMNCLIM.DLL (which specifies the port).

Use the VBScript patcher for Windows ME (InternetGamesPatcher_ME.vbs) which is included in every build package of this project. Upon running it, you will be prompted to enter both a target host and port in separate dialogs. You can leave either one empty or press "Cancel" to not patch host/port.

Note

Patching the game executables comes with the drawback of a restricted host name length to 44 characters.

To use the patcher from the command line (more verbose): cscript //nologo InternetGamesPatcher_ME.vbs

The patcher creates .bak copies of the original game executables and CMNCLIM.DLL, so that if anything goes wrong, you can easily restore them.

Command line arguments

Internet Games Server

• -c (--config): Sets the target configuration file. Any changes to options will be written there. Default: "InternetGamesServer.config"
• -p (--port): Port to host the server on. Automatically written to config file.

Changes since v2.0 BETA 3

• Use AGPL v3.0 license for future versions of this project
• Injector: Simplified, arguments no longer required - injects into all running Internet Games
• Add guide explaining how to run XP games on later Windows versions

Guides

• Running multiple instances of an Internet Game (any version)
• Running Windows XP/ME Internet Games on later Windows versions

Additional information

For more information, read the featured README document.

Please submit any issues you have encountered with this project at GitHub Issues. However, make sure your issue hasn't already been reported.