Wireplay is a feature offered to MCI Internet customers. It is a real-time, online gaming service designed from the ground up for low-latency play… which means more fun for you!
About Wireplay Installation
If you choose to install and register for Wireplay, please visit the Wireplay website at http://www.wireplay.mci.com to determine if you are can receive local-access service. If you cannot receive local-access but still wish to use Wireplay, you can create an 800 dialer for national-access. Please note that there is a surcharge for national-access use. To create the national-access dialer, click on the Dialer Creation function. A new dialer icon will appear on your desktop in addition to your MCI Internet Dialer. Please remember to select this special dialer from the Wireplay client's setup screen. If you registered your MCI Internet account in a local-access service area, your MCI Internet dialer should also give you Wireplay access. If not, use the above procedure.
What is Wireplay?
Games playing systems have come and gone, each time with improved sound, graphics and artificial intelligence. And yet the vast majority of those that have tried have discovered the thrill of beating a 'real' opponent still far outweighs that of outperforming a machine. This has led to a massive increase in interest in multi-player gaming over recent years.
With the explosion in Internet access and improved PC game quality, users finally thought that remote, affordable multi-player gaming had arrived. Sadly, this was not to be, as well-documented Internet capacity and performance problems have prevented online multi-player gaming from to the masses.
Now, since the launch of Wireplay, the US has seen the birth of the first mass market, high performance dedicated games network, allowing computer games players to meet up and play multi-player games nationwide.
Specifically designed to face the problems with Internet gaming, Wireplay successfully integrates Internet technology with high-speed enhancements on a dedicated network. Highly optimized software and hardware configurations deliver the best available game playing experience. Wireplay is a truly fast, cool, and competitive mass-market multi-player games network.
The core functions of the Wireplay service allow geographically remote users to:
┬╖ Meet at the Wireplay "Noticeboard" and post and view game proposals,
┬╖ Form clubs or enter competitions based on common game interests,
┬╖ Discuss, accept and reject challenges based on agreed game scenarios,
┬╖ Play games and record the results for tournament play, and
┬╖ Chat with fellow gamers
Wireplay works with many different game types, both DOS and Windows 95, which support multi-player gaming option using:
┬╖ Wireplay Multi-player APIs
┬╖ IPX networking through the Wireplay WireIPXΓäó system
┬╖ IP (Internet) networking through the WireIPΓäó system
┬╖ Microsoft DirectPlayΓäó version 3.0 or above
┬╖ Specially improved drivers for many popular games
Wireplay is designed to run only on a Windows 95 platform at this time.
Wireplay also supports numerous types of game competition such as rankings, ladders, leagues and knockout tournaments. Wireplay supports both peer-to-peer games and client-server games. Peer-to-peer games are games where the gaming software is running on each player's PC. Wireplay is used to establish games, communicate game information between players and keep track of the results of games.
In a client-server game, the overall status of the game is controlled and managed by game-specific software held on the Server. Players' PCs communicate with that central software rather than directly with each other. The Server software may for example perform game synchronization or packet bundling to improve the performance of a particular game. Wireplay supports such client-server games with the game management software hosted on a Server either managed by Wireplay or by a third party allowing the game environment to be continuously modified.
For more information on Wireplay, you may either use the online Help (Help icon in the top right hand corner) or read a Microsoft Word version of the user guide win95hlp.doc.
System Requirements
To get the most out of Wireplay we recommend the following:
┬╖ A Pentium P90 or above
┬╖ At least 16 megabytes of RAM
┬╖ A modem and phone line
┬╖ A CD-ROM Drive
┬╖ Windows 95
For individual games supported by Wireplay, we recommend you check the FAQs for the games.
Technical Help
You can contact the Wireplay help desk at 1-800-316-1855. The Wireplay help desk staff is made up of gamers who can help with many common PC problems for Wireplay. The help desk staff reports any problems to the Wireplay programmers to fix so that you can play without any unnecessary interruptions.
