Doom Connector
From DoomWiki.org
Doom Connector is a free lobby-based service developed by Pascal van der Heiden (CodeImp), which was later run by Zorcher, and finally by Vindict6 and Ron Goode (Mr.Rocket). Doom Connector is a lobby-based client that allow users to easily play Doom online with several popular multiplayer ports, such as ZDoom, Skulltag, ZDaemon, Doom Legacy, SRB2, and GZDoom.
This service allow players to see all public servers from Doom master servers, but also allow creation of private peer-to-peer games. The support for each source port is implemented as a plug-in, which allows flexible support for all the features each source port has. Doom Connector provides very comprehensive features such as:
- Browse and join all public (dedicated) servers
- Set up, host and join peer-to-peer games
- IRC chat specialized for the service features
- Customizable player account
- Buddylist to keep track of your buddies
- Whiteboard to draw strategics
- File transfers
- Offline messages
- Shows the ping (latency) on all servers
- Color coded text and more
This product was developed by CodeImp in 2001, and was continued by Zorcher in 2008. On June 25, 2014, Doom Connector went offline. On March 22, 2016, Doom Connector was reopened by Vindict6 and a new administrative team. The service closed again in 2021.
Contents
History[edit]
Development started in July 6, 2001, as "Doom Legacy Connector". At that time, Doom Legacy needed a replacement for its master server. The software was announced finished and stable somewhere at the end of September 2001 and opened its doors on October 9, 2001. The service was hosted by Joen Joensen and maintained by Pascal van der Heiden and several moderators from the Doom Legacy community.
Not long after its release, the authors and users of other source ports requested support implementation for their ports as well. The software was then rebuilt to include support for the above mentioned source ports and was named "Doom Connector 2", since it was the second major version and no longer specific to Doom Legacy.
More than a year later, the entire software was rebuilt again to better support the different source ports and to provide more features. The service also needed more professional administrative features to maintain the system and community. This version, released at February 28, 2003, was named "Doom Connector 3".
At February 14, 2004, the service went down because Joen Joensen was unable to host this service any longer. It did not take long for MancuNET to bring this service back with a complete new management. On March 3, 2004, Doom Connector 3 was re-opened by Mike Lightner (Mancubus II) with several moderators from all over the Doom multiplayer scene.
CodeImp decided to try going for a total new build for Doom Connector, which was known for a while as "Doom Connector 4". Unfortunately it wasn't released, even after three months of work using Microsoft .NET to provide Doom Connector better and newer features. A few months later, CodeImp retired from administration because other work required his attention. He passed control over to Dagger.
After four years, the Doom Connector service was discontinued on May 30, 2005, and the source code of the product was given to Brad Carney (Carnevil), author of the Skulltag source port. Skulltag Online was started shortly thereafter, as well as a branch of the software called Player Connector which was maintained by Zorcher. These two services served as replacements for Doom Connector for several years. In 2008, the Doom Connector service was temporarily reestablished. By 2010, the user base had seen a substantial decline compared to its peak.
On June 25, 2014, the Doom Connector service went offline. On March 22, 2016, Vindict6, a prior API developer, reopened the service to Zandronum, ZDoom, and GZDoom users. Several improvements were made on the client including improved netcode, an updated UI, chat color insertion, IRC integration, and numerous others.
The service closed in 2021 due to the introduction of Discord.
Gallery[edit]
Doom Connector 3 (2008)
Doom Connector 4
See also[edit]
External links[edit]
- Home page (archived 🏛)
- Old home page (archived 🏛)
