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.
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