DYNASTY GAME DESIGN

DYNASTY DOWNLOAD

DYNASTY REVIEWS

DYNASTY  IN-DEPTH

Designer's Dugout 

DYNASTY Leagues & On-Line Play  

DYNASTY  Q & A  

TICKET WINDOW

If you have Windows XP, open Messenger and have the home team  invite the visiting team to "share an application".  The game will appear on the visiting teams computer.  It's that easy!

Here is everything broken down step-by-step:

Step 1: Download MS NetMeeting v3.01 at
microsoft.com/netmeeting
NetMeeting is distributed for FREE from Microsoft and enables you to share applications and chat through your local internet service provider.

NOTE: Make sure that both players display modes are set to the same screen resolution.

NOTE: Windows XP has NetMeeting pre-installed so you don't have to download NetMeeting.

NOTE: If you can't connect through Messenger, you can connect through NetMeeting.  To do this you need to find out your opponent's IP address by going to:

 whatismyip.com.

Enter your opponent's IP address in the NetMeeting call box and click call to connect.  From there you can share the application just like you would in Messenger.

Step 2: Get a free hotmail email account if you don't have a hotmail account already
Go to hotmail.com and sign up. You should name the account after your team name (i.e. Cincinnati5@hotmail.com)

Step 3: Get the latest version of Microsoft's free Instant Messenger
Go to messenger.msn.com

NOTE: Windows XP has Messenger pre-installed

Step 4: Connect to the internet and open Microsoft Messenger

Step 5: Add your opponent Hotmail contacts to Microsoft Messenger

• In Messenger, on the Contacts menu, click Add a Contact, and then follow the instructions that appear.
  
• The people you add to your contact list must have a Hotmail e-mail account.

Step 6: In Messenger, the Home team manager goes to the Actions menu and selects "Start an Activity" to invite your opponent to play




Next select  "Application sharing"




Home team starts the DYNASTY game and clicks the "share program" button in the bottom left corner of NetMeeting.
A window will appear that will allow you to select DYNASTY. Next click the "share" button to the right.
 

Also check off the "Automatically accept requests for control" box and then click the "Allow control" button on the bottom.



Sharing the mouse:
For those familiar with the board game, the turn procedure works very similar to who rolls the dice. 

Defensive Manager clicks first on the Pitch button and then the Offensive Manager takes control of the mouse and makes his selection. Only one person can have control of the mouse at one time. To take control of the mouse double click the mouse on the pointer. The host will see the initials of the opponent.  

For those familiar with the board game, the turn procedure works very similar to who rolls the dice. Defensive Manager clicks first on the Pitch button and then the Offensive Manager takes control of the mouse and makes his selection. Only one person can have control of the mouse at one time. To take control of the mouse double click the mouse on the pointer. The host will see the initials of the opponent.

Step 7: Save game and export each series or month to the Commissioner to compile stats and standings.

Troubleshooting:
If you are the visiting team hostee, and the screen appears to be froze, you probably have been "booted" and need to completely exit out of NetMeeting and restart.  The home team player can suspect the hostee has been "booted" if there is a long period of inactivity or when you open NetMeeting chat and you receive a message "Not in a call".

Can't connect?  Try Remote Assistance
If either Messenger or NetMeeting won't allow you to connect, a very good option is to use Remote Assistance. Click on Start and then All Programs to select Remote Assistance in your menu. 

What to do in the event of a disconnection.
The player who was disconnected needs to go through each of the above steps to re-connect.  It's always best to have both players restart Messenger and NetMeeting.

Saving and Sending Box Scores:
The best way is to use the new PDF writer found at the DYNASTY download link.

First DYNASTY Test — 1977 World Series:

My first test playing DYNASTY live on-line with NetMeeting v2.1 came playing Steve Mitrakos in San Franciso, CA. Here I was in Marlin land and Steve was 3,000 miles away in Joe DiMaggio's home town, but for us it felt like we were sitting side by side playing the game. Steve and I have played many games with each other using the DYNASTY board game during Tour/Tournaments and in our league so the turn procedure for sharing the mouse came very natural for us.

We had a rematch of the 1977 World Series with Steve's home town Yankees Ron Guidry facing off vs. my LA Dodgers and Don Sutton. Sutton twirled a seven hit complete game holding the Bronx Bombers to only two runs. Dusty Baker, one of four Dodgers to hit 30 HR, cleared the fence to give the Dodgers the lead for good as the Dodgers took game one 4-2. Thurman Munson took one deep for the Yanks.

We had great fun playing and the game was as tension packed as if Steve was sitting next to me. NetMeeting delivered flawlessly. The transmission was almost instantaneous with no delay other than screen re-draw when you go the the substitution screens.  

Once Steve connected on Messenger, I invited him by going to the Tools menu in Messenger and selecting invite. We chatted for a bit, and then I launched DYNASTY and clicked on the share program button in the bottom left-hand corner of the NetMeeting panel. I then selected the Dynasty program in the window that list your progarms and clicked share. The final step was to click the "Allow for control" button and check off the "Automatically accept requests for control" option.

This sounds a bit like Buck Rodgers in the 21st century, but really it's not hard to do at all. So don't be scared off thinking it's difficult. Once you've played a game and connected you'll have it down pat.

During subsequent tests we ran into a few glitches that we learned from so here are a few tips:

1) A Pentium is recommended with at least a 56K modem 
You will need to be using Windows 98, NT or XP as your operating system to run NetMeeting properly.  XP works best.

2) Close down all other applications while playing:

3) What to do in the event of a crash or disconnection: Both players need to completely EXIT out of NetMeeting and DYNASTY if this happens. NetMeeting seems to think you are still in a call, so exiting out resets the program. Then you need to reconnect with NetMeeting and launch DYNASTY again.

4) Chatting while playing: If you have a microphone and speaker you can talk while playing! If you don't have a microphone, you can click on the chat button and a chat screen will come up. When you are in the main game screen you can flip back to the chat screen by clicking on the NetMeeting application in the tool bar. You may have to click on the DYNASTY main screen title bar and drag it a bit to activate the window before making the tool bar visible.

Good Luck with your new franchise and play ball!