Black Raven Dragoons

So, I'm thinking of probably doing a Tribes 2 "nostalgia bash" one of these weekends. The caveat is that you'll need to download it if you want to join up...

Now, the trick is, that you can either grab the pre-installed version that I've pulled from my archives that have the TribesNext patch installed already, allowing you to play online, or you can download the ISO and the TribesNext patches yourself. The latter approach might be better for you in situations where you want to have the ISO on hand, but the installer is broken in versions of Windows passed XP. This means you might have to do some fiddly crap to get it fully functional.

I'll post the links to the ISO and patches shortly.

The other thing is that if you download the archive I put together, you're going to have to create your own shortcuts to Tribes2.exe. Basically, you'll want to run: Tribes2.exe -mod Classic -online at a bare minimum.

Lastly, you'll need a server to play on. We can either pick some of the Tribes next servers or we can play on the old one that I have set up already. The bandwidth requirements are pretty low since this appeared in the dial-up era. Sooooooo...

Enjoy.

Also, since the master servers have been down for about 4-5 years now (longer, I think?), you'll need to register with TribesNext. I can't precisely remember how to do it, but I seem to remember that you can do so from within the client.

Be aware though that they don't have any means of recovering your account if you lose your password, so pick something stupid you'll remember.

Okay, here's the list of downloads currently posted. I'll be adding Tribes 1 to this list eventually.

• Tribes 2 + TribesNext pre-patched - MD5: e5ca7f83245c11dc9b7cbd62367458f1
• Tribes 2 ISO (retail; gzipped) - MD5: 2de275376ae3d38cbac05407e779d408
• Tribes 1 + Vista + Widescreen Patches - MD5: 5a78818dcaf6d01f9f39b4b576af2a82

Alternate downloads

TribesNext has a list of mirror sites. You might also want to read their installation instructions.

The ISOs downloadable from the TribesNext links are of the final shipped version, I believe. Their checksums will differ from mine.

Patches

If you've downloaded the ISO from me rather than from one of the mirror sites, you've snagged the retail ISO (non-patched). You'll need to download the 25034 update and patch it manually.

For both the retail and later ISO versions, you'll need to install the TribesNext patch, which circumvents the master server code that's now broken (since, well, the master servers don't exist anymore--neither do the auth servers).

If you want to use the ISOs and don't want to burn them, you'll need to install something like MagicDisk, which allows you to mount ISO images as a separate drive. This is also a handy utility for general use if you spend any amount of time in Windows.

Pre-patched version

If you've downloaded the pre-patched version, you simply need to extract it to some location on your drive and create a shortcut with the start-in folder set to the location you've extracted Tribes. The command line should read:

path/to/Tribes2.exe -online -mod Classic

Be aware that the pre-patched version is basically an uploaded copy of everything I've had installed for about 12 years. There may be some junk in the archive related to the various servers I've run over the years. Although, upon closer inspection, it appears that it might be a fairly clean install. Either way, the pre-patched version may save you some trouble.

Tribes 1

Because of the age of Tribes 1 (the actual retail name was "Starsiege: Tribes"), it doesn't work out of the box with either Windows Vista (or later) or with widescreen resolutions. I've included a few patches that should be compatible with the 1.11 servers, but you can't simply run Tribes.exe anymore. Instead, you'll need to try either tribes111-v-ws.exe (widescreen patches) or VistaLH1.30Tribes.exe. I'd suggest attempting to use the widescreen patch first.

To configure Tribes for widescreen resolutions, you'll need to modify the file located at config/wsfix.cs and set the desired display width and height as appropriate. I've included two of the more common ones as ws-1680x1050.cs and ws-1920x1080.cs. Just copy them over wsfix.cs (that is, renamed to "wsfix.cs") as appropriate. If I haven't included a resolution you're running, just edit the file by hand.

I've also included the basic game server list if you want to play on my server, if it's running. You might need to remove an extraneous test entry if I haven't removed it already, as there's one for my local network which (obviously) won't work for you.

Tribes 2

There's a surprising number of servers still running for Tribes 2. If you want to practice on mine, it's not currently registering with the master so you'll need to open the console by pressing tilde (~) and enter the following:

joingame("72.0.44.133");

It'll prompt for a password; just enter "goons" (minus quotes). You might need to reopen the console with tilde again and type the joingame statement (as above) a second time, although it's easier to simply open the console and press the up arrow key twice.

I'll see about registering it with the master, but I suspect they're filtering out game servers that are password protected. Either that or it's my firewall that might be blocking some level of communications with the master. I haven't checked.

I'm currently in the process of uploading the Tribes 1 pre-patched stuff. When it's done sometime in the morning, you should be able to snag it from here. I've edited the previous post to include the details.

TL;DR

J/K I did read it. Well, most of it. I buzzed over the parts not in Times New Roman text.

If you get bored and decide to fire up Tribes 2, it appears that my server is showing up on the master list as "DESTRealm.Org/BRD." The server password is goons.

So, I've tried to register an account through the game twice today and either their server is down or I can't seem to connect to it. Very vague error. They seem to only indicate port 28000 needed and that's if you are hosting the game really. Something isn't jiving somewhere. I went ahead and forwarded that port udp/tcp and no dice. Disabled my windows firewall(even though the I added the game there) and still no go. I'm calling it a night. I'll mess with this some more later when I have time.