GameRanger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| GameRanger | |
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| Developer: | Scott Kevill |
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| Latest release: | 4.6.1 / December 1, 2006 |
| OS: | Mac OS, Mac OS X |
| Use: | Server-matching/IRC application. |
| Website: | www.gameranger.com |
GameRanger is an Internet gaming service for the Apple Macintosh computing platform. The service includes custom software and unlike other gaming services is not strictly web-based. GameRanger was created by Scott Kevill, an Australian programmer, and was first released in July 1999 with support for 11 game titles. In the same year, it achieved an award of "Best Internet Gaming Achievement" by Macworld Magazine. The service today supports over 150 old titles.
In its early days, the service provided an Internet tracker for a range of Mac games at a time when developing and maintaining custom Internet trackers and tracker software was seen as financially unattractive (as a far smaller percentage of gamers had the bandwidth to support Internet gaming). Some games of the time had support for Internet gaming through their use of Apple's NetSprockets but no tracking software. At one time, a handful of games such as Total Annihilation used NetSprockets as an alternative to DirectPlay. The result was that users of these games could only play amongst other users using the same computing platform. Hence GameRanger proved valuable for this niche market.
Today the service acts as a generic Internet spy tracker and gaming community for Mac games offering special services such as rankings, buddy lists and in-game voice communication. However it must now compete with the vast majority of developers who are choosing to adopt custom tracking software and maintain their own trackers. NetSprockets now belongs to an open source project called OpenPlay that has experienced very limited success in its adoption. Changes in networking technology as well as market expectations have also largely eliminated games that do not allow cross-platform network play. Nevertheless, GameRanger continues to support a range of cross-platform games including those with custom trackers.
GameRanger is available to download for free at the GameRanger Website. The software has two choices for use. Basic membership is free and allows users to host and play games. Premium membership costs $1 US per week ($52 US per year) and allows players to host chat rooms in addition to the Basic membership features.
Gameranger no longer supports any Macintosh platform below 10.3.9 according to an alert dialog window that appears when users attempt to connect using older versions of Gameranger on older operating systems prior to 10.3.9. This means owners of previously purchased games will be forced to purchasing a new computer or upgrade their existing computer to at least 10.3.9, which in turn means they may have to: (a) repurchase new versions of their games because the old version may not work with 10.3.9 (assuming new versions are available); (b) abandon the use of other hardware (i.e., their scanner or digital camera may no longer work with their new or updated computer); and (c) purchase new versions of other non-Gameranger software they have as they may no longer work on a new or upgraded computer (assuming that they are available).
