Z-Net

Z-Net was a mIRC script front-end designed to allow users to easily find other people, and launch netplay sessions for video game emulators running on the windows platform. Its design can allow support for many emulators, and even other types of programs, by use of simple "addons" that can be publicly created for Z-Net. Z-Net follows in the footsteps of programs such as zbattle and Kaillera, but differs in its implementation and goals, as well as features and open source nature.
History
Z-Net was originally created in the later quarter of 2003 as a netplay front-end for the SNES emulator ZSNES, in an attempt to replace the program zbattle, whose servers had been down almost a year at the time. Within days of Z-Net's release, zbattle came back online, but being so far along, Z-Net continued development. Z-Net's goals shifted more to compete with the zbattle, due to the author's issues with zbattle. Despite the fact that Z-Net's community was growing, and the scripts features continued increasing, Z-Net soon faded away as its design remained unfinished and buggy as the creator shifted his project goals onto two other versions of the client; a complete mIRC script re-write, and a standalone client that did not use mIRC. Soon after, the author dropped all projects entirely for various reasons, and the Z-Net project remained inactive for 3 1/2 years.
On December 1st 2007, DarkAkuma publicly announced he had been working on a re-designed mIRC script for several weeks. The author was disappointed with the way the project was left, and thought the emulation netplay community had not grown as it should have in recent years. The first public beta was released on January 8, 2008. With the new version, a cleaner interface and support for more emulators were the main features. Z-Net was in its fifth beta phase until the author once again lost interest in the project, citing the lack of popularity as the cause this time, and as a result both the website and the forums were down for almost a year. The site returned on February 6th, 2009.
Features
Z-Net boasts a fully customizable chatroom, with PMs, through the use of the ever popular IRC client, mIRC. Players can also host gamelists containing games they want to play, which then become viewable by other players who open the gamelist window. Z-Net's CRC-Checking feature highlights games that match in red, while others remain gray. Double-clicking said red matches prompts the host to Decline or Accept a game request, and launches the game in a the corresponding emulator if Accepted.
Additionally, Z-Net contains an addon system, that supports scripts written for other emulators, or even programs, that can be installed from the main Z-Net settings window. This allows the possibilities for emulator authors and users to create their own Z-Net addon scripts, be it for an unsupported emulator, or just for an additional channel specific to a particular language or popular game.
A total list of features includes:
*Full UI customize ability.
*CRC match compatibility.
*Support for an unlimited number of programs, officially including:
**Zsnes1.36
**Zsnes1.42
**VirtuaNES
**Mupen64k
**Gens2.14
**MAME32k
*Multi-lingual channel capabilities.
*Game specific room capabilities.
*Zip support.
*ROM name mismatch support.
*Compatibility with multiple protocols, if available through the emulator.
*Hotkey shortcuts.
*Sounds.
*Manual Launching of netplay (IP addresses are automatically entered).
*Open source.
*Doesn't require a dedicated central server.
*mIRC's general scripting capability, for non-Z-Net related scripts.

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See Also

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