The Internet Gaming Zone is described in the 1998 manual of Star Wars: Rebellion as a free online matchmaking service for finding opponents and starting Internet games. This article records only what the manual says about the service.

As described in the manual

The manual calls the Zone a free service for finding opponents and launching an Internet game from a Web browser. It says the game uses DirectPlay, the multiplayer part of DirectX 5.0, which supports TCP/IP. The manual adds that the Zone is optional: a player can play online without it, but it simplifies finding players and joining games. The manual also points to the Rebel HQ Web page for news on LucasArts multiplayer games. Requirements named in the manual are an Internet Service Provider account and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 or later.

Joining the Zone

The manual's steps are: connect to the provider, start Internet Explorer, enter the Zone address, choose New Player Sign-Up, fill in the member information, and download or upgrade the Zone software. A restart may be requested afterward.

Playing in the Zone

After both the game and the Zone software are installed, the player puts the game CD in the drive without starting the game, goes to the Zone, chooses Play Games Now! and signs in with the Member ID and password. The Games List has the game under Strategy Games, and its room has ZoneMatch lobbies.

In a lobby the player clicks Host on an unoccupied game square or Join on an occupied one. A latency indicator by each name shows connection quality: black for unknown, red for poor, yellow for average, green for good, and a double green for best. The manual recommends joining only games whose other player shows green. Once someone has joined, the host clicks Play and the game launches on both machines. After a session, exiting the game returns to the Zone, where Resume rejoins the lobby.

Playing without the Zone

The manual also gives steps for hosting and joining directly over TCP/IP, and notes that this can be difficult for less experienced users. It suggests advanced users might arrange games in an IRC chat room.

• Hosting: connect, find the current IP address (usually different at each connection) with the IP Configuration Viewer, give it to the opponent, host a TCP/IP game and wait at the Multiplayer Options screen.
• Joining: obtain the host's IP address, choose a TCP/IP join, enter the address exactly with periods, and when the game is found select its name and continue.

See Hosting a multiplayer game and Joining a multiplayer game for the in-game screens.

Windows 95 utilities

The manual describes two utilities included with Windows 95. The IP Configuration Viewer, started by running WINIPCFG, displays the player's IP address. The PING command, run from an MS-DOS prompt, measures latency to the host. The manual calls an average of 500 ms or less generally acceptable and 300 ms or less optimal, and says a "Request timed out" message suggests poor performance.

Performance tips

The manual's tips are to have a quality Internet connection, reconnecting if there are problems (which changes the IP address), to play when the Internet is less congested, to prefer an independent or local provider to some commercial online services, to connect at the modem's highest speed, and to keep latency low.

Glossary

The manual closes the chapter with a glossary of Internet terms, including ActiveX, bandwidth, client, DirectX, host, Internet, IP address and IPX. It notes that the Zone's lobby uses ActiveX and so requires an ActiveX-compatible browser.