Desktop Sharing ?

Not sure how plausible it is for gaming. Plus you'd be giving full access to your computer to others (so maybe only for trusted relatives, sibling/child/parent).

Depends on what you want to do exactly.

There are older games capable of playing over a network, you've mentioned FPS but there are RTS and RPGs too. Setting that kind of thing up as multiplayer across the internet would be one option. With a lot of these you either need the full game or a cut-down network client version installed on every machine. One install then acts as a server that the others connect to. The game installs have the networking capability.

Other games have a client/server framework where the server is pretty much a database system and the clients are what the players use. This is the kind of model used by at least some MMORPGs. There are open source versions of the database systems like MANGOS and various forks of that. You can set some such games up on linux and run your clients from Windows for example.

As a third alternative you could also use something like VNC for people to connect in to your server machine and run a desktop - so they'd effectively be running a VM on your server. From there they could run a game clients in the above option.

Minecraft and Unreal have dedicated servers which a game someone is running locally will connect to. The game is still running on their local PC, the server is providing the multiplayer piece.

There is also game streaming, where the game would run on your server and a video stream would be sent to the remote player. This need much more power versus just a game server like above.

What games are you looking to play, and will your friends be running them remotely. Or need to stream from you?

If I understand what you want. I found a simple solution was to use something like LogMeIn Hamachi. It's a layer 2 VPN that establishes a connection over the internet between computers. That connection acts as if the computers were one the same LAN. Since many older games with multiplayer, and most emulators, support LAN play, this works quite well. This specific one if free for up to 5 computes in a network. There are others, but that's the one I used. Note, this only works if the game supports LAN play in some form.

StriderTR wrote on Yesterday, 20:27:

If I understand what you want. I found a simple solution was to use something like LogMeIn Hamachi. It's a layer 2 VPN that establishes a connection over the internet between computers. That connection acts as if the computers were one the same LAN. Since many older games with multiplayer, and most emulators, support LAN play, this works quite well. This specific one if free for up to 5 computes in a network. There are others, but that's the one I used. Note, this only works if the game supports LAN play in some form.

Thank, I'll look into this.

ratfink wrote on Yesterday, 19:16:

Depends on what you want to do exactly. […]
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Depends on what you want to do exactly.

There are older games capable of playing over a network, you've mentioned FPS but there are RTS and RPGs too. Setting that kind of thing up as multiplayer across the internet would be one option. With a lot of these you either need the full game or a cut-down network client version installed on every machine. One install then acts as a server that the others connect to. The game installs have the networking capability.

Other games have a client/server framework where the server is pretty much a database system and the clients are what the players use. This is the kind of model used by at least some MMORPGs. There are open source versions of the database systems like MANGOS and various forks of that. You can set some such games up on linux and run your clients from Windows for example.

As a third alternative you could also use something like VNC for people to connect in to your server machine and run a desktop - so they'd effectively be running a VM on your server. From there they could run a game clients in the above option.

I understand. Thank you.

SScorpio wrote on Yesterday, 19:28:

Minecraft and Unreal have dedicated servers which a game someone is running locally will connect to. The game is still running on their local PC, the server is providing the multiplayer piece.

There is also game streaming, where the game would run on your server and a video stream would be sent to the remote player. This need much more power versus just a game server like above.

What games are you looking to play, and will your friends be running them remotely. Or need to stream from you?

Specifically I was thinking of either Mario Kart 64/Diddy Kong Racing/Super Smash Bros from an emulator that supports LAN, Any Hydro Thunder game (including or excluding H2Overdrive) or maybe a game on MAME.

iiamsiincere wrote on Today, 00:02:

Specifically I was thinking of either Mario Kart 64/Diddy Kong Racing/Super Smash Bros from an emulator that supports LAN, Any Hydro Thunder game (including or excluding H2Overdrive) or maybe a game on MAME.

Those games weren't made for network play, some emulators have online functionality. IMO, just go streaming.

RetroArch is available directly from Steam for free. This gives it access to Remote Play Together. All you need to do it fire it up, then send invites to your friends. They can be on a PC, or phone/tablet Android/iOS with the Steam Link and Steam Chat apps. You stream the game from your computer, and they send input from their devices and work like other players. Since it's just input there's no syncing issues between copies of the game running on different devices.