GameRanger

GameRanger
Developer(s) Scott Kevill
Stable release 4.9 / Mac (2008-05-29), Windows (2008-11-13)
Operating system Mac OS, Mac OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 Windows 10
Type Server-matching/IRC application.
Website www.gameranger.com

GameRanger is an Internet gaming service for the Macintosh and Windows computing platforms, developed by GameRanger Technologies. It allows multiplayer games to be played online and provides various social features like chat rooms and voice chat. It was developed by Australian developer Scott Kevill and first released for Macintosh in July 1999. In the same year it achieved an award of "Best Internet Gaming Achievement" by Macworld Magazine.[1] Windows support was added in 2008 and the service today supports over 700 titles.[2]

GameRanger is not compatible with Apple's latest major releases of the Macintosh operating system since OS X Mavericks (October 2013). Although the developer stated that their support for the platform continues and a solution is in the works, development for the Macintosh has been sidetracked due to, as the developer claims, the much larger interest in the Windows version and Apple's lack of support for older applications.[3]

Overview

The service is regulated, updated and administered by Scott Kevill. In addition to hosting and playing games the service acts as a chat room with varied topics. However, today it must 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. 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 three choices for use. Basic membership is free and allows users to have a maximum of 50 friends and host to play most supported games. Silver membership costs $19.95 US per year and allows players to have a unique account name, have up to 100 buddies, take advantage of ladders/rankings/ratings, use voice communication, have a custom icon, and have access to exclusive chatrooms in addition to the Basic membership features. Gold membership, costing $39.95 US per year, allows up to 500 buddies, removes ad banners, gives permission to host chatrooms, ability to set auto-reply away messages, and access to an expanded user profile in addition to benefits from Silver membership. Both Silver and Gold have a 30-day refund.

In November 2008, GameRanger released a client for Windows. Initially, 526 Windows games were supported with 27 of them able to connect to Mac users running the same game.

See also

References

  1. ↑ GameRanger Adds Heroes 3, MechWarrior 2, and Dark Colony
  2. ↑ "GameRanger - Supported Games". GameRanger. Retrieved 2014-10-03.
  3. ↑ Post on GameRanger's Facebook page concerning the compatibility with OS X Mavericks

External links

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