Our ReVolt Pub

This is an extensive guide on how to use GameRanger for Re-Volt online racing.




• What is GameRanger?
GameRanger is a free program to play games online, very similar to the old GameSpy Arcade.
It works on Windows and Mac and requires minimum hardware resources to run it smoothly, unlike other similar programs. It supports all versions of Re-Volt from the original 1.00 to the newest 1.20 Alpha, and in most cases it does not require any special configuration in your modem-router.

• Where can I download it?
Download the setup here:



Note: sometimes the setup may freeze during the installation. Don't worry, don't need to cancel it.
It's just installing and will be ready in minutes.

• Creating an Account
When the setup process is finished, you have to register a New account if you're new.
It may ask for an Invite code, just ignore this and simply click on Next button.
Use a valid e-mail address when you register because they will send the activation link to your inbox. You won't be able to log in until you click on the activation link in your inbox.

• How to use GameRanger to play online?

Double click on a room if there is one available and wait for the Host to launch the game.
To host your room, click on the Host button in Main window. When all players are ready to start, press the Start button to launch the game.




• How to find Re-Volt rooms quickly?
By default GameRanger shows rooms for all games, even those that you don't have installed or are not interested to play. You can change this to display only Re-Volt rooms or those that you are interested.

In the middle section of the Main window you can see an option called ALL GAMES. Simply click there and switch to MY GAMES. GameRanger will now detect the games you have installed in your computer and will display the rooms for those games only. If you want a more personalized list of rooms, you can create a new Group with the games you wish, for example, Re-Volt.

• How to add players to my Friends list?
Everytime you see a user, you can right click on his name and select the option Add to Friends.
After this, the user will be added to your friends list so you will know when he's online, send him private messages, check if he's playing, and also invite him to join a game. If somebody annoys you, you can stop him by right clicking on his name and selecting Block User.

• How to add players to my Friends list when they are offline?
GameRanger offers the possibility to Search for users if you know his e-mail address, his username, or his ID number. If you're interested in adding a specific player to your Friends list, you can go to your Friends list, click on the Add Friends button, select Add by ID, type the ID on the box and click on Search.

Here is a list of well-known community member IDs for you to add.

Alphacraft 5558273
Bálint 5043968
Cosmo_Kramer 5054428
coppolafab 5478744
Criss 4961476
CrissTekk 6112427
deem 4441600
Dolo 4430352
DrPepper 3875752
Electric-Bee 3954848
Giacomo 5925054
Hessen 5734531
hilaire9 5215819
hrktucu 5639420
JaBBier 5370984
Jojoba 5437553
Juest 913617
Kipy 5745170
Kosztya 5896819
Last_Cuban 6043252
Leo 5590050
Mape 4844192
Milan 1072007
Mladen007 3752792
mmudshark 2751650
nuclearhythmics 3543998
Monty 4676114
Mop 869792
Nero 1840821
Phantom 864114
RafSTer 4525142
Rancor 5562150
Rango 6124358
REdTaylor 5966335
revolting 5966431
Pavlovic 5495203
RV_Passion 5058866
RV_Pure 5087088
Santii727 4936219
SCracer 5324100
SebR 4296675
Semka 1122520
Setemeny 5068580
snir-levi 4699472
sonkite 5075009
Tonirocket 5727180
Touriga 6148403
Tuc 4794249
WIZZ 5959686

• View other player's Ping
By default GameRanger shows graphical ping for every room you see. You can change it to show numerical ping. In Main window. Go to Edit, Options, Appearance tab. Untick the option "Show graphical ping" and click OK. Now you will see the ping for every room in numbers. Remember that the lower the number, the better.

• Switch Host feature
When there are many players in a room, and for some reason the Host has to leave or isn't in the mood for hosting, he can choose another player to become Host without closing the current room. Do this by right clicking on the desired user and select 'Switch to Host'.

• Ability to choose between different Re-Volt installations
If you have more than 1 re-volt in your computer or you're using different versions, you may have noticed that switching between them was very tricky to do on RV House. GameRanger has an option that lets you choose the Folder path you wish in your computer. If you want to switch to a different version or a different game folder, simply go to Options, Games. And in the list you see navigate to Re-Volt. Click on the Browse button and choose the Re-Volt folder you wish to be launched.

• Routers and Ports:
Despite the fact that GameRanger is able to bypass most of the existent routers without the need to configure anything, in some rare occasions (very strong routers) it might need you to open the port UDP 16000 or, if you prefer, the UDP 2300 which is the alternative port.

Note 1: If you already opened the UDP 2300 to play on RV House, don't open anything else.
The range 2300-2400 required to play on RV House already includes the 2300, don't open it twice.

Note 2: GameRanger has 2 separate ports in case you want to play from 2 different PCs using the same router. This is how RV Twins Passion and Pure managed to play online at same time.

• How to know if I need to open the port?
Players with names in italic letters are players that have strong routers that GameRanger wasn't able to bypass. If a host is italic for you, you won't be able to join his game. If only 1 player in a room is italic for you and he is not the host, you will be able to see the other players but you won't see the player that was italic for you. Restarting GameRanger usually fixes the Italic problem. But if the problem persists at least one of the players that see each other in italic should open the port UDP 2300. If you don't see anybody with italic names you don't need to worry about this at all.

• How to remove the ads in GameRanger?
Check the post How to remove the ads in GameRanger? below to find the answer.

This is all, any further questions write them down here. I'd be happy to answer as usual.
Have a happy racing session and bring your friends. We need more new players.

Phantom @ 23 Feb 2015, 12:16 AM wrote:This is all, any further questions write them down here. I' be happy to answer.

How do I race faster and... no no, sorry

That's great, most appreciated.

Nice job, worth a sticky as well...

Also gameranger contains some privacy things like blocking PMs, etc

specifically it automatically blocks invites if the other user doesnt have you in his friends list
the friend list is basically a follow list. bronze limit is 50, silver: 150 and the amount of users is kept if your membership expires and you can only remove users from there in that case

a "true" friend in gameranger is the one where you and him have mutually added themselves to their friend list.

GameRanger also comes with Chat Rooms: either hosted chatrooms (gold only) or the public lists in the bottom of the main window (not many people tho)

Also only gold members can disable ADs.

How to remove the ads in GameRanger?

Hello again, in this brief tutorial I want to share the method I've been using to get rid of the annoying advertisements in GameRanger.

The method basically consists in blocking the web addresses from which GameRanger gets the advertisements. This is done by accessing a specific file in Windows called the hosts file and adding the addresses that I'm going to share.

CAUTION: From now on you continue under your own risk and I suggest you make a backup of your original hosts file before proceeding.

1. To start with, let's go to Start menu and open the program Run.

2. Once opened, write the following text and press Enter:
One picture should make this more clear.
This is what you are supposed to see before pressing Enter:



Now that Notepad is open we can now edit the hosts file. And since you've done it via Run program you can edit it with admin priviliges which will make changes save.

3. At the end of the file add the following addresses and save the changes.
Ok, that was all. If you followed the steps correctly restart GameRanger and there should be no more annoying advertisements. From time to time one ad or two may appear, it's because the addresses used by GameRanger sometimes change, but after a long time using this method I can say it's worth the effort and I currently see no ads anymore.

Just in case I suggest you make a backup of your original hosts file before doing this change.

Ok hope you enjoy.

That method is blocking trough HOSTS file, you need to open it on a elevated notepad (if UAC enabled)
you can pay gameranger to disable the ads completely and remove their occupying space and get more features (must be gold as that's the only membership that allows you to disable ads)

Like Abc has so helpfully mentioned, it is recommended to turn UAC off and restart the computer before doing this change. If you do it with UAC on you might still get the message saying you don't have enough permissions to save the file. Thanks to mmudshark for confirming this.

How To Disable User Account Control (UAC)

Erm... It definitely looks like GameRanger gets all those addresses at startup or something. Maybe better idea will be to find and block the URL that returns the list of ads servers??

Does this topic means that most of the races today happens at GameRanger?

}!{enR @ 23 Feb 2015, 08:33 AM wrote: Does this topic means that most of the races today happens at GameRanger?

Yes.

Sorry Phantom, no sense in having two new topics about the same subject, so I merged & edited to suit.

Your information provided is brilliant, thank's.

btw mm, a minor but important piece got missing in the process: what phan mentioned about gold membership also i briefly explained what is gameranger too

Do you mean the info on the RV House thread ?

Manmountain @ 23 Feb 2015, 02:03 PM wrote: Do you mean the info on the RV House thread ?

Pretty much, sorry anyway.

Actually, I have a half-decent way of ensuring all the ads are gone.

Since the addresses change occasionally, if you are inundated with yet another video ad, simply use URLsnooper2 and just watch what hits that application receives. Afterward, just copy and paste the URLs that appear to be from GR into a text document.

Use the find and replace feature to change http:// and https:// into 127.0.0.1 (with leading space) and after cleaning up the list to only have domains, use Text Mechanic's duplicate lines remover, pasting in both the hits URLsnooper2 found along with your hosts file, then letting the dupe remover do its thing before pasting the new result into your hosts file and saving it.

And even if you don't already have entries in your hosts file, GameRanger pings the same servers multiple times for the same stuff, so it's still worth it to de-dupe your lines and keep things tidy.

Why is everyone obsessed with ad removal, isnt simple just pay gameranger a gold membership which is yearly????

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FYI
Astinos (one of the gamesoy admins): 5131714 or "astinos"
Alistic (another GSA admin): 1224410 or "alistic"

Abc @ 24 Feb 2015, 03:38 PM wrote:Why is everyone obsessed with ad removal, isnt simple just pay gameranger a gold membership which is yearly????

Exactly how much is that ?

@MM: $40 per year.

--------------------

In my opinion, to have a reason to upgrade your account, you should use this service DAMN MUCH or just REALLY appreciate it (just like you appreciate Re-Volt)!! This price is reasonable for, lets say, antivirus software, but not worth for just ads removal (especially if you don't really need the other gold features).
So no, it's easier to just block them.

BTW, there are absolutely free alternatives: you can just use Hamachi and play games by the virtual LAN too (however it is not that simple as with GR). And of course, the RVHouse is still here.

}!{enR @ 24 Feb 2015, 05:03 PM wrote:@MM: $40 per year.

Is that US dollar's ? How much in Euro's ?
I'm only asking to ensure any question's that may be asked about this subject are clearly answered.
Thank's

Manmountain @ 24 Feb 2015, 05:52 PM wrote:Is that US dollar's ? How much in Euro's ?

A Gameranger gold account costs 35.19 Euro. They also accept pounds (25.94 pounds for gold) and australian dollars. (49.21 dollars for gold)
I personally don't think it's worth it for me unless I start using it much more often but it's not for me to decide what you think.

Also feel free to add me to the list in the OP
Hessen: 5734531

you can just use Hamachi and play games by the virtual LAN too

That software has been progressively getting worse regarding the way it restricts you. We're talking Hamachi rooms limited to 5 connections for free users now. I still recall the years where you could have 16! connections in one room for paying nothing. Not only that, you can no doubt have a look at some of the files on the other computers connected to a Hamachi network, since it's a virtual LAN.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to add me to the list on the OP.

Nero: 1840821

Abc @ 24 Feb 2015, 07:38 AM wrote: pawner: 5558273

Really?... There's no 'n' in there anywhere.

I go by Alphacraft in GR, btw. I'd do the same here if I could change my username.

Phantom @ 23 Feb 2015, 03:48 PM wrote:

}!{enR @ 23 Feb 2015, 08:33 AM wrote: Does this topic means that most of the races today happens at GameRanger?

Yes.

Yes for some maybe but not for all. I race in RVHouse when I can but use GameRanger when House is slow or the racers can't race in House for one reason or another. I still prefer RVH but it's good to have another option.

nero @ 25 Feb 2015, 01:55 AM wrote:

you can just use Hamachi and play games by the virtual LAN too

That software has been progressively getting worse regarding the way it restricts you. We're talking Hamachi rooms limited to 5 connections for free users now. I still recall the years where you could have 16! connections in one room for paying nothing.

Well, yes, it feels like a quite common problem of all not-so-successful commercial products...

mmudshark @ 25 Feb 2015, 06:54 AM wrote:

Phantom @ 23 Feb 2015, 03:48 PM wrote:

}!{enR @ 23 Feb 2015, 08:33 AM wrote: Does this topic means that most of the races today happens at GameRanger?

Yes.

Yes for some maybe but not for all. I race in RVHouse when I can but use GameRanger when House is slow or the racers can't race in House for one reason or another. I still prefer RVH but it's good to have another option.

I totally agree with this. I prefer RVHouse, but Gameranger is fine for me as well.

Manmountain @ 24 Feb 2015, 12:17 PM wrote:

Abc @ 24 Feb 2015, 03:38 PM wrote:Why is everyone obsessed with ad removal, isnt simple just pay gameranger a gold membership which is yearly????

Exactly how much is that ?

Just click the link to upgrade in the main window and it opens a website showing you the prices for gold and silver.
Trust me, it's worth upgrading because GR's yearly payment is cheap.

Trust me, it's worth upgrading because GR's yearly payment is cheap.

Subjective. I would consider upgrading it if I actually used it more often. I rarely use it these days, unless I decide to play some 1NSANE with others. I don't really like playing RV via GameRanger, since most rooms I've been in there were hosted by people who still use dial-up. And since most trustworthy hosts (Hilaire, Kosztya, Mmud, etc.) are usually on RV House as well, why should I bother?

Heh, look at me pointing out other's subjectivity. How ironic.

----------------------------------

Anyway, thanks for adding me to the OP, Phantom.

So are people still using this to date? There's 4-6 of us that race at lunchtime at work, and we would love to be able to go against external people one time.

RichyDude @ 16 Sep 2015, 02:16 PM wrote: So are people still using this to date? There's 4-6 of us that race at lunchtime at work, and we would love to be able to go against external people one time.

The number of active players both in RV House and GameRanger has decreased a lot in the last years. This year has indeed given the worst number of active players we've ever seen. It's sad to say that there are no more regular races every day like there used to be.

August and September have always been slow months, so that doesn't help either. Maybe we can expect an income increase of new players after October if we're lucky. Cross your fingers.

[Edit]: I didn't mean income as in economy, I wanted to mention that for a strange reason August and September are usually inactive months every year if my memory doesn't fail and in the months after Aug-Sept the situation usually (but not necessarily) gets better. Let's say the pattern keeps steady, we should see an increase of the numbers of active players starting from October. Taking as a mere example that in 2012 and 2013 we had inactive Augusts and then in October we had enough players to hold a world championship in Autumn with over 50 participants (the R-League) and another one in Winter. But it's just a supposition based on last years' activity and doesn't really mean that this year we'll see many active players since October.

Since we're out of the market, less and less youngsters know about this game, so it's normal that we're losing big numbers and we don't even have the chance to compete against other games. I can't suggest anything rather than advertising the Re-Volt through gaming communities and sites in your country or with your friends. As normal users we can't do much. Big companies and decent distributors are the only ones who would make a change in our situation, so the game can be well-known again and catch the attention of the new generation of users.

mmud's ID is 2751650