As mentioned in a previous blog post the ImagiNation Network has been brought back online as a free service by a brilliant “Young” developer. The INN Revival project is gaining steam and functionality day by day and I’ve been having a blast getting on an playing whenever I have time.
In an effort to support and encourage people to re-visit the glory days of the ImagiNation Network (INN)/The Sierra Network (TSN) I have taken the manual installation steps and automated the entire process into a single setup program that does everything to get you up and running.
Features
- Pre-configured to immediately get you ready to go online
- Original INN Client with LSCI.CFG file edited as needed
- DOSBox 0.70 with conf files for quickly launching INN
- Includes a copy of the Yserbius Manual
- Start Menu and Desktop icons
- Ability to Paste from clipboard into the INN Revival window. You cannot copy from, only paste into.
- Toggle on/off the console window. Handy for debugging.
- Mouse does not get locked into the window. Better for mutli-task playing.
- Includes the following cheats for MedievaLand
- Walkthru and Maps for Yserbius
- Walkthru and Maps for Fates Of Twinion
- VitaminF, the classic and popular hack for Yserbius
- TSNMacro, a lesser known hack for both Yserbius and FOT
- TWEdit, cool tool for editing your character settings, including
toggling between online and offline modes past level 20 - Alternate DOSBox keymapping to allow the cheats to function
The installer was generated using NSIS and the nsi file and included files, along with a HowTo on generating your own installer is all available here.
FAQ
Question: Why did you include the cheats with this installer? Doesnt that ruin the game?
Answer: While some of you may desire to play the game naturally and have every right to do so, there are others who would like the fun of boosting a character and being able to run thru all the missions quickly and just have fun. I think both are valid and have thus included the cheats as an optionally installed addition to the installer.
Question: INN keeps telling me that it cannot connect to the server, what might be wrong?
Answer: The server may be down. Mr Young is hosting this for free, and is doing development as he has time. So there are times when the server may be down.
Question: Such and such game doesnt seem to be working, whats wrong?
Answer: Mr Young is still working on many features of INN, keep faith, hes doing an amazing job.
Question: Are there copyright violations with distributing the classic INN Client?
Answer: Its unclear if the copyright has been maintained, or if its out of copyright by now. I seriously doubt AOL (the current owners of INN) would have any interest in enforcing copyright on a client they let die 15 years ago and have shown zero interest in.
Question: I liked it better when my mouse would be locked into the INN window, how can I change it back?
Answer: Edit the inn.conf and change autolock to true
Question: INN is very slow, what can I do to improve its performance?
Answer: Keep in mind that it is naturally slow since its running as it did in the 90’s. However if the fade out/in is slow you may need to edit the inn.conf and change the following lines in the [cpu] section
core=auto
cycles=auto
to
core=dynamic
cycles=max 80%