Ever wanted to have a Diablo II LAN party? Never had the patience to install it on all of your friends computers? Want to play Diablo II from any computer in your house and still have your same character? This is the solution to all of your problems. This how to will guide you through installing Diablo II on a network computer, setup sharing, and setup the other computers in your house to play.
Read all steps before starting!
Step 1: Install
The first thing you will need to do is install Diablo II on the computer you want to be host.
You will need to use your Diablo II CDs and perform a full install. Just follow the on screen steps to install. Now you will need to update Diablo II, go the the Blizzard patch page and download the original patch for windows. Run the patch and follow the steps. You will now need to copy a file from the play disc in order to play without the CD. Copy D2MUSIC.MPQ to the Diablo II folder.
Note: Do not install any expansions.
Note2: If you are installing on vista you may want to install in C:/Diablo II/ rather then the default location as this may cause restrictions.
Step 2: Setup Sharing
You will now need to share the Diablo II folder with the network. To do this go to the folder and Right click it and click properties. Now depending on what OS you have the sharing process may vary so try your best to share the folder will full permissions allowed for everyone. It is best to share the folder as “Diablo II” without quotes.
Step 3: Setting up your other computers
The first thing you need to do is edit the computer registry to allow for network play. To do this open Notepad and copy the following information changing every instance of {SERVER} to the name of the computer that Diablo II is installed. For me this is bens-office.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II]“InstallPath”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\”“Program”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\Diablo II.exe”“Save Path”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\save\\”[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Diablo II]“InstallPath”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\”“Program”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\Diablo II.exe”“Save Path”=”\\\\{SERVER}\\Diablo II\\save\\”
Save this file to the Diablo II directory as “REG FIX.reg” without quotes.
Go on to the computer that you want to play Diablo II on. Open My Network Places and view all computers on the network. Connect to the computer with Diablo II and open the share folder Diablo II. Run the file “REG FIX.reg” and right click drag the “diablo II.exe” file to your desktop and click create shortcut. You can rename the file to something more appealing. Now you should run the video test so you get the best performance from the game. Just run “D2VidTst.exe” in the Diablo II folder and follow the steps.
Finished
Now you are done. Repeat step 3 on all of the computers you want to play Diablo II on, you don’t need to recreate the registry file as the settings should be the same on all computers.
Extras
If you want to copy your existing character to the new Diablo II open your current installation folder (most likely C:\Program Files\Diablo II\) and open the folder called save. Copy the file {character name}.d2s replacing {character name} with the name of your character, for example “ben.d2s”. The other files are not required so don’t copy them. Paste the files in the new locations saved folder, example \\d2server\Diablo II\ save\.
Does this really work?
Sorry, you don’t have to answer that first comment. I have Diablo II installed on two computers on my home network and I have been moving all character files back and forth. I was excited to see that there was a solution for a network save folder. It will be next week sometime before I have time to re-read and try out your instructions. Thanks.
Great post! Can this work with the expansion as well?
It should work with the expansion. I haven’t tried but it should.