LAN Gaming in school

[Hightower]

We've got some licenses for certain LAN games to use for enrichment or something like that.

 

We're going to be installing the software on about 20 machines. The thing that we need to do is somehow remove the link to the game so the kids can't just play it when they want.

 

What's the best way of doing this? Software restriction? Remove shortcut? The head of ICT suggested removing the package when we don't want them to play it but I thought that was a long winded way round.

 

We're CC3

[Quackers]

We have a few games like medal of honour on (did it out of my own money, GAME have 3 for £10!) , the way we do it is using group policy set a file permission on the EA Games folder. We have a group for each IT suite, so "Games Room 6", has permission to enter the folder and nobody else, then we just remove or add "Domain Users" to the group "Games Room 6" to enable or disable the games. They just log off and log back on once we have added domain users to the group for them to work.

[jsnetman]

We also had Medal of Honor and other games installed. To get round pupils using the games in lesson times I used a script that ran at scheduled times to alter the permissions of the gaming folders on the server. The script ran xcalcs to do the job as below. all automatic and no moving security groups around.

 

Deny Games:

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\ageofe /e /d secure /y

c:\xcacls "d:\public\apps\Warcraft III" /T /e /d secure /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\smallgames /T /e /d secure /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\p64\*.* /T /e /d secure /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\HaloTrial\*.* /T /e /d secure /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\UnrealTournament\*.* /T /e /d secure /y

 

Allow Games:

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\smallgames /T /e /p secure:rw /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\p64 /T /e /p secure:rw /y

c:\xcacls d:\public\apps\ageofe /e /p secure:rw /y

c:\xcacls "d:\public\apps\Warcraft III" /T /e /p secure:rw /y

c:\xcacls "d:\public\apps\HaloTrial" /T /e /p secure:rw /y

c:\xcacls "d:\public\apps\UnrealTournament" /T /e /p secure:rw /y

[bossman]

@Hightower:

Just install the games on the workstations and then create a program set with the shortcut and create a group to access this so you can allocate the users to this group who need access simple.

 

And this on a RMCC3 ok

[Hightower]

Cheers for the responses - good advice.

 

Think Bossmans will be the easiest - I planned making a package out of the software, or even installing it locally so this would probably work best for us.

 

Thanks everyone though

[featured_spectre]

I set up a gaming account for the PCs that has access only to the games. Being a middle school the games were restricted to stuff like frets on fire (free version of guitar hero and uses the keyboard instead of the guitar), and a whole stack of arcade games.

 

It makes life easier as the kids are restricted from accessing C: when in there profile so they can only gain access to the games when logged on the game account, and that turns on only at lunchtimes or if the teacher ok's it during lesson times.

[R.M.B]

Our network lock-down means that we just set the shortcut in the Startmenu to be 'Hidden' (or not)

A simple script can make it immediately appear or disappear from the 'All Users' startmenu on a group of machines.

[jumpinjamez]

Our network lock-down means that we just set the shortcut in the Startmenu to be 'Hidden' (or not)

A simple script can make it immediately appear or disappear from the 'All Users' startmenu on a group of machines.

 

 

Can clever students takes copies of this shortcut and use it when it is hidden?

 

I have the first Unreal Tournament running from a share and it works fine for 20 pupils.

[Butuz]

The easiest way to do it is to use the shortcut as their "permission".

 

Allocate the shortcut to a program set when you want the pupils to be able to access the game, then deallocate the shortcut when their done so that no one can access the game.

 

If you create a package then the shortcut will automatically appear on RMMC.

 

If you install the game manually on each hard drive make sure you install it to "C:\Program Files\GameName" and then make sure you copy and paste the shortcut from the start menu, into the Shortcut bank on "X:\Group Resources\Shortcut Bank" you can then use the RMMC to allocate the shortcut to a program set at will.

[ICT_GUY]

quake 2 & 3 are open source, I know quake 2 will run happily multiplayer from a share, you can switch the permissions on and off. Also quake 2 will run on anything!

[Jackd]

Sorry to hijack but where can i download quake 3 from?

[ICT_GUY]

The Quake 3 engine is open source, this does not mean that Quake III: Arena the game is free. You must purchase the game to use the data, or make your own game!

There are three methods of installation. The preferred way is to use an official installer. Note that just as before, you can use a Quake 3: Arena CD-ROM from any version of Quake 3 (Windows, Linux, Gold, etc) to get the needed pak0.pk3.

If you want the absolute latest ioquake3 technology, then check out how to build it from source.

We have provided installers for the most popular platforms ioquake3 supports. These have been tested, and if they do not work you can report bugs to us about them.

 

Get it | ioquake3

 

Not what I thought it was either sry.

[Quackers]

Also Quake 3 was/is an 18, so not really for use by kids, which is a shame because it is fun. Medal of honour is safe at 12

[Hightower]

The game we have picked is Day of Defeat running on the Half-Life v1 engine - I think it's because it's also 'educational' as it's about the war (LAME)....

 

Anyways, I've successfully packaged it up and it installs a treat. I opened up C:\Sierra\Half-Life\*.exe on the firewall (which after a restart stopped the Windows firewall dialog coming up - so I'm guessing this part is working).

 

I ran the game and created a LAN server on a testing machine. I then went into the game on my machine and went to join a LAN game but no games showed up in the list.

 

Can anybody suggest something that I might be missing?

[sparkeh]

Is the port that is used to play the game over a LAN blocked by your firewall?

[Hightower]

Is the port that is used to play the game over a LAN blocked by your firewall?

 

Correct! Just found that the client software is fine - the server machine needs to have the port opened - I just don't know what the port number is. Any suggestions?

[Hightower]

Got it!

 

Link for reference.

Half Life 2 Steam Server TCP UDP port setttings and minimum requirements - Half Life 2 Steam Server from Valve. Half Life 2 Steam Server ports

[IrritableTech]

The game we have picked is Day of Defeat running on the Half-Life v1 engine - I think it's because it's also 'educational' as it's about the war (LAME)....

 

To be honest, I used to play quite a lot of DoD. I learned quite a bit about WWII missions from it because it sparked an interest.

 

It is however really just a game for shooting people like many others.

[ChrisH]

I played DoD for 5 years or so. I would say one of the beach maps like Charlie would be the only one you could deem as an education of what it was like on the beach landings etc.