by Trey Murff

Internet Head to Head (IHHD) software was developed by Jim Knutson, a software engineer for IBM (and friend of mine). Jim is a big flight sim fan and originally developed it because there was a lack of local opponents for him to shoot down. IHHD has since been adopted as the mechanism for the Airwarrior community to conduct an Internet challenge ladder (which I hold the 6th rung and Jim holds the 4th rung:). It was also the mechanism of choice for playing Descent across the Internet, before Kali that is. You still can usually find a Descent opponent by joining #descent on Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

However, Descent, Airwarrior and Falcon are not the only games you can play using IHHD. Just about any game that supports direct connect or modem play may be playable with IHHD. Check out for a list of games that have been successfully played with IHHD. Also keep in mind that the nature of the Internet is such that a game that plays fine for someone else may be unplayable for you.

With this in mind, let's proceed. To begin with, you will need to have access to a UNIX shell account. This used to be the most common form of Internet access, but not any more. Today, a large majority of users are accessing the Internet through SLIP or PPP connections. If you are using software that uses the Microsoft WINSOCK specification to access the Internet, you will need to contact your service provider to see if you also have access to a "Shell Account". If you are using a terminal emulation program like Qmodem or Procomm to connect to your service provider, then you are probably OK.

Even if you are set with the UNIX shell account, your service provider must still provide access to a C/C++ compiler or the UNIX Perl interpreter with socket support (IHHD software is distributed as source and must be compiled). How do you know if you have all of this? Well, the easiest way is to ask your ISP. You might also try typing 'perl' or 'cc' at the UNIX command prompt and see what happens. If it looks like a program ran, you may be OK. If it gives you an error message that indicates the program was not found, then you will have to try to get the system administrator to compile the source for you.

Another thing you might wish to do is subscribe to the IHHD mailing list. You can accomplish this by sending an email message to listproc@cactus.org with SUBSCRIBE IHHD Bill Clinton (of course you will substitute your name for Bill's :) in the body of the email (not the subject line). After you have subscribed, you can send messages to the list by addressing them to ihhd@cactus.org. Jim monitors this list as well as a number of other individuals who may be able to assist you in getting up and running with IHHD. Also, check out Jim's IHHD home page at . There are links to most of the information you will need to get IHHD up and running.

You should also immediately grab Big Hank's HOWTO guide . Since this does an excellent job stepping you through the process of setting up IHHD and initiating a session, I will jump right into finding opponents and how you use IHHD to play games across the Internet.

First, if you are into flight simulators you will want to subscribe to the 666th-etal and aw-ladder mailing list. This is a group of the most dedicated flight enthusiast anywhere. Most are avid Airwarriors and you can almost always find someone willing to duel. Just send the email to listproc@cactus.org with SUBSCRIBE 666th-etal Bill Clinton and SUBSCRIBE aw-ladder Bill Clinton in the body of the message. If you have any difficulties, please let me know.

What's better is that the current release of the on-line Airwarrior front end is free. The free version previously did not support head-to-head play, but with release 1.20 you can now fly against live opponents. You can get it at . This doesn't include the art which is in the file . Be prepared to spend some time downloading as the combined file size is nearly 11meg.

Airwarrior and Descent are the main two games people play with IHHD. There are shareware or free releases of both of these that play extremely well using IHHD and you can almost always find a willing target. So... if you have a UNIX shell account grab the IHHD distribution, Big Hank's Howto Guide and get cracking. You will have a blast flying against live opponents.

If you are into WWII flight sims you will seriously want to consider starting your way up the Internet Airwarrior ladder. However, I must warn you. Airwarrior is unlike any other flight sim. The flight models are much less forgiving and the human opponents much shrewder than in any flight sim you may have tried before. However, do not let this scare you. Airwarriors are great sports and will take time to work with you on improving your flying skills.

Until next month when I will cover a surprise topic (there are a number of possibilities if I will just make up my mind ;), check six and have fun!

Copyright 1995 Trey Murff for Infomedia. All rights reserved worldwide.