Galactic Empire wiki

Running Galactic Empire with MBBSEmu

MBBSEmu lets you play the 16-bit versions of Galactic Empire on a modern computer without installing DOS or MajorBBS. If you only want to join an existing game, you do not need MBBSEmu at all: choose a public board from Where to play online and connect with its web or telnet option. Install MBBSEmu if you want to run a game on your own computer or host one for others.

What to download

  • MBBSEmu downloads offers packaged emulator builds. For ge-next 0.3.2 or later, use v1.0-alpha-090826 or newer. Older versions do not fully support the standard ge-next build.
  • MBBSEmu GitHub Actions has the latest automated builds. Open a successful run and download the artifact for your operating system. These are development builds, so they may contain new fixes but have not had the same release testing. GitHub requires an account and sign-in to download Actions artifacts; older artifacts may expire. See GitHub's download instructions.
  • Download the 16-bit ge-next package as well. ge-arena is a separate 16-bit package if you want that game too. Do not use the ge-next32 build with MBBSEmu. Since ge-next 0.3.2, there is no separate MBBSEmu-specific game package.

MBBSEmu supports Windows, Linux, and macOS. Choose an emulator build for your operating system and CPU, and keep the complete GE package together, including its DLL, message files, data templates, and text files.

Start a local game

  1. Extract MBBSEmu to a folder where it can keep its configuration and game data.
  2. Extract the complete ge-next 16-bit package into its own module folder. If adding ge-arena or classic GE, give each game its own folder and module entry; do not merge their files or databases.
  3. Follow the MBBSEmu setup instructions to select the module. For a modules.json entry, ge-next's identifier is MPOGEMP; ge-arena's is MPOGA. Point each entry's path at that game's files.
  4. Start MBBSEmu. Use its local console or connect a telnet client to the port selected in its configuration. Create or log into a BBS account, choose Galactic Empire from the menu, and play.

The emulator's setup and connection screens can change between releases, so use the instructions shipped with your chosen build for the exact launch command and configuration options. A recent version can use an ordinary telnet client; on Unix-like systems, ge-next also includes the optional RLTELNET.SH client wrapper.

Running classic GE

You can also download a classic Galactic Empire package from the MBBSEmu wiki. Use its MBBSEmu-ready download if you do not need the original installer. Give it a separate module folder and a MBMGEMP entry; do not mix its files or databases with ge-next or ge-arena.

The downloaded classic package is the common online 3.2e build. To register it, set REGNO in MBMGEMSG.MSG to the same eight-digit number as MBBSEmu's GSBL.BTURNO in appsettings.json. This is the BBS registration number exposed to classic GE as bturno. If you use MBBSEmu's per-module override, match REGNO to GSBL.BTURNO.MBMGEMP instead. Unlike the unmodified classic source, this distributed build does not require a separately derived GE registration number; see the linked security article for why.

With MBBSEmu v1.0-alpha-090826 or newer, classic GE should work properly except that a player whose ship is destroyed may not be returned to the game menu. This is a remaining emulator shared-memory issue, not a registration failure. See MBBSEmu for the explanation and the planned fix.

Which game?

ge-next is the persistent Galactic Empire game. ge-arena offers timed matches and ship respawns. Both run from their standard 16-bit packages on supported MBBSEmu versions. Classic GE is the original game and has its own package and registration behavior.

See also

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