03/25/96 FOR NET GAMERS, THE ULTIMATE HOOKUP IS NIGH

FOR NET GAMERS, THE ULTIMATE HOOKUP IS NIGH

THE PROBLEM: HOW TO LET dozens or even thousands of people across the country all play at once in a simulated Civil War battle, aerial dogfight, castle invasion or other large-scale computer game.
With each person's PC running its own copy of the game, the technical challenge is to keep all the programs synchronized as individual players, for example, blast away with their BFG-9000s (the most awesome of weapons in the game Doom) or crash their Spitfire fighter planes. The Internet is generally too slow for the job, and a network designed just for gaming would cost an arm and a leg merely to blow some poor sucker in Dayton to smithereens.
By spring, startup MPath Interactive Inc. plans to bring large-scale, long-distance gaming to the Net. MPath has developed a Net-based communications service that overcomes the Net's excessive transmission delays--called latency--and connects groups of gamers in near-real time.
The service involves a new communications protocol designed just to broadcast quick updates between all players and a central server computer. The setup will also facilitate live voice links, so team members can collaborate with each other or shout: ``Take that, cyber scum!'' as they blast their enemies to kingdom come. MPath is signing up gamemakers to build the protocol into their games.
EDITED BY AMY CORTESE