Playing Diablo I in multiplayer-mode on Windows 7

I personally adore Diablo I and Diablo II. Since first version of this game is already fifteen years old (published in 1996) it requires special steps to play it on Windows 7. The most popular solution is to use IPXWrapper. However, in my case it required some additional works.

I found some help at RAD Computers Experts forum. Solution includes:

  1. Download the latest version of IPXWrapper (at the time of this article it was version 0.3.2).
  2. Extract ipxwrapper.dll, mswsock.dll, and wsock32.dll files (dpwsockx.dll is not needed) into the directory of your game (not in a subfolder).
  3. Click Start > All Programs > Diablo, right-Click the Diablo shortcut and click Properties.
  4. Set the shortcut to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3 and click OK.
  5. Run the shortcut.

If you have some color problems, you can solve them by setting compatibility mode to Windows 95 and turning off everything. You can play multiplayer without killing explorer. Just extract these three mentioned files (ipxwrapper.dll, mswsock.dll and wsock32.dll) to your Diablo folder and you’re fine.

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