Need help/advice on a RetroGame Server hub!

[demooon]

Hi guys. I need some assistance. Since this is one of the only communities I am a part of, I was hoping some of you could point me in the right direction.

I have a lot of old hardware lying around. 1-2 gen old stuff. Not super strong, but should do for server use. I can post specs later if needed.

My friends and I play a lot of old games together from time to time. I've always dreamed of making a server with old my old hardware, and I'm wondering if 
it would be possible to make this server run multiple servers at the same time. Keep in mind, I'm not talking about heavy duty stuff here.
Mostly old, or small games. Let me throw out some game names I maybe would like to have a server for:

Quake 3 Arena

Minecraft
Open TTD

CS 1.6

 

I would probably run such a server from the basement, so need some sort of remote control.

Is this doable? Can somebody point me in the right direction to some sort of guide, helpfull article. Anything at all.
I presume a linux based system is the way to go?

Any thoughts?

[HermannTheGerman]

The easiest way would probably be just to use Windows7 and something like VNC to access the desktop. Most games (including CS1.6 and Minecraft, I don't know about the other two) have Dedicated-Server binaries for windows.

The more advanced way would be to set up something like Ubuntu Server and screen for managing multiple servers running simultaneously.

In both cases you will need to forward the game ports in your router, so that the server can be accessed from the internet.

 

For specific games just google [operating system] [game] server. There are lots of tutorials out there for every game imaginable.

 

And keep in mind that Minecraft will want loads of RAM

[demooon]

29 minutes ago, HermannTheGerman said:

The easiest way would probably be just to use Windows7 and something like VNC to access the desktop. Most games (including CS1.6 and Minecraft, I don't know about the other two) have Dedicated-Server binaries for windows.

The more advanced way would be to set up something like Ubuntu Server and screen for managing multiple servers running simultaneously.

In both cases you will need to forward the game ports in your router, so that the server can be accessed from the internet.

 

For specific games just google [operating system] [game] server. There are lots of tutorials out there for every game imaginable.

 

And keep in mind that Minecraft will want loads of RAM

Thanks for the input mate
True, Minecraft probably is the heaviest game to run on that list.

Somehow I kinda want to do this in linux... Just feels more pro, and using screen to run the different servers in a prompt,
than just using putty to connect to it seems like the way to go :)

[AbsoluteFool]

On 10/19/2018 at 2:07 PM, demooon said:

Hi guys. I need some assistance. Since this is one of the only communities I am a part of, I was hoping some of you could point me in the right direction.

I have a lot of old hardware lying around. 1-2 gen old stuff. Not super strong, but should do for server use. I can post specs later if needed.

My friends and I play a lot of old games together from time to time. I've always dreamed of making a server with old my old hardware, and I'm wondering if 
it would be possible to make this server run multiple servers at the same time. Keep in mind, I'm not talking about heavy duty stuff here.
Mostly old, or small games. Let me throw out some game names I maybe would like to have a server for:

Quake 3 Arena

Minecraft
Open TTD

CS 1.6

 

I would probably run such a server from the basement, so need some sort of remote control.

Is this doable? Can somebody point me in the right direction to some sort of guide, helpfull article. Anything at all.
I presume a linux based system is the way to go?

Any thoughts?

I'm guessing you are thinking about the Pentium 4/core 2duo cpus? Most game servers can run on these systems.

 

Personally i'd go with Linux whenever it's game hosting as windows will suck on your resources. A good place to start is SteamCMD. You can install this on any linux server system from the repo.

 

Example with Ubuntu would be:

Apt-get install steamcmd.

 

Use "Steacmd" to enter the command line for steam. force_install_dir to set installation directory. Then use app_update ID validate to download the game server files and validate the download. Simply type "exit" to quit out of steamcmd. Your install from repo should lay in the root directory for the user you used to install with as a private directory. so "cd .steam" should allow you to enter it.

 

You can also make Shell scripts to start and stop these servers instead of typing out the string every time you start/stop the server. Simple make a file along these lines:

 

#!/bin/sh

cd /.steam/CS

screen -S "cs1.6" srcds_run <start commands>

 

Then save the file and run chmod +x to make it executeable.

 

[alex75871]

I love OpenTTD! Have not played it for a while though. I used to run a dedicated server on an old Windows Server 2008 R2 box.