Technical: what we found
The original AOL host is gone, so the revival's server was built from the game itself and from what players and archives remember. This page says, in general terms, what works, what we had to write ourselves, and what we do not have. If you played the original and something here is missing or different, please tell us.
Report something missing or wrong → Tell us what
you saw, where in the game, and roughly when. Screenshots, newsletters and notes are welcome.
Key
| WORKING | Seen working with real players. |
| UNTESTED | Should work, but we have not seen it in play yet. |
| RE-CREATED | Something the AOL host supplied that was lost. We wrote a replacement. |
| ADDED | New. It was not in the original game. |
| MISSING | Something the game expects or hints at that we do not do, or do not know. |
What works
The game's world (maps, monsters, pictures, scripts) lives on the player's own PC. The host's job was to be the referee, and that is the job the revival does.
| What | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Signing in | WORKING | Accounts with passwords and up to four characters each. |
| Saving your character | WORKING | Characters are kept on the server, saved every few minutes while you play and backed up, and survive a dropped call. |
| A shared world | WORKING | Players see each other, walk between areas and talk. Doors and fights in each area are shared and kept between sessions. |
| Private messages | WORKING | The game's own private chat: a message to one player by name. |
| Parties | WORKING | Following another player, looking at their character, giving gold and items. |
| Battles together | WORKING | Joining a fight, taking turns, loot, and a death in the party. |
| Player against player | WORKING | Only in the game's own PvP areas, as the status line shows. Harmful spells as in the original, and weapons (added, see below). Tried with real players on real hardware. |
| Lord Nasher's audience | RE-CREATED | See below. |
| Game master tools | WORKING | The game's own game-master menu, for keepers only. |
| Spells and effects in group battles | UNTESTED | Sleep and Magic Missile tried in fights between players; the rest should work but are not yet tried with several players. If one misbehaves, tell us which spell and what happened. |
Re-created: what the AOL host supplied and was lost
| What | Status | What we did |
|---|---|---|
| Lord Nasher's briefing | RE-CREATED | Nasher tells you what needs doing in the realms. That text came from AOL and was never in the game itself; no copy has been found. We wrote briefings from what survives: the official area guide, the News of the Realm newsletters and player accounts from 1995-96, and the beginners' guides. As on AOL, Nasher gives everyone the same current quest when the keepers set one; otherwise it is the realm campaign's (below), or, with that switched off, the Wharves for newcomers, as in 1995. The rewards for items you bring back are the game's own. |
| The realm campaign | RE-CREATED | Our own addition. On AOL the staff changed the current quest by hand; here the players move it on together. Every battle won in the quest's place counts, by anyone (for a story quest: enough heroes who reach its turning point). When the realm has done enough, a herald tells everyone in the game and Nasher asks for aid in the next place, in the order of his briefings. The keepers can switch it off. |
| Lord Nasher's bounty | RE-CREATED | Our own addition. One place a week; whoever wins the most battles there takes the bounty, and the Hall of Fame keeps the winners. The weekly News of the Realm announces it. |
| Nasher's extras | RE-CREATED | Our own addition, not part of the original game. After the current quest he thanks you for any area you have mastered (every named fight and story stage in it) and tells you where your own story leads next. The keepers can switch the extras off. |
| Story progress | RE-CREATED | The game tells the host when you finish a story stage or a set battle. We remember it for each character, with the areas you have visited and who was first to master each area: the start of the revival's feats, which will show in the Hall and on the Realm page. |
| The game clock | RE-CREATED | The game takes its date and time from the host. Game days pass faster than real ones, and areas reset their doors and fights as the days change. We supply the clock. |
| Accounts and sign-in | RE-CREATED | On AOL you were already signed in before the game started. We wrote our own sign-in, which works over a modem on a phone line, a WiFi modem, a network card or a terminal. |
| Updates over the connection | RE-CREATED | AOL could send updated game files to players while they were connected; the game still has messages such as "Disk # has been upgraded. Press Enter." Our connection program updates itself the same way when you call, and accepts only updates signed by the keepers. When it starts it makes the revival's few changes to the game itself (weapons between players, the Tandy fix below). |
| News of the Realm | RE-CREATED | The keepers' weekly newsletter is back, in the Hall and on the Realm status page, with Lord Nasher's bounty and a tavern tale as of old. The 1993-97 issues are linked from the Archive page. |
Added: not in the original
- ADDED The Adventurers' Hall, a lobby shown after sign-in: who is online, letters between players, the Wayward Blade tavern chat, message boards, guilds, a Hall of Fame, the News of the Realm and help pages.
- ADDED Guild chat that follows you into the game. What a guild says in its chat room reaches its members who are out adventuring, and they can answer from the game. In the tavern a member can speak to the guild alone. Each member can switch it off.
- ADDED The Realm status page: whether the realm is open, who is online, the Hall of Fame, the guilds and the latest news, refreshed every half minute.
- ADDED Play in the browser: a DOS PC in the page that dials the realm. It is offline for now.
- ADDED The launcher: one click on Windows, macOS or Linux. You bring your own copy of the game; it sets up a DOS PC for it and keeps itself up to date.
- ADDED Connection programs for the player's PC, to connect, sign in, play and return to the Hall, and to change settings. They run on the original hardware, down to a Tandy 1000 or an XT.
- ADDED Dial-in numbers for a real modem: the UK and Spanish numbers are answered by software modems on our own phone system, the USA number by a volunteer's dial-up gateway.
- ADDED No modem needed: a DOS PC with a network card connects over the internet with its packet driver and the free mTCP settings.
- ADDED A fix to the game: on a Tandy 1000 the chat window stayed blank. Our connection program mends that when it starts.
- ADDED A safer sign-in. Our connection program never sends your password when you sign in: it proves it knows the password by answering a one-time challenge from the realm. It works on the original hardware, a few seconds of sums on a 486.
- ADDED Weapons between players. The original game blocked blows between players; only spells could hurt another player. The revival allows both in the PvP areas and keeps the peace elsewhere, which on AOL was only a players' rule. Armour counts against a player's blow; protective spells may not. See the FAQ.
- ADDED Keepers' tools for running the realm.
Missing or unknown
This is the list to check against your memory of the original.
| What | Status | What we know |
|---|---|---|
| Closed areas and crowding | MISSING | The game contains the messages "Sorry. Temporarily closed.", "Cannot advance. Room too crowded." and "Sorry. You must leave the game." They look like decisions the host made. We do not use them, and do not know when AOL did. |
| Other messages from the host | MISSING | The game can receive several kinds of message from the host that we never send, perhaps operator notices. Nothing breaks without them, but they were presumably used. |
| Trading gold and items in town | WORKING | The old newsletters say players met at "the vaults" in Neverwinter to trade. Giving gold and items to another player in your party works, in town and outside a battle (tried on 7 October). We do not know exactly how the vaults themselves took part. If you traded there, tell us how it looked. |
| Nasher's exact words | MISSING | Never found. If you remember what he told you, or have a screenshot, that would be a treasure. |
| The wider AOL service | MISSING | Staff-run events and the guild and event pages of the day. We do not run these yet. (The weekly News of the Realm is back: see above.) |
Changelog: the connection program
The version of NWN.COM shows on its title screen and with NWN /V. From 1.3 it updates
itself when you sign on: say Y at the offer and it fetches the new files, checks they are genuine, and asks
you to start it again. These are the player-visible changes in each version, newest first. Changes made only
on the realm's side are not listed.
1.5.0 — November 2026
- Your vault in Neverwinter is kept by the realm now, not on your own PC, so it is the same whichever PC you play from and it is backed up with your character. The first time you visit the vaults with this version, the vault already on your PC is moved to the realm when you leave.
- The game shows "Please wait." while your vault is fetched.
- To keep every vault safe, the realm asks older versions to update before they enter the game.
1.4.3 — 1 November 2026
- Fixed: with the network-card connection, a player sitting quietly in the Hall was dropped after about two minutes. The network program now answers the realm's "are you still there?" checks.
1.4.2 — 31 October 2026
- The Hall has pictures of its own: the keeper at sign-on, the Letters desk, Your Adventurers, the scribe for a new adventurer and the crystal orb on the help pages. Only their flames and the orb move. The colours are chosen to suit CGA screens too.
- NWNSETUP offers the number that suits the connection you pick: nwnrevival.com:5000 for WiFi modem or network, 300 for the PAD.
1.4.1 — 30 October 2026
- Slow PCs with no buffered serial port (an XT, a Tandy) no longer lose characters at 9600: bytes are now taken as they arrive.
- Phone modems are set up better for dial-in, and NWNSETUP explains the modem init string.
1.4.0 — 29 October 2026
- No modem needed: a DOS PC with a network card connects over the internet using its packet driver and the free mTCP settings (a new NWNTCP.COM; NWNSETUP has a “Network card” choice).
- Weapons and hostile spells between players now work only in the game's PvP areas; the rest of the realm, towns included, stays safe. See the FAQ.
1.3.10 — 29 October 2026
- Blows between players: melee as well as spells, by mending your own GAME.EXE (only an unchanged 2.22
copy;
NWN /Uputs it back). - The shield in the Hall is centred.
1.3.6 to 1.3.9 — 12 to 13 October 2026
Released together as 1.3.9.
- The chat window works on a Tandy 1000 (it was blank). It is mended in your own GAME.EXE.
- The space bar works on the Hall's “press any key” pages.
- Sign-in is about twice as fast on slow PCs.
- XT-class PCs with a slow screen can sign in: the screen is drawn only when the line is quiet.
1.3.5 — 12 October 2026
- A PC with a saved password remembers the sign-in proof after a good sign-on, so later sign-ons take well under a second instead of many seconds (70 seconds on a Tandy).
1.3.4 — 12 October 2026
- NWNSETUP has clearer connection choices, each with its own note, and F1 help on every line: WiFi modem or DOSBox-X, Modem Dialup (a phone modem straight into the realm), X.25 PAD, and Manual.
- Manual also covers a line that is already open.
- The Hall is shown in 16 colours on a Tandy.
1.3.1 to 1.3.3 — 12 October 2026
- The first updates over the line. After an update the program says so and returns to DOS, and starting it again runs the new version. Answering N at the offer hangs up cleanly too.
- The offer asks “INSTALL? Y/N” and shows a % while it works.
1.3.0 — 11 October 2026
- Updates itself over the line, accepting only genuine releases. The last version you install by hand.
1.2.1 — 11 October 2026
- Fixed: the program could stop ten or so pages into the Hall.
1.2 — 8 October 2026
- Change your password from the character menu (key C).
- The program tells the realm its version, so we can see who needs an update.
Sources and thanks
- The game itself.
- The BladeKeep NWN preservation archive: screenshots, area material and over a hundred News of the Realm newsletters from 1993-97.
- Nerdly Pleasures: Neverwinter Nights: The Original's Workings.
- The scanned manuals at MOCAGH, including the Adventurer's Journal.
- The CRPG Addict on Neverwinter Nights (1991).
- The people who made the game: Stormfront Studios, SSI and America Online.