Fangsatz

What is Fangsatz

Fangsatz is a guessing game similar to Catch Phrase, but designed for online play among remote players.

What are the requirements?

How do I get it?

The Fangsatz program and source code is hosted here on SourceForge. You can download the program from the project's summary page. Or download any specific version from the complete list of available downloads.
Fangsatz downloads

How to I start a game?

You need to host or join a game. Joining a game is relatively simple:

  1. Enter your name in the Name field to identify yourself to the other players.
  2. Enter the address of the host machine in the IP Address field. Whoever is hosting the game should tell you the IP address.
  3. Click Join.
  4. Whoever clicks "Next Phrase" first starts the game and gives clues first.

How do I host a game?

If you are playing with other players on the same internal network (you're in the same home connecting to the same router and not connecting to each other across the internet), then hosting a game is relatively simple. Enter your name in the Name field and click the Host button. You do not need to enter any IP address. However, you do need to give your internal IP address displayed on the Fangsatz UI to the other players for them to join.

Unfortunately, most games will not be on the same internal network, and hosting a gave over the internet is not so simple. Your computer is likely connected to the internet via a router, meaning that your system has a local IP address (LAN) separate from your router's Internet address (WAN). So you'll need several pieces of information if you want to look up instructions on how to configure your particular brand of router to route external requests for joining the game to the system hosting Fangsatz on your network:

Once you have collected this information, you can look up how to route traffic for specific games on your specific router. Fangsatz isn't listed, so use the "Default Guide" when you get to the point where you need to select a specific game. All you need to know is that Fangsatz uses UDP port 1110 so that is the port that needs to be mapped to your internal IP address. Visit the router list to look up instructions for your specific router. What you are going to do is tell your router to route requests on UDP port 1110 to the IP address of the computer hosting Fangsatz collected above. Keep in mind that, although the instructions say that your computer needs to have a static IP address, that's not entirely necessary. If you don't have a static IP address, however, you may need to re-apply port forwarding on your router next time you play if your computer was assigned a different IP address since last time you played Fangsatz.

Once your router is configured, you can enter just your name in Fangsatz's name field and click the Host button. You don't need to provide an IP address, but you will need to tell others your external IP address for them to join.

In addition to the router configuration, it maybe necessary to configure the Windows 7 firewall on your local system (or any other firewall you may have in place) to allow requests on port 1110 to pass through. However, I have not encountered much need to do this manually. I believe Windows 7, when it detects a program trying to talk to the internet on an unusual port (such as 1110), will prompt the user whether to allow such activity. So long as you reply appropriately to the prompt, you firewall should be be automatically configured on Windows 7.

How do I play?

Use a separate voice connection such as Skype or telephone to conference all the players together to give and hear clues. The person who sees a word on their screen gives clues, and the other members of their team guess. You may choose to have players speak their guesses, in which case the clue giver clicks "Next Player" when a correct guess is spoken. Or you may choose to have players type their guess into the guess box on their screen. When a correct guess is entered, it appears in a special typeface in the guess log, and play automatically advances to the next player and the next phrase.