Hosting a server for Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch is easiest done by making use of the freely provided Zandronum server hosting services that already exist. These services are built with Doom servers in mind but also provide support for Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch where possible.
There are two main clusters that are for the most part functionally equivalent, just ran by different staff in different geographic locations. Each of these clusters will require you to sign up with an account, so make sure to do that for your respective cluster choice.
This tutorial will choose to use TSPG because it tends to provide the best connection for a majority of the players, but the interface is very similar between all three.
Once you’ve logged into your verified account, verifying it via the email sent to your email address used for registering, you’ll have a few extra navigation options. The main notable ones are being able to now host a server and upload wads. To host a server, go ahead and click on that option which will bring you to a view which looks like below at the top of the page and extends further downwards.
A lot of options but it goes to show the flexibility of servers!
It’s best to look at all of these options one at a time to understand what they all do.
This option is rather self explanatory. Each service will require you to keep their branded prefix on your server name, but you can customize this to whatever you wish. Try to make it descriptive of the mode and mods that it’s hosting!
The server version is the version of Zandronum which the hosted server will run on. Zandronum typically has stable builds which lack features but can be played on with no concerns and beta builds which introduce new features but require testing.
Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch typically ships with stable builds while TSPG typically requires beta builds to be ran to ensure that they get the testing required. This is no problem because Doomseeker can download beta builds easily, but Euroboros does allow users to downgrade to stable versions if absolutely needed.