About First Contact Communicator

First Contact is a multi-player voice communicator utility that allows gamers to simultaneously communicate with each other while playing games on the Internet.

One of the advantages of First Contact is that there is no need to pre-agree on servers, exchange IP addresses, or even know the other teammates. You will just choose the game server, as usual, using any game server browser and First Contact will establish the communication with the players in your team, with no interaction from the client (For more information about the Game Integration Mode, go here). First Contact can determine the best parameters for the session, basing its decisions on several factors including connection speed, CPU power for encoding/decoding voice data, and codecs available, etc.

First Contact is designed to minimize the bandwidth usage whenever possible, being able to operate on a Client-Server setup (in the event when it can find an available First Contact Server), or it can operate on a Peer-to-Peer configuration. In both cases the impact on the games is minimal, ensuring that it does not introduce latency or lag into the gaming experience.

In the case where First Contact finds a server it will employ a proprietary technology, called "Adaptive Bandwidth Utilization", which will enable each player to use the maximum capabilities of their hardware, without imposing any penalty on players with slower connections, or slower PCs.

First Contact interfaces seamlessly with any supported game, without requiring any type of special configuration.

Platforms currently supported are Windows 95/98. Windows NT support is currently under way, and initially will be in a listen-only mode. First Contact is currently being tested under Windows 2000 to ensure compatibility with different hardware.

 

 

First Contact Communicator is a trademark of Alienware Technology, Inc.

All other products mentioned may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.
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