Split-screen on PC

The Ship: Murder Party

Up to 8 players on one PC, with controllers, keyboard and mouse or several keyboards and mice.

8Verified handler

Handler “TheShipClassic” by Talos91, version 1

P4+4 more players

What works

With Nucleus Co-op, up to 8 players can play The Ship: Murder Party together on one PC, each in their own part of the screen, with controllers, keyboard and mouse or several keyboards and mice. The free community handler “TheShipClassic” by Talos91 does the setup and was checked by hub moderators: version 1, updated 31 Mar 2022. The Ship: Murder Party is a shooter, role-playing and indie game from 2006.

Players8
ControllersSupported
Keyboard and mouseSupported
Several keyboards and miceOne per player
Hub moderatorsVerified

How to play The Ship: Murder Party split screen on PC

Get Nucleus Co-op
Download Nucleus Co-op, free for Windows 10 and 11, and unzip it into its own folder, for example C:\NucleusCo-op. There is no installer.
Keep it out of Program Files, your user folder and OneDrive.
Download Nucleus Co-op
Install the The Ship: Murder Party handler
In Nucleus Co-op, search the Hub for The Ship: Murder Party and install its handler, or download the handler file from this page and drop it on the Nucleus window. Then show Nucleus where The Ship: Murder Party is installed.
Download the handler file (.nc)
Take a seat
Each player presses a button on their own controller to join and takes a spot on the screen. Pick a layout that fits your players.
Playing with several keyboards and mice? Press End once everything is in place to give each window its own cursor.
Launch and connect
Press Launch: Nucleus opens one copy of The Ship: Murder Party per player and lays the windows out on your screen. Then link them in game, usually one player hosts a LAN or online session and the others join it. The handler notes say how.

What you need

A Windows 10 or 11 PC
Nucleus Co-op runs on Windows only. System requirements
The Ship: Murder Party for Windows
Installed on that PC. Nucleus starts every player's window from that one install.
Nucleus Co-op, free
With .NET Framework 4.7.2 or later and the Visual C++ 2015–2022 runtimes (x86 and x64). Download
Something to play with
One controller per player, or one keyboard and mouse per player. Controllers · Keyboards and mice
A PC that can run 8 copies
Each player runs their own copy of The Ship: Murder Party, so the PC carries several times the usual load. Lower the graphics settings if it struggles. Performance tips
A multiplayer mode
Nucleus links the windows through the game's own LAN or online mode; the handler takes care of it.

Handler notes

IMPORTANT: Use your main mouse cursor to create a LAN server in one instance the join in the others using the join a cruise option-LAN tab, refresh if you do not see the LAN server in the list. Press the enter key after selecting a map to start a server if the start server button is not visible to click.

If you use keyboards/mice press the END key once when the instances finish setting up to lock the input for all instances to have their own cursor. You need to left click each mouse to make the emulated cursors appear after locking the input. Press the END key again to unlock the input when you finish playing. You can also use CTRL+Q to close Nucleus and all its instances when the input is unlocked.

Make sure Steam input is disabled. Using multiple kb/m is recommended as this game has very limited controller support and it detects all gamepads as dinput even xinput gamepads so xinput emulators are not needed but the triggers are not mappable, you can remap the gamepads by editing the config in the ship folder inside Nucleus handlers folder. Xbox One gamepads could have issues with background input/focus because of this: http://www.snes9x.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?t=27510 . Set your monitor scale to 100% if the instances do not resize correctly or have graphical bugs in other scales.

About The Ship: Murder Party

The Ship is a unique multiplayer game. Set on a series of luxury, art deco cruise ships built by Mr X, this devilish game challenges you to kill or be killed. Once you'e on board you're given the name of another passenger whom you must find and secretly murder.

Summary from IGDB