Q: Setting up multiple databases - same name

I am just starting out in the Oracle scene. I have been asked to setup a test environment for our developers on a local machine. These developers will be independantly using a database to test some programs.
Here are the funtional requirements:

1. All the developers will be testing their programs using the same DATABASE name.
2. The developers need to have their own set of tables that will be common across the databases.

How can this be best implemented:

So far I have used dbassist to create a shell script and changed the locations of the tables and the SID names. When I start the first instance it runs fine but when I start the 2nd instance with a different parameter file name it complains that oracle is already running and to shut it down before trying to start the 2nd instance. I am testing this under Linux but this has to run under Win2K. Received on Fri Jun 08 2001 - 16:35:51 CDT