F355 Challenge online server revival

[djhazardous]

Incredible! Wasn't expecting this at all. If all goes well, two of the best racing games on the Dreamcast will have come back online within a year.

I have a PAL copy of the game and I'm very happy to help with testing if possible!

They removed the online multiplayer from the PAL game if I'm not mistaken.

[Scrivani]

Japanese GD query
Dec 2 19:29:28 dreampi dnsmasq[1024]: query[A] auth01.dricas.com from 192.168.0.98
Dec 2 19:29:28 dreampi dnsmasq[1024]: config auth01.dricas.com is 35.206.85.94


dnsmasq.conf config
address=/auth01.dricas.com/35.206.85.94



auth01.dricas.com (same as PSO ....)


But game don't join the server for now.

[Scrivani]

All good with NTSC-U version

[rjay63]

They removed the online multiplayer from the PAL game if I'm not mistaken.

The PAL version does contain the Network Racing feature along with the ability to access online rankings and download ghosts/replays. Here's a little bit more about how the Network Racing feature works.


The qualifying stage began when up to 16 people connected, 16 qualifiers was the maximum. The player raced alone on a single qualifying lap around the circuit chosen by the majority. At the end of the lap, the game displayed another screen whilst waiting for everyone's laptime to upload.

Out of the maximum of 16 entrants, the fastest 8 went through to the race, everyone else was disconnected [therefore if there were 8 or less entrants, everybody would go through to the race].

As before, during the race you would race alone, but this time the player would perform 2 or 3 laps, depending on what circuit was chosen by the majority. Once those 'race' laps were completed, the game disconnected from the server and you were then treated to a replay combining all replays. You could then enjoy watching the 'race'.

Another random fact is that the Japanese version of the game didn't have engine noises during the Network race replays, so many imported the UK version.


The above was taken from the following Youtube video uploaded by a dedicated F355 player (icuk) from back in the day. It shows a Network Racing replay made back in 2001. Video was originally posted by SonicDC1994 on another topic here: https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16959

[djhazardous]

Genki Hitomi gets another time to shine!

- Japanese lead vocals of band Vow Wow, is now an English Teacher in Toyko according to Wikipedia. I love his soundtrack of F355 and I love the game F355 Challenge. Yu Suzuki's send off. Phenomenal game. Gran Turismo is a joke compared to this REAL simulator. I'd have done anything to play that game on 33K dial-up modem back in the late 90's, I know my late father (who was a massive fan as well) would've been game, 2p a minute be damned!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkNvxzb ... N_&index=7

[djhazardous]

"YOUR SELECTION"

Thank you so much for putting this back online. Me being from the UK, I never got to experience F355 challenge online back in the day, I still haven't got my current DC's online, but you better bet your ass this has got me willing.

Then watch me finally hook it up and everything and get my ass kicked by the first player I meet

[flyinghead]

I updated the server and the No Goal drivers ranking first in the qualifier should be fixed.

Also if some drivers disconnect during qualifier but at least 2 drivers remain, the race can proceed.

Some other information that might be useful:

• Races don't mix Novice and Intermediate drivers. I don't know if the original server allowed it (and I haven't even tried) so let me know if you remember.
• Players don't wait more than 60 sec when possible. So if a player has been waiting for more than that, the race will immediately start when someone else connects. Again if someone remembers how it used to work, let me know.

[pcwzrd13]

[*]Players don't wait more than 60 sec when possible. So if a player has been waiting for more than that, the race will immediately start when someone else connects. Again if someone remembers how it used to work, let me know.[/list]

Is there any way you could make it wait 60 seconds after the second person joins? We were playing yesterday and had a hard time getting a game with more than 2 players because the game would start immediately without waiting for others. Not sure if it's possible to do it this way but if so, it would be much better I think.

[flyinghead]

All right, I'll fix this

[Jako]

All right, I'll fix this

Wow!!! Thank you for this awesome work!!!

What a surprise