We are thinking of restoring these sites from web archives and re-hosting them ourselves. The end-result is you would be able to view them again in-game. It's unlikely that we will be able to fully-restore some of them because not every site is archived 100%. There are sometimes images missing and broken links. We should be able to replicate what is shown in web archives though. What this involves is: first gathering the websites from archives or wherever else they are backed up, determining what the url of the original site was (which is usually shown in the archive url, or could probably be found with the game web browser), downloading the entire website, re-hosting it here probably under subdomains like sa2.dreamcast-talk.com for example, and then getting the game to direct to the new url which can be done in the same way you get directed to our game servers (DNS server, hex edits, or patcher disc).
This would probably be an on-going process for awhile as we will have to go through and restore each site individually. For downloading the websites I've been using wget recursively to save time. If anyone knows of a better way to do that let me know.
We would appreciate if you could help in finding archived websites for the various games and posting them here. If you know of anything that doesn't work properly on the archived site it will be good to mention that as well. Below is the list of what we've gathered thus far. The first few below were posted by rjay63 in another thread. Confidential Mission is the first one we've got backed up on dctalk. I just need to add a zone file for it on our DNS server.
What do you guys think? If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. feel free to post them here.
When everything is setup these websites will be accessible on Dreamcast from our web portal page which can be viewed here: http://dctalk.no-ip.info
or here: http://dc.dreamcast-talk.com
-For games in Red we have their websites backed up.
-Games with Asterisk (***) are setup to redirect to the web portal from in-game menu using our DNS server.
DC Game websites
Confidential Mission***
Archive URL: http://web.archive.org/web/200302021320 ... /home.html
DC-Talk URL: http://cmf.dreamcast-talk.com
Only the coin-op version had a ranking and that's gone for good anyway
Metropolis Street Racer*** (remains only)
Rankings not archived as you had to login to Dreamarena itself to view.
- Planetweb website/PW3.0***
Dreamkey 1.0 & Dreamkey 1.5
Site wasn't archived.
UEFA Dream Soccer
Site wasn't archived.
Power Smash (Virtua Tennis JPN)
Broken homepage but rankings available
Virtua On Oratorio Tangram
Rankings available but no VMS files archived so downloads gone
- Jet Set Radio*** (Japanese)
Ranking are available although in broken form.
Official graffiti downloads were Sega graphics from other games like 18 Wheeler, Shenmue and Sega Rally. VMU files have gone but you can view thumbnails at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://jet ... /spe_gra/* (ignore anything dated 2011 - nothing there)
US jetgrindradio.web.dreamcast.com and UK jetsetradio.dream-key.com were not archived.
- Ferrari F355 Challenge***
Archive URL (EU): http://web.archive.org/web/200503130207 ... index.html
Archive URL (US): http://web.archive.org/web/200401152056 ... index.html
DC-Talk URL (EU): http://f355eu.dreamcast-talk.com
DC-Talk URL (US): http://f355us.dreamcast-talk.com
Rankings archived but fastest times VMU files are not. Seems archive.org does not the "VMS" portion of VMU files or they were protected.
You could view a F355 movie if you visited the link below with your Dreamcast and a copy of the game. However the movie is on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1b4Sg_quI) and can be found in the PS2 version http://web.archive.org/web/200503290440 ... error.html
- Crazy Taxi 2*** (DC part is not available but more or less the same content)
DC-Talk URL: http://ct2.dreamcast-talk.com
Unreal Tournament
DC-Talk URL: http://ut.dreamcast-talk.com
Sonic Adventure 2***
Archive URL: http://web.archive.org/web/200502071929 ... cas.ne.jp/
DC-Talk URL: http://sa2.dreamcast-talk.com
- POD Speedzone
- San Francisco Rush 2049***
- Sega Tetris
- Xtreme Sports
Site is broken. The product page for this game was just their company website.
- Star Wars Episode I: Racer***
US Region site is broken.
- Virtua Athlete 2k
Sonic Adventure
Archive URL (JP): http://web.archive.org/web/200302050341 ... cas.ne.jp/
US: See here... http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/ ... /index.htm
DC-Talk URL(US): http://sa1.dreamcast-talk.com
Archive URL (US): http://web.archive.org/web/200104181809 ... mcast.com/
Aside from the "Access Denied" page the US site wasn't archived. I'm guessing the site detected which browser you were using and that's why it wasn't web crawled by internet archives.
Seaman
Skies of Arcadia
This site is broken.
EU Region was not archived. (http://www.arcadia.dream-key.com)
Hundred Swords
- Phantasy Star Online***
Archive URL (EN Translation): http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... ricas.html
The PSO english Sega of America site doesn't work properly but the Japanese site does. I think we maybe we could use google translate on the Japanese site and use that for the English one.
- Daytona USA 2001***
Japanese: http://web.archive.org/web/200108171239 ... index.html
USA: http://web.archive.org/web/200206052058 ... index.html
EU/UK: http://web.archive.org/web/200107150000 ... index.html
DC-Talk URL (US): http://d2001us.dreamcast-talk.com
DC-Talk URL (JP): http://d2001jp.dreamcast-talk.com
Ghosts and replay VMU files not archived (plenty of good runs on Youtube including some replays from a top ranked player). Rankings archived on Japanese and US microsites but not on EU/UK side. US Rank full of Action Replay cheaters >_<
- Sega GT***
Japanese: http://web.archive.org/web/200110272145 ... /menu.html
DC-Talk URL (JP): http://sgt.dreamcast-talk.com
No ghosts, replay or DC rankings archived so very sparse. Only PC version rankings are available.
US Region wasn't archived. (segagt.web.dreamcast.com)
- Street Fighter Zero 3***
Some old rankings available. Master character VMU downloads can be found at http://www.psilocybindreams.com/vmu/00000048.HTML. I guess they're US but they work on my PAL copy.
EU region site wasn't archived for this game. (zero3-eu.dricas.ne.jp)
- Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
- Samba De Amigo***
US: See here.. http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/ ... /index.htm
DC-Talk URL(US): http://samba.dreamcast-talk.com
- Chu Chu Rocket***
Archive URL (JP): http://web.archive.org/web/200112022036 ... cas.ne.jp/
US: See here... http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/ ... /index.htm
DC-Talk URL(US): http://chuchu.dreamcast-talk.com
JP site is very well preserved.
Archive URL (US): http://web.archive.org/web/200203291333 ... mcast.com/
Very well preserved but nothing in English sadly (although I didn't look in-depth). US region site was not archived.
- Vanishing Point*** (US/EU)
Microsite hosted by Acclaim themselves. There was downloadable content but instead of a VMU file, code was sent directly to the Dreamcast's RAM ( I think) from Acclaim's server. This was done for the various internet challenges they hosted. Once you switched your DC off the downloaded code was wiped. Acclaim used something called "Netspine" for this.
See this post for more info: http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/php ... d7d460731e
- Shenmue
Archive URL (US): http://web.archive.org/web/200104051535 ... enmue.com/
DC-Talk URL(US): http://shmup.dreamcast-talk.com
Shenmue.com
http://web.archive.org/web/200507190113 ... enmue.com/
Promo Page
http://web.archive.org/web/200110061330 ... index.html
DC-Talk URL: http://shmuepr.dreamcast-talk.com
Alright so the URL isn't programmed into Shenmue Passport but I think it was designed to be viewed on Dreamcast although I haven't tried myself. From Sega of America.
- Sega Rally 2
**(Don't go any later on archive.org or you'll get the GBA and PS2 Sega Rally games)**
Items of note are a player's guide and the rankings on the Japanese language side.
- Toy Racer
- Animastar
- Buggy Heat
- Culdscept II
- Espion Agents
- Cool Cool Toon
- Rayman 2
- Ecco The Dolphin
VMU files for bonus levels missing (only VMI markers archived) but these are quite easy to find elsewhere. Lots of missing pictures though.