Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

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SEGA RPG FAN
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Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by SEGA RPG FAN »

I've been experimenting with tunneling the Dreamcast link cable games for online play and have a working method. Here are the preliminary results:

Aero Dancing I - successful online match
Aero Dancing F - successful online match
F355 - successful online match (real head to head racing!)
Virtual On - unable to match online. Matching works in LAN. Possibly very latency/jitter sensitive.
Hell Gate Beta - successful online match (this game is a hot mess though)
Sega Tetris - unable to match online or in LAN (haven't been able to figure out the serial port settings)

The games that worked, seemed to work well without lag or slowdown. This could use some further testing and refining.

I am using a USB coder's cable https://dreamcast.wiki/Coder%27s_cable and a custom python script https://github.com/eaudunord/Netlink/re ... /v4.4-beta

The coder's cable is connected from the Dreamcast to the PC and the script handles interfacing with the cable and sending data back and forth online. There are not modifications to the Dreamcast or patching of games, this is all stock.

The script is a pretty barebones affair that walks you through selecting your com port, the game you want to play and the IP address of the person you want to connect to. If you have a coder's cable and are interested in testing this out, let me know and we can try linking up.
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mistamontiel
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by mistamontiel »

I've been dying to see Hell Gate linked! Pardon no coder's cable on me

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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by SEGA RPG FAN »

Hell Gate link cable seems bugged. I only tried deathmatch, but only one player's life would ever go down. The other was invincible. Maybe someone who's tried it with a real link cable can verify.
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Jenkins
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by Jenkins »

A Coders Cable is also in my collection!

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Sonic1994DC
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by Sonic1994DC »

I would love to play Virtual On online. This might be a silly question to ask but would BBA for online play be possible?

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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by SEGA RPG FAN »

Sonic1994DC wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 7:31 pm I would love to play Virtual On online. This might be a silly question to ask but would BBA for online play be possible?
No modem, no BBA. This is not a revival of any online mode. It's simply capturing and sending serial port data from one point to another over the internet.
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Sonic1994DC
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by Sonic1994DC »

SEGA RPG FAN wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 7:50 pm
Sonic1994DC wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 7:31 pm I would love to play Virtual On online. This might be a silly question to ask but would BBA for online play be possible?
No modem, no BBA. This is not a revival of any online mode. It's simply capturing and sending serial port data from one point to another over the internet.
Thanks for the clear up. Still very cool, I'm excited to hear about this

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peanut_unlimited
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by peanut_unlimited »

Love this idea, and a coders cable isn't that difficult to whip up. I'll have to give it a suss :)

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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by NeoSnk »

I have the cable, and I’d love to test it.
Funny enough, I’ve been hoping for something like this for a long time.

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masis08
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Re: Play DC link cable games online - testing needed

Post by masis08 »

SEGA RPG FAN wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2025 12:10 pm I've been experimenting with tunneling the Dreamcast link cable games for online play and have a working method. Here are the preliminary results:

Aero Dancing I - successful online match
Aero Dancing F - successful online match
F355 - successful online match (real head to head racing!)
Virtual On - unable to match online. Matching works in LAN. Possibly very latency/jitter sensitive.
Hell Gate Beta - successful online match (this game is a hot mess though)
Sega Tetris - unable to match online or in LAN (haven't been able to figure out the serial port settings)

The games that worked, seemed to work well without lag or slowdown. This could use some further testing and refining.

I am using a USB coder's cable https://dreamcast.wiki/Coder%27s_cable and a custom python script https://github.com/eaudunord/Netlink/re ... /v4.4-beta

The coder's cable is connected from the Dreamcast to the PC and the script handles interfacing with the cable and sending data back and forth online. There are not modifications to the Dreamcast or patching of games, this is all stock.

The script is a pretty barebones affair that walks you through selecting your com port, the game you want to play and the IP address of the person you want to connect to. If you have a coder's cable and are interested in testing this out, let me know and we can try linking up.
Could this work from flycast to DC as well?

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