The bittersweet end of QIIIDC Online?

[everynewday84]

In terms of a console games online functionality and longevity, quake 3 for the dreamcast will go down in history as a true champion; Having been online for 12 years now.

But has the time come for this game to go offline? I hope not.

The Master Server has been down for almost two weeks now. As far as I know, no one has been able to connect to any servers during this time..

Even if you don't play this game online much, or at all, you have to admit that this is a special gem for dreamcast enthusiasts everywhere. That being the very fact that you could play one of the most successful and influential fps games in gaming history online in 2012, 12 long years after it's release (And 10 long years after Sega of America announced it's discontinuing of support for the DC).

[brourke228]

I think the master server is down for quake 3 on all platforms. It might come back up ina while, but you should still be able to do direct IP connect in the meantime. DC-talk uses a dynamic ip for the game servers, so it will change from time to time. If you don't know the IP address to connect to, resolve the following hostname: dctalk.no-ip.info
The IP address at the moment is 108.34.196.186
FFA server is on port 27960 and CTF is on port 27961.


If it turns out the master server is down for good we can just redirect dreamcast to another master server using DNSmasq, DrDNS, an autoconnect disc, or something similar to BlueCrab's PSO patcher. Here is another master server for example: http://quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 71#p894671

We just have to modify the quake3 server config files to make our server appear on the new master server.



EDIT: I just used Dr.DNS to connect to that maverick server and it works just fine. You can see it scan for servers, but none of them are visible because they aren't using the same patch version. So Dr.Dns will work just fine for this.

We will still need autoconnect disc or a server to redirect dial-up ISP users though, because they can't redirect dns locally. Anyway, this will work for PC-DC/dial-in users and bba users, just not for dial-up ISP users.

[BlueCrab]

I'm not familiar with Q3DC (never played it or owned it for that matter), so excuse what may be a silly question... Does it use WinCE?

If it doesn't use WinCE, it'd probably be fairly easy to make something similar to my PSO Patcher Disc for it (assuming it doesn't do anything particularly evil). In fact, it'd probably be simpler than my PSO Patcher disc (since PSO does some "evil" things). Unfortunately, I've had issues with booting WinCE stuff with the PSO Patcher code that I can't seem to quite figure out...

[Jenkins]

Does it use WinCE?

Luckily not. Raster used the official SEGA Katana SDK to port this game.

[BlueCrab]

Does it use WinCE?

Luckily not. Raster used the official SEGA Katana SDK to port this game.

I figured that was probably the case, but figured I'd ask just to be sure.

[brourke228]

Sorry for the confusion, but we're hosting our own Quake III master server now for dctalk. The master server is at the hostname: dctalk.no-ip.info



I just updated drdns. So just to clarify...

Dr.Dns with dns entries modified for quake 3 to redirect to dctalk master server is attached to this post. If you already use dr.dns for PSO with bba, add this to your redirect.txt:

Code: Select all

master.quake3arena.com dctalk.no-ip.info

Then on quake 3 change your primary dns to your computer's IP address.


The DC-Talk Quake III servers are online right now, as well as DC-talk Quake III master server. So open up dr.dns on your computer, change primary dns on dreamcast to your computer IP address, and then you will see the FFA and CTF servers show up when you connect.


If the official quake3 master server comes back up just stop using dr.dns. The dc-talk servers still point to the official master server as well.


If there is anyone hosting their own Quake III Arena servers for Dreamcast who would like their server to appear on the master list add this to your server config file:

Code: Select all

set sv_master2 "dctalk.no-ip.info"

[DCUltrapro]

If it turns out the master server is down for good we can just redirect dreamcast to another master server using DNSmasq, DrDNS, an autoconnect disc, or something similar to BlueCrab's PSO patcher. Here is another master server for example: http://quake3world.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 71#p894671
.

is it not possible to do this using the xdp browser? Like we do to get online with PSO v 2??

I'm a little unclear on how to connect to the server mentioned in this thread, how exactly does it work? Sorry to sound like a simpleton

[brourke228]

Read the post directly above the one you just made. You need to download the drdns file i attached and use that to connect. I was still determining how/if we could use our own master server when I made the post you just quoted.

[DCUltrapro]

ok cool, whats involved with DrDNS then? I have no idea how it works or what it does. I'm at work at the moment so I can't test it out

[Mateoman]

Hey everyone,

I still can't seem to connect to the DC-Talk Master Server. I downloaded and ran Dr. DNS latest version, I turned off my firewall, and on Q3A I entered my external IP as my Primary DNS. I'm getting nothing. In fact, Dr. DNS doesn't seem to be reacting at all beyond the standard "the doctor is in" statement. What am I doing wrong? My PC is connected to my cable modem via wireless router (Netgear wifi-N), and the DC is wired directly to that router. When I "successfully" connect q3a to the Internet, it'll say "connected! 10.0.0._ (some two-digit number)...