Games that can be Brought Back Online?

[pcwzrd13]

I had previously thought that it was impossible (from what I'd heard) to bring any more Dreamcast games online but after the recent announcement of Planet Ring being brought back online, it seems I was wrong. I even read in a recent thread that Bomberman Online is being worked on (no guarantee on this one though). Are there any other games that have potential to be brought back online? Are any being actively worked on? I know Unreal Tournament was being worked on a while back but it seems like it was abandoned.

[brourke228]

I wanted to test out pba bowling and next tetris online using the software on this site http://aluigi.altervista.org/papers.htm#distrust . I was gonna run it locally and connect my dreamcast to my pc using a local dns server. I'm not entirely sure how to get that software to work though. Its the same software lordnikon said he used here http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/php ... php?t=6567 he said those two games didn't work properly with it but the software seems to have been updated since then so worth trying out I suppose.

I also had an idea to get the vs link games to play over a network which may or may not work. I was talking about it awhile back here http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtop ... f=3&t=3759 I still haven't got around to trying that out though.

[pcwzrd13]

Wow! I never knew PBA Bowling and Next Tetris were this close to being put back online! I'm surprised no one has found solutions to the problems by now. They seem like very small issues. Hopefully you can make some progress on them.

BTW, any word on 4x4 Evo?

[brourke228]

I emailed the guy Sunday that I talked to awhile back from Terminal Reality I didn't receive any response yet though. It's odd that their DNS is even down though.

If my ip address didn't change so often I would just host a DNS server to redirect people to their server. The way 4x4 works is when you connect it resolves the hostname then connects and downloads a txt file from a webserver which contains the hostnames of irc servers modified to host the game.

So if I don't get a response I can either create a hostname to redirect the game to their servers ip address and hex edit it into the evo disc image to make an autoconnect disc using the hostname I created. Or I can host the backend.txt myself and setup evo to connect to the dctalk server since I have a webserver setup anyway http://dctalk.no-ip.info/ . In-game everything would look the same and you would still be able to connect to the official TRI server in addition to ours because the server info is contained in the backend.txt which I would take off their server here http://69.15.25.124/4x4evo1-dc-english-backend.txt

The only other way to get it to connect would be to use a local DNS server on your PC or router and redirect master.4x4evolution.com to 69.15.25.124 . This won't work for anyone using regular dial up though since there isn't anything between them and their ISP. If you are using PC-DC or netopia then that would work.


Actually maybe I will setup a DNS server for people to play just as a temporary solution in the meantime. 108.34.196.181 is the current ip. I will have to check how to setup DNS server on freebsd. I'll look into that either tomorrow or this weekend.

[brourke228]

Ok done. Go on your dreamcast, set your primary dns to 108.34.196.181 and 4x4 evo will connect. I have master.4x4evolution.com, master1.4x4evolution.com, master2.4x4evolution.com, master3.4x4evolution.com,master4.4x4evolution.com, and master5.4x4evolution.com all pointing to 69.15.25.124.

Be aware that my ip address changes every 1-6months. The current ip address will always be listed next to the DC-talk servers here: http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/q3master.php

I will probably add entries for sylverant and our server as well for pso and the quake 3 master server then you can use your retail discs to connect to our servers on those games as well.

[pcwzrd13]

I set the DNS server in the game itself and it worked like a charm! Thanks brourke!

[brourke228]

No prob. I think if we changed the trackurl in the dc-backend to something like this: http://www.4x4evo.net/lite.cgi we could then download custom tracks directly on DC. I'm not sure how to make one of those cgi scripts, but I have connected to private servers on 4x4EVO in the past and the track url was working. That's one thing I've been meaning to mess around with. The trackurl on the official server no longer points to anything and the guy I talked to at TRI was unsure how to fix it. So if that works I might end up just hosting the backend.txt myself at some point so we can browse through custom tracks in-game.

[pcwzrd13]

Oooh! That sounds sweet! I like the idea of adding the Q3A entries as well! I hate having to type in the server addresses every time I play.

[brourke228]

Well currently you can connect to our quake 3 master server using an autoconnect disc here http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=257 , but using the DNS server I setup you will be able to connect to it using your retail disc. I'll repost when I have those entries added. So far the only thing I have redirected is 4x4 evo.

[noiseredux]

wow Next Tetris Online would be amazing!