JP DC Games That Had Online. Maybe Get Them Back Online?

[itsthinkingstill]

for sega rally 2, all you did was upload/ download ghosts of other racers. i am working on a patched version to dreampipe so that one could be revived

Not the Japanese version. That had actual online multiplayer with up to 4 players.

Really! from all the magazines i read from the time i though it was just downloading/uploading. that's really cool, thanks for correcting me pc

[petter3k]

Unfortunately that is one of the pre-TCP/IP games which used a physical telephone switching system to dial in and play, nor was it cross compatible with the PC version..

[SEGA RPG FAN]

Unfortunately that is one of the pre-TCP/IP games which used a physical telephone switching system to dial in and play, nor was it cross compatible with the PC version..

That's what's holding all of the Japanese Saturn Netlink games back too. The US games were direct-dial and still work, but people don't tend to have landlines anymore and VOIP seems to be a no-go.

[M1 IRON SIGHTS]

Could anybody please provide a link or something for this telephone switching system you're talking about? I have an interest in telephony and I'd be really interested to learn more about it.

[SEGA RPG FAN]

Someone probably knows more about it than me, but as I understand it, the early games used a matchmaking server where you connected to the server and the server facilitated connecting you to another player via a physical switching system (not the internet).

For the Saturn, at least, it seems there's some information out there on how to bypass the switching server and direct connect to another player. I haven't been able to dig anything up though, and like I said, without a real phone line it's pretty useless.

[gjb1985]

would be too awesome if they got rune jade back online. another mmorpg!

[Chael]

Unfortunately that is one of the pre-TCP/IP games which used a physical telephone switching system to dial in and play, nor was it cross compatible with the PC version..

That's what's holding all of the Japanese Saturn Netlink games back too. The US games were direct-dial and still work, but people don't tend to have landlines anymore and VOIP seems to be a no-go.

Can the progress made in this thread http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtop ... f=2&t=8453 be a good news regarding VOIP dreamcast games?

[SEGA RPG FAN]

The switching server would have to be emulated, the DC games weren't direct dial. But, knowing that the games can run OK via VOIP it might make it worth it for some enterprising individual to work on it.

[DR TEAMCAST]

It would be a high output for the work involved to reverse and emulate the switching. I doubt there is very much difference between each title since it was switching and probably no server involved at all. Which is perhaps why there is so many exponentially more of titles that used this system than the US and EU libraries combined

Potentially if you emulate the system everything could work again. Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and Street Fighter 2X would be unfathomable to have multiplayer

[SEGA RPG FAN]

Found this interesting tidbit regarding Sega Rally 2:

Sega Rally 2, developed by Sega Enterprises Ltd. with Windows CE and the
DirectX API, has been the No. 1 title for Dreamcast since its release on
Jan. 28 and is the first and only multiplayer networked title released on
Dreamcast in Japan so far. "The popularity of network play with Sega Rally
2 confirms that networked multiplayer functionality can drive retail sales of
console titles," said Toshinori Asai, general manager, consumer software R&D
at Sega Enterprises. "Using Windows CE with DirectPlay(R) greatly simplified
our efforts to add multiplayer network play functionality and build the
network infrastructure for Sega Rally 2."

My guess is that the game dialed into a directplay server which handled the peer-to-peer and matchmaking. Since the game dials directly into a server, the current online methods aren't going to help, but the VOIP method we're using for the saturn might be able to help. A working directplay server with a pool of modems and VOIP adapters would be needed. I have a remote access server with 4 analog modems (expandable to 8) that could be used in testing, but I'm mostly networking illiterate when it comes to this area.