Hardware Netplay Theory/Idea

[DR TEAMCAST]

I'm not sure how possible something like this would be. But I had the idea last night

Would it be possible to run a server software on PC that 2-4 consoles could connect to on a client application? The server side software would run a game's 1st_read.bin and stream the games to the connected clients. Each player would be playing the same instance of the game streamed from the server, player 1 would be controller port 1, player 2 would be controller port 2 and so on

I'm not sure if I explained that correctly, but if it was completed and done correctly I can't see why something like that wouldn't work. It'd enable netplay on all of the games with local multiplayer

[jay_red]

I think what you are looking for is "tunneling" its something that has been in use for a while on other consoles. I know it was used on the gamecube for local multi player games, and with the xbox 360 as well.

[ch0pzta]

Yeah I remember people we're using that method to play Mario Kart Double Dash 'online'.

Would be great if something like that happened for the DC.... Powerstone 2 online anyone?

[DR TEAMCAST]

I don't mean tunneling, because that would require the game to have a LAN feature. I mean the server is a GD-Drive/Dreamcast emulator in itself. Player 1 and 2 would connect to it using a separate client applications, then the server would run the game and stream it to player 1 and 2 as if it were being played on a local console

I actually think that's a really good idea and would be really cool. But it'd also be cool to find out why that wouldn't work

[DR TEAMCAST]

I also don't think there would be any desync issues because the two consoles would be streaming the same one instance of the game

[jay_red]

I don't mean tunneling, because that would require the game to have a LAN feature. I mean the server is a GD-Drive/Dreamcast emulator in itself. Player 1 and 2 would connect to it using a separate client applications, then the server would run the game and stream it to player 1 and 2 as if it were being played on a local console

I actually think that's a really good idea and would be really cool. But it'd also be cool to find out why that wouldn't work

Ok I get you, I know that feature has been available for a long time in emulators and MAME. There is a whole community of fighting game players that use "fightcade" which allows people to play over the internet on arcade fighting games with very low latency thanks to GGPO. It works for other emulators, so it could possibly work for the dreamcast emulator as well.