pierrot wrote:It occurred to me that I probably won't be able to play Sega Swirl since I'd be on a Broadband connection, and I've just got the web browser 2.0 version right now. Will the email matches work with broadband on the sega smash pack or demo disc versions?
I think so... I think POP3 mail is web-based anyway isn't it?
...so anyway, I got PSO working for the first time ever. I had never played online before! That was an easy way to kill an hour and a half haha.
Original_Name wrote:I'll admit that I'm a bit ignorant about the current state of Dreamcast online, but how exactly are people setting up these servers for specific games? I'm just asking because it's pretty surprising to me that people would go to such trouble to keep pool and off-roading titles online, yet formerly online-compatible games like ChuChu Rocket!, Daytona USA, Sega Rally 2, Virtual ON: Oratorio Tangram, Sega Tetris, Virtua Tennis, F355 Challenge, and the Capcom Matching Service series are no longer available.
I'm sure there must be a technical reason, particularly since ONLY NTSC-U titles have survived, but still, I'm curious as to what's keeping so many worthy titles from being restored.
in the cases of Maximum Pool and Quake 3 it's because the DC server was the same as the PC server. And the PC servers are still up.
With Sega Swirl -- it's an email game, so basically it'll be online as long as email is. Haha.
In the case of PSO it's because a legit server was up (also a shared PC server) for a long enough time that smarter folks than me were able to figure out what the server was looking for from the DC, so they knew how to then make a private server. I guess the reason why there aren't other private servers for other popular games is that simply the legit servers came down too early for crackers to figure them out. Someone a bit smarter than me should be able to explain this better, but that's the basics of it as far as I understand from what I've read.
...I'd guess that answers why 4x4 and Starlancer are still online too. Basically they were around long enough in legit form to be cracked.
Ah, understood! Thank you for that. Such a shame that so many of the titles have been lost to posterity -- would've been amazing to boot up Sega Rally 2, Virtua Tennis, and Virtua ON for some online matches with folks. Still, this thread has re-invigorated my interest in Dreamcast online. I remember buying Phantasy Star Online with my own money back at the age of 10, only to discover that my home network wasn't properly configured for online through the phone line at that time -- it would sort of satisfy a childhood fantasy of mine just to play it online on the Dreamcast for once. At the very least, I'm certain that I could configure things for a few games of Sega Swirl with folks -- my Dreamcast sits literally about six feet away from a phoneline jack.
noiseredux wrote:In the case of PSO it's because a legit server was up (also a shared PC server) for a long enough time that smarter folks than me were able to figure out what the server was looking for from the DC, so they knew how to then make a private server. I guess the reason why there aren't other private servers for other popular games is that simply the legit servers came down too early for crackers to figure them out. Someone a bit smarter than me should be able to explain this better, but that's the basics of it as far as I understand from what I've read.
That's really too bad. I always held on to a hope that there was a way to get old servers back online some way or another, so that's a big disappointment if it's already too late.
