Phantasy Star for the Gamecube, how did people communicate?

[Retronomy]

To answer your question on how people communicated:
Very few people actually had keyboards for their gamecubes.
However, there was a picture chat option that you could add to defined shortcuts, that displayed a small picture in a chat window, composed of various lines, shapes and symbols. The game comes with some easy to understand default pictures to cover every instance where you might need to convey something, such as being low on health, needing a teleport, greetings, and emotions.
People also took advantage of this feature to create some pretty hilarious pictures which spread like wildfire, like memes.

As well, there was always the manual typing with the dpad. I don't exactly remember if this version had the international chat feature that allowed you to compose a set of sentances that would translate to people's native languages. I'm pretty sure that's a PSO:BB feature.

[goldenpp72]

To answer your question on how people communicated:
Very few people actually had keyboards for their gamecubes.
However, there was a picture chat option that you could add to defined shortcuts, that displayed a small picture in a chat window, composed of various lines, shapes and symbols. The game comes with some easy to understand default pictures to cover every instance where you might need to convey something, such as being low on health, needing a teleport, greetings, and emotions.
People also took advantage of this feature to create some pretty hilarious pictures which spread like wildfire, like memes.

As well, there was always the manual typing with the dpad. I don't exactly remember if this version had the international chat feature that allowed you to compose a set of sentances that would translate to people's native languages. I'm pretty sure that's a PSO:BB feature.

I'm sure it has it since the Dreamcast title did, it was actually a big marketed feature in magazines and such. I forgot the exact phrasing but something like scream for help in ways everyone can understand, or something :p

[Retronomy]

To answer your question on how people communicated:
Very few people actually had keyboards for their gamecubes.
However, there was a picture chat option that you could add to defined shortcuts, that displayed a small picture in a chat window, composed of various lines, shapes and symbols. The game comes with some easy to understand default pictures to cover every instance where you might need to convey something, such as being low on health, needing a teleport, greetings, and emotions.
People also took advantage of this feature to create some pretty hilarious pictures which spread like wildfire, like memes.

As well, there was always the manual typing with the dpad. I don't exactly remember if this version had the international chat feature that allowed you to compose a set of sentances that would translate to people's native languages. I'm pretty sure that's a PSO:BB feature.

I'm sure it has it since the Dreamcast title did, it was actually a big marketed feature in magazines and such. I forgot the exact phrasing but something like scream for help in ways everyone can understand, or something :p

Ah, well there you go!
I assume that the server you're looking at joining is Schtserv. Which is great, by the way.
IIRC it shares gamecube, dreamcast and PSO:PC all on the same servers for lobbies, but for actual games you must play with people of your own console. I would suggest to make friends with the people who still play on your console, and learn to synchronize with each other somehow to get some play time with each other every once in a while.

[Blu]

If you end up getting a BBA, let me know. I have the ASCII keyboard and BBA, and I'd love to play some PSO GC going.

[goldenpp72]

I'm hoping to win one off ebay tomorrow, but upstairs I only have wireless. Is there a way to bridge my laptop connection to a wired BBA? I figure it should be possible but i'm no expert.