Dreamcast on XLink

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 4:03 am

hi i'm new here so forgive me if my question sounds stupid to most of you but i'd like to know if there's a reason why the dreamcast is not included in Xlink? after all dreamcast had 4 system link games Ferrari 355, Virtual on Otario, sega tetris and aero dancing F. thanks

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:03 am

Unfortunatley I believe like LIVE the DC didn't have any direct peer to peer games, they all required that you check in with an internet based host to setup play. Since those servers are now long gone I believe sadly so is the hope for DC online.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:41 am

the 4 dreamcast games i mentioned above can be played offline through system linked, all you need is 2 dreamcast consoles, 2 tvs, 2 compatible games and a system link cable. it makes sence to me that if PS2, Xbox, PSP and GC can be tunneled why not Dreamcast? thanks

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 6:01 am

They were connected via what?

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 3354

I have a Dreamcast somewhere and I don't remember any NIC but I could be wrong or it could be an add-on.

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 4061

I thought it was via a modem aka telephone wire

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 11:27 am

it's a direct cable conection...if I am not mistaken....it goes directly in the serial port of the DC, this port sits at the back of the DC.

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 11:45 am

it's a link cable/ vs cable and it connects at the back of the dreamcast (not through modem/broadband adaptor port).
anyways can anybody please tell me why Dreamcast is not included in Xlink?

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 04 Jun 2004 Posts: 4371

take this from a proud owner of 4 dreamcasts , Ferrari and virtual on are both great games :]

however to me this seems a waste of time .. i have 4 dreamcasts and never bought a system link cable or a broadband adapter , who did ? it would just be a wasteland arena like GC :]

the n-gage would be a better choice to tunnel ahead of the dreamcast ..

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 2:06 pm

so is that the reason why it hasnt been tunneled? because you think nobody would come and play. what if there was a high demand for it? would you consider tunneling it?

Team XLink Moderator Joined: 28 Apr 2004 Posts: 1003

being that the next gen console line is coming end of this year and beggining of next, i think the team needs to work on other things. but hey who knows mabe thedaddy and dfunked will say yes....but i doubt it unless you can prove at least 25 people want to play it and would use it on a normal basis. yea know?

Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 5:11 pm

Yeh DC has some kind of early sys link, but it wasnt networked and defanatly NOT cat 5 it used a special cable that didnt use the modem or BBA but the serial port I belive.

So therefore I doubt you could tunnel it, however, check out the DCEmu forum: http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/

A lot of games DO still work online thanks to homebrew servers and certain hacks, there are still some sites dedicated to tournaments etc as well Smile

Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 1:27 am

so is there no chance of the dreamcast being tunnel. It would be really good and there is stil labit of intrest for its games on the net

Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 1:39 am

yeah its not worth doing i dont know where they sell that cable, i dont have those games
its just not very big Confused

Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 10:48 am

jol @ Sun May 08, 2005 1:27 am wrote:

so is there no chance of the dreamcast being tunnel. It would be really good and there is stil labit of intrest for its games on the net

Hmm, you see it doesnt NEED a tunnel, it needs servers like Live! and there are some homebrew/hacked ones around that allow you to do this.

Check out that link, please! It will show you the way if you are really interested Smile

Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 5:42 am

if you want to play phantasy star online or quake 3 online yes it does need servers (which are still online and kicking). but system link games do not require a server at all. are you saying that halo 1 on Xbox needs a server or grand turismo 4 needs a server as well? none of these games need a server like "xbox live" to be played online.

djveeman wrote:
"yeah its not worth doing i dont know where they sell that cable, i dont have those games
its just not very big"

Easy, buy the cable from lik-sang.com for $12 USD and the games from ebay they go for around $15 USD. you can buy a console for around $20 usd.

Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 1:05 pm

Masiso @ Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am wrote:

if you want to play phantasy star online or quake 3 online yes it does need servers (which are still online and kicking). but system link games do not require a server at all. are you saying that halo 1 on Xbox needs a server or grand turismo 4 needs a server as well? none of these games need a server like "xbox live" to be played online.

djveeman wrote:
"yeah its not worth doing i dont know where they sell that cable, i dont have those games
its just not very big"

Easy, buy the cable from lik-sang.com for $12 USD and the games from ebay they go for around $15 USD. you can buy a console for around $20 usd.

Not sure what you mean with your Halo 1 reference? But anyway...

Very few games work with the Dreamcast "sys link" option, and like I said it didnt use a standard cable or networking so to tunnel that would be a pain.

Best way is to check out http://www.consolevision.com/members/mterlouw/ in order to get your DC online using your PC to share your broadband connection, its quite nifty.

Then look over at:
http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/portal.php

To see what games work online, you can also read about how to set things up etc.

Sadly the scene isnt as big as it used to be....

Kai Regular Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 104

l3laze @ Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am wrote:

being that the next gen console line is coming end of this year and beggining of next, i think the team needs to work on other things. but hey who knows mabe thedaddy and dfunked will say yes....but i doubt it unless you can prove at least 25 people want to play it and would use it on a normal basis. yea know?

Hey, I have a Dreamcast and if it was tunneled then I probably WOULD play it. It has some really great games.

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

OK,

The word on this from me is "Find out what the hell type of syslink lead it is". It's not ethernet - we know that - but if its a serial cable with a sick connecter, we might be able to hack something together for you guys. If it's some fucked up proprietery frame format, it's hard work.

TD

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 8:53 am

TheDaddy @ Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am wrote:

OK,

The word on this from me is "Find out what the hell type of syslink lead it is". It's not ethernet - we know that - but if its a serial cable with a sick connecter, we might be able to hack something together for you guys. If it's some fucked up proprietery frame format, it's hard work.

TD

Sadly I belive it is, there was a debate a looong time ago about it over at the DCEmu forums.

And besides with only 5 games:

Code:

DREAMCAST GAMES feat. SYSTEM LINK (5)
- Game Interface Players JP US EU PDB
+ Aero Dancing F [VSCBL] 1-2 JP US EU -
+ Aero Dancing i [VSCBL] 1-2 JP US EU -
+ F355 Challenge [VSCBL] 1-2 JP US EU -
+ Sega Tetris [VSCBL] 2-4 JP US EU -
+ Virtual On Oratorio Tangram [VSCBL] 1-2 JP US ? -

It would be a futile exercize. (Altho you did the same for the GC with less Wink

)

Dont get me wrong I love the DC, it still has pride of place next to my GameCube and Xbox. Its online support was a revolution at the time, and it is STILL the only games console that came with web browsing out of the box. However, I think its time to let its online days rest Sad