Konami Live online game controllers

Does anyone else have this PC plug-n-play gamepad from Konami



It relied on connecting to a Konami server to be installed and possibly also to download any of the 5 games. Unfortunately, the Konami Live service seems to be long dead. But I'm hoping the games could still somehow be salvaged.

I'm hoping anyone might be familiar on how the games were accessed, launched and played on one's computer back in the day. When you choose to play a game, it creates a folder on your computer for that particular game and several files are also downloaded into it, including an executable for that game. However, the executable no longer works. Though I don't know if that is simply a shortcut that connects to the server and runs the game stored there.

It's rather disappointing that it may be a lost cause; these were pretty much the official alternative to play the XBox Live arcade classics for non XBox 360 users, as they're the exact same versions.

 

Bump.

Still hoping any of you might still have the files associated with this plug-n-play on a PC, or any kind of information that may help. I'm still trying to find a way to reach former Digital Eclipse employees who may have worked on this. I know a bit more information on the games' hosting/key. Oberon Media seems to have handled maintaining the server, and the key check was implemented was by QiGo.

 

If you have the controller maybe you could setup a network sniffer and then plug it in and watch what it tries to connect to? Also have you tried calling Konami or even open a support ticket, there must be a couple guys that still work there since 2006 and may know more. I also sent a pm.

 

Thanks for the PM, I've replied to it.

I have contacted Konami regarding this, but as you'd expect, they've been of no help. I probably shouldn't expect any help from them for a product this old; they didn't even know when the server shut down, claiming it was several years ago even though it was early-mid 2013 from my findings.

The network sniffer may work for some extent, but I'm pretty sure of what site the controller would try to connect to. konamilive.com, which later redirected to konamiqg.oberon-media.com. the "qg" probably refers to QiGo, while oberon-media probably maintained the server. The installation makes reference to the latter.

The ports themselves were developed by Digital Eclipse, which makes sense since they also developed/updated these for the XBox Live ports later on. The problem is, the DE of now has no solid association to that of back in the day; even then, the original company underwent a rather convoluted merging/rebranding history. From what I understand, these gamepads were developed by the Vancouver office, Backbone Vancouver (but under the Digital Eclipse label). I found and contacted one of its former devs, who was nice and tried to help. Unfortunately, he didn't remember a lot about it and the other former devs he reached out to also didn't recall much. None of them had any source material.

From what I've been told, DE only worked on the ports; the server and deployment of the games were handled by Konami, where it looks like they just threw the responsibility entirely to yet another company (being Oberon-Media). Honestly, all of this hassle could have been avoided if they actually included the games on the controllers and just used the online component for leaderboards, news updates, etc.

FTR, I've had this controller for a while, now and have used it while the servers were still up. But I had assumed I did have proper back-ups of the games, since I figured they would stop the service eventually. Only recently I got back to it and found this out. The installed files still try to connect to the server, and still perform a key check.

 

I have a Net Jet laying around somewhere. It was powered by Oberon and QiGo and used a similar setup. If this controller is anything like that, you download the entire game to your hard drive without needing to connect online.

 

How interesting!

 

Thanks for this info. The issue is that the downloaded exe files for the games perform a temporary-key check and it needs to connect to a server to validate/update the key. With the Net Jet, IINM, the keys are physical plug-ins that were purchased and are conversely not temporary.

Still, I'm leaning on the hope that the installations for each game do contain the entire games' data. The problem is the message about temporary key expiration; if that can be bypassed, it can be determined what the included exe files contain.

 

I get the same error with Netjet games, actually:

 

"Expired", huh? That sounds like at least there's some key present already (i.e. w/o having contacted a server). If you set your puter's clock back to within the valid period (whenever thay was), maybe the check is content with just this key and doesn't necessarily need to go online? Not too likely but worth a try a at least.

Anyways, if those files aren't too big, may I suggest uploading them somewhere, so people could have a look at the key checks?

 

No idea why anyone would buy this considering it requires a PC and an online download, especially with Mame and legit Arcade compilations available on disc. Can you provide a picture of the controller showing the cables? perhaps mod it to work as a standard USB controller for Mame?

Just like Steam and game console downloads that authenticate. The games are only temporary with the server controlling when to cancel the rental.

 

Well, that sucks. Still, I feel the most important thing is that the files that were downloaded during installation do have the game's data. At least then, it can be preserved, let alone unlocked to play.

I considered this initially and tried it. For some reason, it still brings up the message. I'm probably wrong on this, but I think without a connection to the server, it automatically assumes the key is expired. About uploading the files, yes. I am in the process of getting them together to upload after having received permission. It would be great to find out what they actually contain.

Personally, I don't care for the controller itself and the unnecessarily elaborate setup it uses. Part of the reason behind my interest in these is to see if the game ports themselves can somehow be preserved, as they are the focus here. These versions of the arcade games are in fact the XBox 360 ports, and precede them. Just IMO, it would be nice to ensure these are still playable on the PC, especially since they're official releases.

It would have made more sense to either go the USB plug-n-play route and have all the games on the controller, or simply go the steam route and require the players to purchase the game downloads off their site, playing with whatever peripheral they want. Not this mix of both.

 

This is the Netjet stuff I still have: https://mega.nz/#!3ZhFEbhA!cqdE7eUs0sgLPlOMENoUyzAwh8tvL6p5w68m9t_Axac

 

This is crazy. An online only plug and play !

 

That brings grief to the crowd of ~5 who hoped to preserve the game content (and also whoever buys these nowadays hoping to use them)

 

If the things came out in 2010 (the earliest the Wayback Machine has the site up (Komanilive.com apparently required the thing plugged in for the site to work), most Xbox 360 ports were out by then. I think they had even released the disc version by then.

If they were going to do plug-n-play they may as well have gone the Jakk's Pacific route with the ones that go straight to a TV.

 

No that's just the earliest that the Wayback Machine has a snapshot. This line of USB bricks was released in August 2006. First purchasable through their website, and then some stores (Wal Mart, Target, Toys R Us, etc) carried them shortly after.

Whether TV or PC, the games really should have been stored on the controller. The only thing they should have required the online connection for was the leaderboards, news and all other stuff not affecting the games.

 

That thing's got a pretty cool logo.

 

Looking at this video:

It looks identical to a Netjet, just with Konami games instead of Hasbro licenses.

 

Some good reads about the Net Jet (and in extension, the Konami USB plug-n-play devices):

http://www.thunderboltgames.com/feature/under-the-radar-tiger-electronics-net-jet
http://forums.bannister.org/ubbthre...=1&PHPSESSID=3c74d06c904029be10e5bfea6062aeab

 

I'm actually able to play those Netjet exe files on PCs that haven't already run them. Can you try doing the same with the Konami games?