Playing 2 player SNES games over the internet on real hardware.

Title says it all. This site has the details.

 

You might get turn based games running but latency will kill anything else. Admittedly it isn't a massive amount of data to be shifting around but keeping it in sync using a protocol that is designed to lose packets (ok bad wording) is going to be an absolute nightmare. Some games just cannot be syncronised by controller input alone, you'd need CPU sync as well.

All IMHO of course and I'd definitely want to give it a try if they succeed....

 

Very interesting idea
I might even try and build this just to test it out hehe
Thanks for sharing.

 

That looks nice I hope it gets finished to see it working at full. I would like it for the megadrive for the beat-m-ups and and the shooters.

 

Again, you have to understand that this approach will only ever work on a limited set of games due to the way games randomize things. What happens on screen isn't completely dictated by controller inputs alone. Emulators can do netplay as they have access to the whole system, not just the controller port.

This was one of the reasons that the other services like X-Band for the SNES and Genesis never really took off.

 

Yeah, unless a game is optimized for online play it's a pain in the ass. It isn't even perfect on emulation.

Good modern example of this? The original Halo. The game is optimized for LAN but when using Xbox Connect to play online (by simulating LAN) the lag is - playable but far from perfect. It's not the program either - other network games are perfect (Halo 2 for example).

The network coding even shows on the PC port of Halo, where the lag is still extremly obvious.

 

Xband did it first

 

Even if you ignore the latency issues and randomization of gameplay, there's still the issue of synchronization. How do you synchronize when the consoles are turned on? Do you simply say, "1, 2, 3, power on!" That site doesn't explain that at all. I imagine you could make an attachment to the power adapter or the board itself to switch the 2 consoles on at the same time. But the site doesn't address how he plans to do that at all.

 

When I discussed the idea of having online play with physical consoles via network controller sync everyone thought it was a silly idea. And it is still silly however they're doing it as a proof-of-concept product only, there's little hope of having multiple persons interesting in such a device with working SNES consoles and carts in my opinion. Plus on a PC it is hassle-free to play compared to that solution.

I could see it working if you pitch the idea on specialized, fanatical forums like NintendoAge, though, specially if done by an old-timer like bunnyboy (from RetroUsb).

 

I agree with Aleff here, I don't see the reason to mess around to make SNES games online. You can do this in a matter of seconds with an emulator, sure emulation is NEVER perfect but I don't think many will use such device.

 

Dammit Hex, I keep getting you muddled up with others. Stop changing your post count avatar so much! :wink-new:

If I didn't have a SNES die on me, I'd push this 100%. But really, let's be honest here... our consoles aren't getting any younger! :friendly_wink:

 

Post from the author on the HaD forums:

I think the best method to do this would be to have one SNES and send the video. Would be tougher to do but at least you would avoid desync issues.

 

I'm so sorry, haha I want the 6000 one the most

 

The X-Band is a great thing to bring up here. Basically the X-Band had memory with "patches" that were downloaded for the game you were about to play. These patches had to be made for each game that was going to be supported by the X-Band. These patches would handle getting both players into the game (synced) and handle input for both players so that the game would be synced as both systems would get the exact same input on each frame. This also means all *random* types of events were patched as well so that the game would play entirely deterministic on input.

It seems to me that the dream here is to have basically the X-Band but using the Internet. I'm not sure on how the X-Band performed as I never got to use it. However in theory I believe the telephone lines locally (country wise) have far less latency time compared to even a really good internet connection. So ironically I think the X-Band will always be superior. Really what I'd like to see as a project is someone reviving the X-Band. Too bad unlike certain Saturn games, there is no way to direct dial and play without the main service in place.

 

Well I have all those xband patched roms so, would this work fine with them then?