I guess I'm just not seeing the connection between the game using the Sega Snap and it being impossible to reverse-engineer. People were able to make open-source clients for MSN and AIM's closed IM protocols, I'm sure this could also be done if individuals had time and resources to put towards it.
Quite honestly, I don't understand the exact reasons why it would be impossible; if you really want to know, ask the folks over at onlineconsoles.com. (the Dreamcast section). It has been talked about over there many, many, times.
Isn't there a fan-made server for PSO currently running? Not quite sure how it was done, I must admit... but would anyone think it would be fesible to 'create' servers for other games, using a similar method?
Yeah, there is. I don't know how they did it, buy I have the server tools on this box somewhere I think. Never got it working though.
Hell, people hacked Gravity's server format for Ragnarok Online for custom servers, and that's something that you were paying money to use. It's just a matter of the right people working on it... As for this PSO server, do you hae any more info on it, Shakey_Jake? I'm really interested.
I work on one of said ragnarok projects, for info on the pso server see dcemulatiosn news page, it was mentioned on there. Also MMAN from the RO scene has been working on his own concoction for PSO as well.
This is the official page for the server http://schtserv.funurl.com/ I played online on the server using the PC version and seems to work fine from what I saw. Never tried running my own server though... Most interesting thing here is that apparently Dreamcast and PC players can play on the same servers.... though lacking a BBA and a usable dial-up ISP, I have been unable to try this for myself.
pso is kinda different. there was a pc version on which it could be based. also someone had the foresight to log packets when it was online. so, if someone would have logged packets when these games were online, it MIGHT have been posable for private servers. now that SNAP belongs to nokia, its pretty slim we'll be playing bmo or outtriger anytme soon. i still have hope that after n-gage is finally dead, sega might throw us a bone, but im an optimist. let it be knowned, PAL pso is still officially online and is free to play. woah, just noticed somthing: woah, thats awesome. would a coders cable fit the bill? can anyone help me with some info on this, id love to try it.
PSO does not use Sega Snap. Ask the people on onlineconsoles.com. They will tell you that you should give up now, because it's impossible. Unless someone helps you out with certain info, it's not happenning.
A related project: http://voot.sourceforge.net/ Someone made somekind of a "driver" to play the US version of Virtual-On online. PD
Supporting the words of Einbebop 44, SEGA SNAP hasn't got any relation with Dreamcast. It was designed some time after the Dreamcast production stop, for Play Station 2 and Game Cube. Later, it was bought by Nokia (in fact they bought the entire SEGA.Com, a subsidiary of SEGA of America) If I'm not mistaken they used inverse engeenering to develop the independent "PSO" servers (using a sniffer and analyzing packs), so the original servers must be up to be able to do this. That's the reason because I doubt that we can see something like that for games like "Propeller Arena" or "Outtriger". Salutes .
So let me get this straight Propellor Arena was slated to use online play with mic support!! SoB..... the wasted potential. I even happen to own the microphone attachment!! :crying::-banghead: Is there a source for this. Someone needs to add that to the wikipedia entry. Also, what is the real problem with setting up a server for this game. Is it that the released version just doesn't have that function enabled or is it the problem of setting up the server. Didn't Onlineconsoles get a private maximum pool server up and running recently? Why couldn't the same be done for propellor arena.
i remember browsing around files and it seems the online part was totally complete and perfectly functionnal, even server's DNS were installed. Main problem to set a server is that we don't know at all how it ever worked. On the contrary, most of unnoficial servers have been settled using the leaked official server program or by studiying how the server are actually working/worked by sniffing. None of these options are possible with PA so starting from zero seems a way too big work.
I've contributed to various projects aimed at emulating the functionality of official game-servers. Developing a Dreamcast server daemon would likely be significantly less complicated than one would imagine; as packet data was no doubt easier to retrieve (for obvious reasons). The only trouble is, it's nearly impossible (or extremely difficult) to emulate functionality that we have no working technical knowledge of. PSO only survived because several people had the foresight to capture, exceptionally note and organize packet logs before the server went offline. It's very likely that the online functionality of many Dreamcast games could have been preserved in the same manner. Cheers, -Elliott
In some cases - not so easily. As someone pointed out earlier on these forums, a few games (Alien Front Online p.ex.) had their server IPs hard coded (went through QA unnoticed). Therefore, after Sega let a contract with some operators run out, they suddenly found themselves in the situation of not being able to re-establish game servers for some titles.
Wel even if a game has a hard coded IP, it's relatively easy to reroute the IP to another IP-adres by using your PC.
Eh, that is more work than is necessary. You can easily reroute DNS lookups in the case of PSO without a crossover cable. As for hard coded IPs it'd be a lot easier to either hack the game to change the hardcoded IP if possible or use a cheat device to modify it in memory.
Hi there! A long time ago (between 2004 and 2006), I was disassembling Propeller Arena to see how hard it would be to make a server for it. In theory, if you could "decompile" the binary (1ST_READ.BIN), you'd have something resembling its source code. And with a good enough source code, one could understand what data it expects and write the server for it. But you don't necessarily need the source: you could iteratively dissasemble the game and test it while writing the server code. But that's a LOT of work! I automated some of that with custom scripts, marked a lot of libc and network functions, and managed to get past the first connection screen. And that was it... There is a lot to be implemented in order to have the game fully working. If I had enough free time, I'd love to continue. If someone else could join the effort (or take over from here), get in contact.
