X-Band Revived!

[rush6432]

Myself and a few others have done alot of research and contacted the original developers and even obtained a few files and source code.

While we're still working on getting the original hardware to work, we've made a version for the PC that works with snes and genesis emulators while interfacing with the emulator to keep stats. Cool huh? Best part.... its Free :) Just thought id post this up here and see if there might be any interest in a classic snes/genesis online ranking system for old school games like MK2,MK3,Super street fighter 2, NBA Jam TE, NHL95/96 Primal rage, and more. the program allows you to create your own user profile, and send private messages as well as have a player list and get randomly matched with opponents while being able to track your stats for many snes and sega games. Although the xband interface is not shown here its almost exactly like the original.

If your intresting in finding out more info, please sign up at www.saturnleague.com and go to the xband/revived section.

Below is a picture of a beta test program written to stream the memory from the emulator in order to snag the scores for mario kart. once 3 matches have been played the program exits back to the xband 2.0 GUI.

http://www.xband2.com:8080/untitled.png

[TmEE]

cool :D

[Zeus]

awesome

[oldmanwinters]

Hmm... intriguing project!

[Eke-Eke]

Interesting, i was looking at the Game Tokoshan BIOS recently, which communicates with the Sega Modem, trying to get it detected in emualtor.

What games did support the X_BAND modem ?
Do you have technical infos about how this was accessed by software (communication protocol, port setup, etc) or is this just a recreation of the XBAND concept with hacked ROMS/emulators ?

[NeoVamp]

Next stop, complete new Xband 2.0 hardware with wifi support!!

Make it so!

[Anonymouse]

Wow this is going to be awesome guys! But how many xbands are actually out there?

Would be awesome if Mr Everdrive Man could add a programmable USB or Eithernet port to the Everdrive so people could develop communication stuff for the Megadrive

Anyways this is great news

[Greg2600]

I don't even have a phone line to use the real X-Band on! Is the PC version available?

[rush6432]

Interesting, i was looking at the Game Tokoshan BIOS recently, which communicates with the Sega Modem, trying to get it detected in emualtor.

What games did support the X_BAND modem ?
Do you have technical infos about how this was accessed by software (communication protocol, port setup, etc) or is this just a recreation of the XBAND concept with hacked ROMS/emulators ?

As for the tokoshan BIOS, you wont get it running in an emulator. the xband bios writes a certain bit into memory to enable high and low rom or expanded memory to be able to work. without that bit being enabled upon startup on a real machine or hex editor, you wont ever get that bios to run.

I do have source code and tech documents on how to work with the modem and even game patches with source code, but the server side (bbs more or less) is still lost source code that no one has. we do know what the protocol is like but we havn't even really begun to scratch the surfaces on getting the hardware to work again for the snes and genesis. we do however have the snes able to dial diffrent server phone numbers as well as loading in patches to the sram for the games it supports but nothing more than that at this point.

We've focused on a pc program written for windows that allows you to do the same thing but using emulators. now it doesn't emulate the real xband bios, as its a full standalone windows program. Once thats done we'll be working on hardware stuff for the snes and genesis probably.

Xband genesis supported these games:

Madden NFL 95
Madden NFL 96
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat 3
NBA JAM
NBA Live 95
NBA Live 96
NHL '95
NHL '96
Primal Rage
Super Street Fighter 2
Weaponlord

Snes Version supported these games:

* DOOM
* Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball
* Kirby's Avalanche
* Killer Instinct
* Madden NFL 95
* Madden NFL 96
* Mortal Kombat II
* Mortal Kombat 3
* NBA Jam TE
* NHL 95
* NHL 96
* Super Mario Kart
* Super Street Fighter II
* WeaponLord

More game support will be added later on once the original games are implemented

[ReBirFh]

FIFA 95 for genesis was supported by the brazillian version of X-Band ( here it was called Meganet 2)

I had put some pictures of it in the other forum I'm a member but its is down now.

[rush6432]

I breifely had heard of it but never had seen it. well i take that back i saw someone on youtube demoing it sort of and i thought it was just a rom hack. you have those pics still?

[ReBirFh]

I have, when the other forum is back I will put the link here.

Edit:

Topic I made when researching info about Meganet 2/X-Band
http://www.sega-brasil.com.br/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2307&p=27612&hilit=meganet#p27612

Recovered page from Tec Toy showing High Score Stats and compatible games
http://web.archive.org/web/19970724160732/www.tectoy.com.br/meganet/top_10.htm

Edit2: Don't bother translating all the topic because we were mostly chatting about the awesome wayback machine and other thing, only the first and last posts are relevant.

[rush6432]

ya know im curious if tec toy has the source code and programs to run the xband server still. if so that would be HUGE...... the original developers here dont seem to have it anymore (server side) which makes it totally useless here and we have to hack our way back in

[Eke-Eke]

As for the tokoshan BIOS, you wont get it running in an emulator. the xband bios writes a certain bit into memory to enable high and low rom or expanded memory to be able to work. without that bit being enabled upon startup on a real machine or hex editor, you wont ever get that bios to run.

Actually, I was more trying to emulate the sega modem (which was apparently connected to the EXT port) responses in my emulator, that's what I wanted to say ;)

I don't think XBAND and Sega Modem works the same though (the third "entity" being the Sega Channel cartridge), and game tokoshan works with Sega Modem, not XBAND. Was the XBAND BIOS ever dumped btw ?

That's said, I never seen an XBAND and I'm curious to know how it worked: is it like other "lock-on" cartridges, the X-BAND program starts automatically with any connected games and game support is on the server side ? or does supported games had routine to look for the XBAND and communicates with it ?

[rush6432]

Actually, I was more trying to emulate the sega modem (which was apparently connected to the EXT port) responses in my emulator, that's what I wanted to say ;)

I don't think XBAND and Sega Modem works the same though (the third "entity" being the Sega Channel cartridge), and game tokoshan works with Sega Modem, not XBAND. Was the XBAND BIOS ever dumped btw ?

That's said, I never seen an XBAND and I'm curious to know how it worked: is it like other "lock-on" cartridges, the X-BAND program starts automatically with any connected games and game support is on the server side ? or does supported games had routine to look for the XBAND and communicates with it ?


xband cartridge was inserter and the game inserted on top of that. It never ran any of its games through a server. it dialed to a server to grab other player info and stats and such and update itself. it was always direct dial of the opponent. it was basically a glorified game genie that could insert its own code in-between the game and the genesis on the fly (multiplayer game patches) and snag controller button presses and send them out the modem line. pretty nifty. the bios has been dumped for snes and genesis.

[rush6432]

BETA 5 is out!! Download Here (http://www.zerotodev.com/Beta5.zip)!! Newest version of xband 2 supports a number of bug fixes and issues. New feature includes win/loss stat tracking for NBA JAM TE, SUPER MARIO KART, TETRIS/DR MARIO so far. More titles to be added soon. For more information please head over to www.saturnleague.com. Remember to check and see if you have Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 installed and firewall and router port forwarded to port 7845. Also please remember to run the zsnes program to configure your usb control pad before matching up with anyone.