Interview: David Ashley

[Melf]

Fans of the 16-bit era fondly remember the Xband, Catapult's ground-breaking online service. Long before anyone ever even considered something as elaborate as Xbox Live, Genesis and SNES gamers were battling each othe cross country on Mortal Kombat and Super Street Fighter II. Sega-16 was lucky enough to chat with former Xband programmer David Ashley, and he had some really insightful things to share about the service and what it was like to be a part of gaming's first large-scale attempt at bringing head-to-head action to players all across the country. Read our exclusive interview (http://www.sega-16.com/Feature-%20David%20Ashley%20Interview.htm) for all the juicy info!

[j_factor]

Great, great interview.

[Genesis Knight]

Awesome stuff!

[Melf]

Thank you, gentlemen! :)

[lordofduct]

great interview.


I notice there is always debate about what the first "online console gameplay" was. They bring up things like Sega Channel, the SNES modem, Xband, all kinds of things.

Never do I see anyone discuss one of the very old ones on the Atari2600... the gameline master. A device that allowed you to download games (some exclusive games only available through gameline) and play them until you turned off the console for about 10 cents a game. Your highscores were posted on the gameline network and they usually had monthly contests with certain games winning things like 20 free downloads, magazine subscriptions and other crap.

I don't know why no one ever brings up this very original idea dated all the way back to the very early 80s when the average person didn't even know the 'net' even existed, and on a console none the less.

[Melf]

I mentioned those in the Xband article, as they were indeed the first attempts at going online. Xband seems to be the first large scale try, though. Granted, from what Ashley says, it doesn't seem they were so large scale after all.

[Drixxel]

GameLine.. that really was ahead of its time. A rather inventive system, really, especially considering it's 1983 release (and subsequent demise). I'm surprised as well that it's not more commonly talked about, seeing as the dudes behind GameLine would later found America Online.. but then again, not really. The thing was never a real success, and who gives a crap about AOL?

Really a cool interview though. It sounds like it required some serious ingenuity to get games to work over the Xband. Any idea if there was ever a question of legality in terms of hacking games for Xband compatibility purposes? I don't remember ever hearing about any lawsuits, but it seems like the sort of thing publishers and developers would have gotten all ansty about seeing as Catapult would be profiting off of their game releases, post original sale.

[ary incorparated]

actually Atari 2600 was the first one online but didnt work and sell good ,Im not right about this but i tought so.Then genesis had a online modem that worked good but didnt had potention and then nintedo got lucky that they also recieved a x band modem for the snes internet also appeared on saturn and nes etc.the first decent enough working internet was on the DC with sega net,it wasnt a succes but worked great if you ask me,Still xbox live is the best Internet on a game console.genises was the first whit a good working modem and fast.a friend had it and i also seen the snes modem working that one was a bit slower,plus on snes there is nothing special to play online,genises does what nintendont.