Online Gaming with 90s Consoles

PSX1 · Postby **PSX1** » January 22nd, 2015, 12:08 am

I think it's generally fair to consider the Dreamcast, or at least the Xbox, as the advent of true online gaming for consoles. And Xbox 360 and PS3 finally made it nearly as mainstream as PC online gaming. But long before that, there were other online console services, like XBAND for the SNES and Genesis, and the Game.com modem, and the NetLink for Sega Saturn. I never experienced these, and, actually, wasn't even able to get my Dreamcast online back in the day. Just too complicated.

So I wonder... did anyone here ever play any of the pre-Dreamcast online services on any home consoles? What was it like?

Or, anyone ever play these systems (the Dreamcast too) online past their prime? In other words, for example, are there any hacks to get these old systems to still work online these days? And anyone try them? (Then again, even if there was a way to get your SNES or Saturn online nowadays, I'd guess your chances of linking to another player are slim to none.)

I love the Saturn, so I've considered buying the NetLink just as a novelty, even if it's essentially a useless paperweight now. But I'm curious if you guys have any stories about these old relics.

Sut1 · Postby **Sut1** » January 22nd, 2015, 9:10 am

My PS3 was the first console I played online with, but like you I would love to hear about older systems and their online experiences.

Oltobaz1 · Postby **Oltobaz1** » January 22nd, 2015, 2:53 pm

I started with the Dreamcast, mostly for Shenmue minigames leaderboards and
a few other amenities like this. Must have hooked up my Gamecube a couple of times,
it really began for me with the PSP as far as online multiplayer.

ptdebate1 · Postby **ptdebate1** » January 22nd, 2015, 3:12 pm

My first online gaming experience of any kind was playing Tachyon on a Pentium III PC in the late 90s. The first time I went online with a console was in 2003 with PSO on the Gamecube. From then until the servers went down, I hardly played anything else.

ActRaiser1 · Postby **ActRaiser1** » January 22nd, 2015, 4:10 pm

My earliest was the Dreamcast. I first tried out the 56k modem that came with it but never really played anything with it other than Chu Chu Land? until Phantasy Star Online came out. I bought the broadband adapter for it and played that quite a bit back in the day.

That was my start until Xbox Live came out for the Xbox in year 2 of the Xbox (I think). I played Crimson Skies, Mech Warrior, and Unreal quite a bit until Halo 2 launched. After that I played Halo 2 a ton online.

Prior to Xbox Live launching I did try faking out the LAN requirements for Halo on the Xbox but you needed a super fast ping else it played terrible.