Japanese Netlink/Saturn

[xDerekRx]

After doing some poking around I realized Japan got a bunch more netlink games than us.

Is there anyway to play Netlink Japan over here? Would it be possible if 2 of us had a Japan Saturn and Japan Netlink?

The only thing I see as a larger downfall would be the 14.4 modem that the Jap Netlink used.

Heres the list of games supported in Japan I copied from GameFaq:
Daytona CCE***
DecAthlete ****
Dragon's Dream ****
Habitat II ****
PAD NIFTY ****
PAD NIFTY 1.1 & Habitat II ****
Puzzle Bubble 3 (confrimed by DashK)
Puyo Puyo Sun (confirmed by DashK)
Saturn Bomberman (confirmed by DashK)
Sega Rally Champ. Plus? (I don't know the exact name =/)***
SEGA WORLDWIDE SOCCER '98 ****
SEGASATURN INTERNET 2 ****
SEGASATURN INTERNET Vol.1 ****
Shadows of the Tusk (unconfirmed/unknown)
VIRTUA FIGHTER REMIX ****
Virtua On: Cyber Troopers (unconfirmed/unknown)
Wachenroder (unconfirmed/unknown)



Alot of the games ive never heard of but Virtua fighter and Soccer are two that Id see as interesting to play.

[Warp2063]

I've been wondering if it would be possible as well. Here's the thing that makes me very unsure:
The Japanese Saturn NetLink had a payment card slot, much like the US XBAND modems. This makes me suspect that they may have had to pay some sort of fee to connect to another player, just like the XBAND over here. If this is the case, then there's a decent chance that you can't just direct-dial another player, and two of us wouldn't be able to connect for free like we can with the US games.

I haven't found any information to confirm my suspicions yet, but then again, I haven't looked very hard.

[xDerekRx]

Ill try comb that FAQ you posted for DirectLink.

Would be something else to try. Considering the game library is so much bigger. And some interesting games. The 14.4 modem is the thing I worry about the most. Probably so slow because Japan is such a small country.

[Warp2063]

The 14.4 modem is the thing I worry about the most. Probably so slow because Japan is such a small country.

The gameplay would be tailored for the modem. And so slow because it came out earlier in Japan than in the US, and therefore was based on earlier technologies. The US XBANDs are 14.4 modems as well, I believe.

[Xranger60]

The xbands did remarkably well for having such slow maximum speeds. Lag was usually not a concern or something palpable enough to be a concern.

[grolt]

As I understand it, the Japanese NetLink no longer functions because of the card slot, but Wikipedia seems to suggest otherwise. I was planning on getting Virtua Fighter for the prospect of actually playing a fighter online, but I remember my hopes were dashed on another forum. The SegaNet server the Japanese used apparently wasn't centralized, so it seems that with some modification it could be made to work here, I don't know.

SegaNet Wikipedia entry

[Warp2063]

Well, it's something I'm willing to look into eventually... but right now I'm doing enough work with the XBANDs and the NetLink. Once those work, it probably won't be much of a stretch to get the SegaNet NetLink working too.

[Xband411]

The xbands did remarkably well for having such slow maximum speeds. Lag was usually not a concern or something palpable enough to be a concern.

I was reading an old Popular Science article from 1994, and it briefly covered how the guys at Catapult reduced the lag:

"Games had to remain synchronized within a fraction of a second or they wouldn't work. The Xband system had to compensate not only for game machines that operate at slightly different speeds, but also for software that varies with each new version, as well as modems that are ordinarily optimized for maximum volume rather than the precise timing of data transfer.

Xband's makers devised a series of proprietary technologies to defeat these problems. They produced a custom modem that reduces transmitting delays to 1/30 of a second, compared with the usual 1/5 second delay of regular modems. They also wrote software that locks the game systems together by synchronizing their speed controlling-crystals, which auto-compensates for different versions of the same game"

[xDerekRx]

I found the concrete answer to Jap Netlinks no longer working

As you may have noticed in the picture there is a card slot on the modem - this was used for Xband supported games. Cards would be purchased which allowed the player so many connections to play Xband games. Xband unfortuntly shutdown in April 1997 due to a variety of reasons - including competition from SegaNet.

Unlike their Netlink cousins Japanese SegaNet games require a central server to connect to to play. This service was not free either and had a monthly fee. Unfortunately, since the SegaNet servers have long since gone offline these games can no longer be played online today.