The Sega Saturn NetLink League

Xranger60 wrote: I actually have another question for you guys: How did you hear about Xband? Was it through Blockbuster (I heard they were part of the original nationwide rollout)? Toys 'R Us? EGM?

EGM for sure! I loved that mag as a kid, and read every article and advertisement on Xband that graced the pages. Told all of my friends about it, and 3 of them wound up buying them. I bought mine at Toys 'R Us during the summer of '96 after hearing how much fun my best friend was having with his.

Simpler times back then! We could read everything there was to know simply by reading a Mag like EGM. Back then I subscribed to GamePro...I was enthralled with the issue that gave a walk-through of Resident Evil for Playstation... the game seemed so new and exciting!

Sad that EGM is gone.

Is there a list anywhere that says which games worked with Xband back then? I never owned a SNES back when Xband was out and I still don't have a genesis yet. I am curious to find out which games worked with Xband.

lazyhoboguy wrote:Is there a list anywhere that says which games worked with Xband back then? I never owned a SNES back when Xband was out and I still don't have a genesis yet. I am curious to find out which games worked with Xband.

All of the games were reverse engineered by Catapult except for WeaponLord, which was made for use on Xband.

Genesis:

* 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 II
* WeaponLord

SNES:

* 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
* The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (secret maze game)

Actually, you can add the '97 games to that list too, because I know that NHL '97 was supported shortly after it came out.

If I remember correctly... It might've just been a rumour. But wasn't one of the sonic games the genesis multiplayer maze?

Xranger60 wrote:Simpler times back then! We could read everything there was to know simply by reading a Mag like EGM. Back then I subscribed to GamePro...I was enthralled with the issue that gave a walk-through of Resident Evil for Playstation... the game seemed so new and exciting!

Sad that EGM is gone.

Hey man, EGM is back. I thumbed through an issue at Borders a few months ago, and it was a nice read. Contains a lot more in-depth articles now, and it has Sushi-X and Seanbaby back also.

GamePro was good. I had a subscription to Nintendo Power for a bit, and somehow wound up with a free Sega Visions subscription even though I never owned a Sega product.

I enjoyed those times back then!

I'll have to pick up EGM again. I heavily rely on IGN/Gamespot to get my gaming news fix, but I find that I'm much less distracted when I have a magazine in front of me.

GamePro used to be much cooler, with the writers all having pseudonyms and drawn icons to represent them. There was also a sort of wise-ass attitude that ran throughout, and was especially prevalent in the Letters section. Later on, Gamepro dropped the pseudonyms, icons, and the wise-ass attitude, and recently dropped reviews as well, so to me, it's seemed as though something's been missing for years. I still read it, though.

Really? EGM's actually back? I was mad when it stopped coming out and the distribution company decided that a suitable substitute would be a borderline pornographic magazine to fill out the rest of my paid subscription. I cancelled it and got the remainder of my money back.

Aaaaand, that was way off topic.

Besides Super Mario Kart, I'm curious about WeaponLord.

Warp2063 wrote:Besides Super Mario Kart, I'm curious about WeaponLord.

Me too. What advantages did the native support for Xband afford? Was there a higher level of integration?

Thanks for that list. Super Mario Kart, NBA JAM, Kirby's Avalanche , and Doom on SNES sound interesting to me, although I never have played these on SNES.

lazyhoboguy wrote:Thanks for that list. Super Mario Kart, NBA JAM, Kirby's Avalanche , and Doom on SNES sound interesting to me, although I never have played these on SNES.

I own Doom for the SNES and played 1 game via Xband. It's terrible.
You can't tell what is what due to the terrible graphics.

Yea I thought I had heard that the snes port was bad.

Xband411 wrote:

lazyhoboguy wrote:Thanks for that list. Super Mario Kart, NBA JAM, Kirby's Avalanche , and Doom on SNES sound interesting to me, although I never have played these on SNES.

I own Doom for the SNES and played 1 game via Xband. It's terrible.
You can't tell what is what due to the terrible graphics.

I was curious about Doom. I'm wondering how the Xband devs implemented two player functionality- was it done via manipulation of some sort of link cable mode? Or did the catapult devs effectively create a new mode?

I still find it interesting that the SNES was even capable of 2 player function with Doom (even though floors and ceilings were missing and monsters were always facing the player, and levels were cut out and shrunk ).

Xranger60 wrote:

Warp2063 wrote:Besides Super Mario Kart, I'm curious about WeaponLord.

Me too. What advantages did the native support for Xband afford? Was there a higher level of integration?

Honestly, I don't know. But I'm sure that if it was programmed with the XBAND in mind, it meant that Catapult probably didn't have to write any crazy patches for it. Probably made for a smoother experience, too.