any luck with the official xband modems?

Former Xbanders on SNES or Genesis can get in touch with each other here. Also for people who wish to help with the Xband revival project.
segasaturndude
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by segasaturndude »

yes but if we cannot accomplish this, than we might be able to make an entirely new modem based off of Xband's
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Warp2063 »

Rogue wrote:Well, they are most sports games.

The project here is to play in the original hardware?
That was one project. The XBAND 2.0 project took it in a different, emulation-based direction.
segasaturndude wrote:yes but if we cannot accomplish this, than we might be able to make an entirely new modem based off of Xband's
No. Building new hardware that complex is out of the question. To do its work, each XBAND has its own custom processor and operating system. It's not some magic thing where you string a couple wires together and write a few lines of code.
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by segasaturndude »

how hard would it be to build new server code?
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Warp2063 »

segasaturndude wrote:how hard would it be to build new server code?
Very. We don't know what commands the XBAND would send and we don't know what commands the server would send. We don't know what the XBAND expects to receive in response to its commands, and we don't know what the server expects to receive in response to its commands.

So really, we have next-to-nothing to go on. You can't write a server program with no guidelines and then expect it to work with something that already has a detailed protocol worked out.

We know that the FRED chip in every XBAND swapped out game code with patches and OS code on the fly. However, we don't know how it did any of this. We have no documentation on the FRED itself, so we don't know how to control it or how it orchestrated all of the functions of the XBAND and the game console.

There's a big gap between knowing that something can work and knowing how to make it work. A gap that currently is filled only with questions... no answers.
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by segasaturndude »

as of latly i've become more interested in creating software for the Sega Genesis CD 32X which utilizes both the cd add-on and the 32X. the 32X addon provides 2 Hitachi SH2 processors at 23mhz providing 40MIPS
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Warp2063 »

Good luck. It's basically like programming for a less-powerful Saturn.
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by LuigiBlood »

I'm quite interested messing with the SNES XBAND... Though currently i got the BS-X to go back online via an emulator fork i have made. I don't mind having the source code to mess with and tame the beast like i did with BS-X (that was without any source codes though)...
I can change bsnes' source code and make it support XBAND like i did with BS-X.

Yes, i'm the one in charge of the BS-X Project. XBAND is not scary for me, especially with source codes and stuff like that.
Chemowski
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Chemowski »

No way to recode the whole thing. Running modded xband2 and games on something like this: http://www.retrousb.com/product_info.php?products_id=84 and use a old original xband cartridge to connect?
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by LuigiBlood »

I actually see a way to get XBAND working again without hacks, but it won't use the phone line.
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Warp2063 »

LuigiBlood wrote:I actually see a way to get XBAND working again without hacks, but it won't use the phone line.
You're going to have to hack something to make it work - whether it's the original game code via patching (either full ROM patches or live software patches), the XBAND hardware through hardware or software modification, or the system hardware.

I'm also counting building any type of new hardware - including serial cables - as hardware hacking.
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LuigiBlood
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by LuigiBlood »

Well, the idea would be this (i don't know much about XBAND, so it's like a theory):

XBAND --- Redirection --- (Hub) --- Modem/Router/Phone Line...

Of course the Redirection could either be a piece of random hardware, or a PC.

Again, it's a theory, but i don't see why it wouldn't work (of course behind this we need a server but that's another problem that i can probably solve)

Just for confirmation: XBAND uses RJ-45 cables, right? (I don't have any XBAND, but i plan on doing stuff with it with an emulator, adding support for XBAND at some point)
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by Warp2063 »

An XBAND is a special cartridge with a connector for a game cartridge on top. It contains a dial-up modem (using an RJ-11 connecter), battery-backed SRAM for user profile information and game patches, a custom ROM, and a custom FRED chip which handles on-the-fly interception and swapping of game data with patch data, XBAND OS interrupt calls, and controls the modem. It also has a card slot for reading XBAND prepaid time cards, which the FRED would also probably interface with.
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LuigiBlood
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by LuigiBlood »

Image
And it works (even if i only based my work on neviksti's Modem Check "bypass" via registers having certain values):
Image

I didn't yet began debugging yet (waiting for something), but it works.
segasaturndude
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by segasaturndude »

I have faith in this project of getting the original hardware running
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rush6432
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Re: any luck with the official xband modems?

Post by rush6432 »

Ill first start off by saying, im not here to start drama but this needs to be posted and those who have these files need to be aware of this. The information/source code for xband was not to be shared widely and seems it has. As far as i can say. If the developers get word of the source released beyond those i initially trusted and it becomes a widespread thing, I will point the finger at the few i gave the source to which includes the following below....

TommyD: (Part of the new xband revival)
Warp2063
Neviksti
LagunaCloud (Part of the new xband revival)

Sorry but i will not be held responsible for your actions of widely distributing this information that was gathered when the information was originally supposed to be kept to yourself.

I do have log files/emails of conversations when i decided to hand these files over to the few that did get them with timestamps with you consenting to not distribute it widely. Just be aware that if these files get out further and more publically available, and if the original developers decide to contact myself i will provide them with the log files and conversation logs and send them your way.

Sorry to be "debbie downer" but im not hanging myself for those that wish to have this info.

As for the modems, there is not much of a chance of the real hardware coming back without 100 percent source to the server side unfortunatly OR a custom server code written. Unless someone hacks the bios within the modem itself and create something crafty its not likely to happen sadly. Not saying it cannot be done but it would require more time put into it than anyone would like to dump into it most likely.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE..... :D

As for genesis modem games there is a way to do this with the mega modem and ill update the faq here when im done with it along with japanese to english translation patches for the rom files which you can find on your own around the internet most likely. This includes translation patches for about 4 games to make them playable in english and they are compatible with the mega modem hardware that was released for the sega genesis.
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