Efforts to come

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.
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Warp2063
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Post by Warp2063 »

I'm personally a fan of assembly. I studied assembly in one of my classes in college, and I'm studying PIC microcontroller assembly right now for my Saturn project.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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rush6432
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Post by rush6432 »

Well... im sure if you'd be willing to commit to somthing like this and you can program 68k or are very good with hardware/ interpreting things then im sure we could work together. however i cant just give these files to everyone as im sure the programmers wouldn;t appreciate it. it would have to be a close knit team of only a few that would have access to a genesis and xband modem and a few other things and some spare time either after work or on weekends.

Obviously it wont get done overnight and it will take time but im committed to getting atleast the modem to modem gaming working. the rest may not be doable (news, xmail, stats, tournaments) but the core modem to modem 2 player or more games should be doable from what i understand so far.
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Post by Warp2063 »

Modem-to-modem would be the easiest part to accomplish. Depending on how the Saturn project I'm working on turns out, I'm almost 100% sure it could be extended to emulate the other portions of the original Xband service, provided we could figure out exactly how they originally worked.

On a side note, knowing more about how the Genesis and SNES Xband modems communicated would probably help the Saturn project move along more quickly as well.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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Post by rush6432 »

Warp2063 wrote:Modem-to-modem would be the easiest part to accomplish. Depending on how the Saturn project I'm working on turns out, I'm almost 100% sure it could be extended to emulate the other portions of the original Xband service, provided we could figure out exactly how they originally worked.

On a side note, knowing more about how the Genesis and SNES Xband modems communicated would probably help the Saturn project move along more quickly as well.
Well, pm me and we'll see if we cant setup an IRC channel thats protected as well as possibly share some infos and such. Ranger, do you have any 68k asm experience??? im talking with a 3rd previous xband employee (former patch creator???) and he's taken an intrest somewhat it seems.

the patches are pretty complex and literally are entire programs. this is all genesis related xband stuff, nothing i have is snes but im sure it ports over no problem or applies the same... these patches are for the genesis version only as it calls for specific parts in the genesis rom images to patch or modify..
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Post by rush6432 »

hey guys, if anyone knows any sega rom hackers or programmers or people that are really good with hardware let me know. i need a team here so we can get this rolling. more info and source codes are rolling into my hands and ive only got limited resources. ive just re-aquired a modem for the genesis and im looking for more. they probably will end up modded into a dev system or used for testing though. so id need ot have it sold to me as id rather not hack up someones modem that they lent to me.
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Post by Xranger60 »

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with assembly code. However, I'm always willing to learn/help out however I can. This is real interesting stuff, though.
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Post by rush6432 »

Well so far ive got 2 guys helping me. warped and another. so far we've identified a few files and made a little sense out of a few things. Hardware has been purchased and is currently in the mail somewhere :) then the real fun will begin....

Im still waiting on the owner to the rights of xband source to get back to me right now. he's pretty busy but said he would get back to me in a bit.

We've figured out a method to get direct dialing of your opponent or waiting for your opponent to call but no coding has taken place yet. we're really waiting on the source to get to serious work.

As for the patching system, i believe we should be able to load all the patches on to the main rom chip and then call to the rom chip and copy the correct patch for which ever game is installed on top of the modem, into the sram so the modem can connect and jump into the patch and start the game.

moer updates will come as we make more progress....

btw if anyone has a genesis modem they would sell please contact me. im needing another for testing purposes. obviously id be buying as it would need to be modified to test our moded files as we go.

If anyone else can bring some programming experience to the table, pm me. the more people, the faster the project will go....
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Post by Xranger60 »

Wow Rush. This sounds like a pretty serious project, and there'd be a lot of people who'd love to have this all work out. Keep at it, keep us all updated, and best of luck. In the meantime whatever site resources you might want to use, whether it be hosting, storage, whatever, just let me know.
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neviksti
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Post by neviksti »

Wow, just WOW!

I sent that PM before reading the posts here. I had no idea you had this much stuff. Previously I had figured out quite a bit of the code in the ROM, and reverse engineered a bunch of stuff, but it looks like all that is moot now.

What exactly do you need help with? It sounds like you have everything now. The only piece I can provide that you probably need is a sequence of codes people can enter while the XBand is running, to modify memory ... this can allow people to get their XBand to dial your server for example. But you may have already come up with a different way to do this for all I know.


If there is something specific you need, let me know. If you don't know how to program modem stuff for windows, I can whip together a server if you figure out the higher protocal (I only figured out the base packet, and CRC function, along with part of the next layer up which involved ADSP like packets).

Let me know, and good luck.
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Post by rush6432 »

Been looking for you man!!!

Jump on board, i know you know a little about this and are probably as excited as i am about getting this up and running again.. although its the genesis version, im sure the snes code is around here also.

PM me please so we can talk. id like to get you in with the other 2 guys ive got helping. obviously we could all get this running alot faster with more people.

as for the code to dial the server. if you can get the stock rom hacked to dial another server, then by all means let me know. im sure we could create some sort of system again for the xband to talk to..... this would mean we could keep almost all the options instead of doing just the head to head gaming....
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Post by neviksti »

I'm not sure how similar everything is between the SNES and SEGA versions. Can you try the following?

Go to the options menu and then try these sequences:

up,right,down,left,up,up,left,right,left,right,down,L
That should bring up a memory viewer. If that works, we can try what I learned on the SNES to enabled editting of the memory as well.

up(2),down(3),right,left,right,left,down,L
This is a remote diagnostic screen. It puts the system in a state waiting for, essentially, the server to call it. This is another way to cause updates if we get it working.


I'd love to see what you guys have so far. The best place to mail stuff is probably neviksti at gmail.com
Do you run Windows XP and have a modem on your computer? If so, I already have the shell of a program for the base protocal. If you have the server source, hopefully I can figure out the upper level protocal and finish a rudimentary server that just gives the XBand a player number to call (hopefully the easiest instruction).
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Post by rush6432 »

ive dont have the genesis modem here just yet or my genesis. im waiting on them to show up in the mail which should be very soon. i do have windows xp and a modem on my laptop here. i can definatly try that out.

we dont have the server source but im trying to the get the xband OS/GUI source right now.
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Post by Warp2063 »

I'd love to see everything you've gotten for server-client communications. My idea on how to tackle this focuses more on that side of things.
I have my Saturns, I have some of my games, I have a RasPi. Gotta put all this stuff together!
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Post by neviksti »

rush6432 wrote:we dont have the server source but im trying to the get the xband OS/GUI source right now.
Wait, I'm confused or misunderstood something here. What files do you have? Just some patches? (I thought you had some server code for some reason.)

Can you give us the current state of things so I know where we are. For instance, you said:
We've figured out a method to get direct dialing of your opponent or waiting for your opponent to call but no coding has taken place yet.
Does this mean you already know how the communication works and I (or someone) just needs to code it up?


Since we don't have the server or OS code, the best we have at the moment regarding protocal is probably what I reverse engineered for the snes XBand. I realize the Genesis is most likely closer to your heart, but if we don't have server code I can probably move much much faster with the SNES stuff. I'd be willing to chip in $100 to help you get two SNES's + two SNES Xband modems if that will help move things in that direction. Just let me know where to paypal the money.

For those that know assembly language, I know where the server connect routine is and you can help me decode that ... but it may be useful to first understand the "menu" code of the operating system, as it will help us navigate the code easier. Also a bit-level understanding of ADSP headers and protocal will help TREMENDOUSLY in wading through some of the protocal code (I never found a documentation of such knowledge, even though it is a standard). The first request dives as the heart of the matter and requires someone with assembly language ability, but the second anyone can help with.
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Post by Xranger60 »

So Neviksti, I'd be interested in the second part. You say anyone can help with that. I don't have much knowledge when it comes to protocals, but when it comes to being given some direction to start in, perhaps I can be helpful?
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