Xband suggestions

[segasaturndude]

when we get xband going for snes and genesis, we should get the fastest server for it, as i remember reading alot of games had alot of lag and they only made it better when more people were playing, if we get the fast server then we wont have that problem. and then i wanted to suggest that if and when this site has its own xband server, that we add a forum for that . im so excited that wer are close to bringing the servers back. once i get my own mobile home and analog phone service, and dial up, i can play aginst you guys on it. hope you like these suggestions.


Best regards

Taylor Latham

[Warp2063]

The lag would have been caused by poor-quality patches or bad phone connections. Since Catapult had nothing to do with the phone lines that people used to connect to each other, the only thing they could change were the patches.

Current internet connections are much faster than what the old XBAND modems could achieve, but lag still occurs on the internet. There's only so much we can do to compensate for that. We have to make changes to the way the service operated in the past, anyway, because an internet connection is different than the way that the XBANDs operated.

Another thing to consider: servers and bandwidth cost money. Right now, Krazystyle83 and Xranger60 are the ones shouldering those costs. Faster connections and servers cost more money. Who is paying, then, for the upgrades?

Ideally, the server itself shouldn't have to handle the majority of the load. Back in the day, the XBAND service certainly didn't handle the load of the games themselves - only sending patches, matching opponents, and sending mail or news.

[Xranger60]

The lag would have been caused by poor-quality patches or bad phone connections. Since Catapult had nothing to do with the phone lines that people used to connect to each other, the only thing they could change were the patches.

Current internet connections are much faster than what the old XBAND modems could achieve, but lag still occurs on the internet. There's only so much we can do to compensate for that. We have to make changes to the way the service operated in the past, anyway, because an internet connection is different than the way that the XBANDs operated.

Another thing to consider: servers and bandwidth cost money. Right now, Krazystyle83 and Xranger60 are the ones shouldering those costs. Faster connections and servers cost more money. Who is paying, then, for the upgrades?

Ideally, the server itself shouldn't have to handle the majority of the load. Back in the day, the XBAND service certainly didn't handle the load of the games themselves - only sending patches, matching opponents, and sending mail or news.

Spot on. Most of the internet traffic will be directly between the 2 clients, that is, computer to computer. Having it go through a server wouldn't serve a purpose when you're talking about live gameplay, 1 on 1. The server will really only be used for matchmaking.

[segasaturndude]

i wonder if catapult has the copyright for its name and software for sale? if so we should look into buying it. that would be the best bet of running xband services.

[Warp2063]

Catapult was sold off years ago. I don't know who owns the properties now.

[segasaturndude]

well im gonna do some research and figure it out, if i was able to aquire the copyright we as a site could use it to our advantage and Xband will rise again!!

[Warp2063]

I would recommend not doing anything rash. If you're worried about being able to afford a Genesis and an XBAND, I don't think you understand how much purchasing properties like this would cost. I can't even give you an accurate estimate, but I'd assume hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. On top of that, I don't know how much "official" attention we want to attract to this project. If we do infringe on a copyright or something, I don't want to have angry lawyers bearing down on us.

This is a worst case scenario. I'm just saying... be careful.

[segasaturndude]

sorry i probley shouldnt of brought up the idea of buying copyrights.
anyways, you guys must of talked to the people who own the xband rights for us to use the software and such.

[Xranger60]

The copyrights are, to my knowledge, shrouded in mystery. There would actually be little benefit to pursuing them. As Warp noted, the cost would be, at least, 10's of thousands of dollars, and there's really nothing that we're doing that we'd absolutely need them for. As long as we keep a low profile with Xband 2.0 and aren't abusing it, we should be fine.

[segasaturndude]

what do you mean by ambushing?

[Xranger60]

By abuse, I mean doing things like creating homebrew for other consoles which might draw too much attention, freely advertising to vast groups of people that we're using the "xband" brand name, etc. As long as we limit our use of the xband name to low profile things like the Xband 2.0 project and perhaps working on the original hardware, we should be fine.

[segasaturndude]

ok thats good to hear. so that means if we dont create anything new' in the xband name we wont have any trouble?

[Xranger60]

We'll be fine either way. Warp's just saying that creating a Wii channel might be drawing too much attention to something that's essentially outside the scope of what the original Xband was.

[segasaturndude]

i dont think an xband wii channel would be good anyways, everythings always better with the original stuff