The time for revival is now

[Krazystyle83]

I was kicking back recently, heavily thinking about ways to bring the XBAND back from the dead. I've realized the easiest solution is to make XBAND^2.

My Idea : Design a client which will emulate the xband interface. Users will be able to choose between the choice of the super nintendo music, sega music, or xband^2. There will be bandwith and xband news.

The gameplay will be handled through a sega, and super nintendo emulator that supports online play. Win/Loss will be tracked by watching hex memory addresses in games, or even patching the hex on the fly.

I would not be able to do this alone. I need people to help with getting me the music from the original xbands, I need help finding screenshots, videos, images. Me and my team of indie devs would take care of all the client and server side code, as well as the game patching.

If this sounds badass to anyone else, and wants to help in any way.
PLEASE CONTACT ME :

Aim : Krazystyle83
Yahoo : Krazystyle83
MSN : Krazystyle83@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Krazystyle

[Warp2063]

I don't know if I want to directly work on this project, as my goal is to make the original hardware usable again, but a collaboration would definitely help both of us out. It would really help me out if someone who was skilled with SNES or Genesis assembly could do some research on the XBAND ROM binaries. I know some things about ASM, but I don't know enough about those systems to do it as quickly as someone who specializes more in that area.

[Krazystyle83]

Warp, I have no problems helping with reverse engineering as much of the xband as possible. I also have my original sega genesis xband. I have no way to dump any of the roms

The biggest reason I want to rewrite xband is it will take a weeks worth of time compared to quite a bit of problems we're going to run into figuring out the current xbands protocol. I wish I knew now what I knew then, as it would've been much easier to compare the protocol to a live server. The other thing we can try to do is see if the xbands protocol is simple. Force a carrier to the modem, and see what it sends for connection, and possibly guess if it seems easy?

Way 2 : The quite a bit easier way. We use a Super Wildcard DX with an xband / game attached, use the built in debugger to dump memory right as a 'connection' is about to take place. Perhaps the ram contains the commands needed to send / recieve data?

Krazystyle

[Warp2063]

Yeah, the protocol is what I hope to have extracted from the ROMs.

I have the capability to dump some Genesis ROMS, but things become more complicated with the XBAND connected. I don't think a dump with the XBAND plugged in gave me an accurate picture of the XBAND's internal ROM because the XBAND wasn't currently "showing" its full self to the system while the dump was occurring...

[Krazystyle83]

After further examination... We definitely need the following :
A working Snes xband modem - Plugged into a phone line
A Wildcard with a parallel port
A PC Running super sleuth in remote debugging mode.


We need to dump W65, and the SRAM all the way past the phone dialing.

[Krazystyle83]

Warp, you can dump roms? You need to message me. As for the accurate picture. It can't be just a straight dump. We need to step by step it.

1. Stepping through without the modem plugged in.
2. Stepping through with the modem plugged in.

What is the number when the modem actually dials out? Is it still in existance? Dead, Busy, Person or carrier?

[Krazystyle83]

Another thought.... The Saturns xband still works because it supports direct dial??? Perhaps we should dump the Saturns protocol back and fourth - command by command and document it. It could be very similar to the XBANDS? Has this been done?

Also - I've noticed the game dr sf3 is for sale here http://www.robwebb1.plus.com/copiers/copiers.htm. I might be willing to pick one of these up.

I reallllly shouldn't be tackling a project like this right now with all the projects we've got going on. But i've got a pretty good feeling we can do this

[Warp2063]

Okay, I don't have much time at the moment before I walk out the door this morning, but I'll attempt to answer all these questions quickly.

Yes, I can dump many, but not all, Genesis ROMS. I have nothing for dumping or hex editing a SNES ROM, or even a SNES flash ROM. My Genesis dumper cable is homemade, though, using instructions and software I found online, and will only do a straight dump of the cartridge. Supposedly it'll let you dump SRAM too, but I've never gotten that to work. I can't dump the contents of RAM while the software is running.


As for the number that the XBAND dials, I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. However, when you dial it, a prerecorded voice tells you something like it's out of service. It's been a while since I had my XBAND try to dial in, but I believe you can hear the audio message over your TV speakers. Could be wrong on that, though.


The Saturn's NetLink was based on the XBAND technology, so the protocols are probably very similar, if not the same. My original project was to make the Saturn's NetLink playable over the internet, and then later when I learned of the XBAND, I decided that after I'd finished that, I would use what I'd learned form the NetLink to work on the XBAND problem. The protocols were part of this. I've heard that they're related to the old AppleTalk protocols.

I might be interested in picking up some of that stuff too. I own both a Super Nintendo and a Super Famicom.

[Krazystyle83]

Alright. Thats our first step.

We're going to rip the netlink protocol.

Unfortunately right now I don't have a phone line. However, I'm going to do some research to see if I can modem over magic jack. If it's possible, since you have a netlink. I should be able to log back and fourth the protocol over a series of us dialing back and forth without even owning a netlink.

[Warp2063]

Someone on this forum tried using a Magic Jack. I can't remember who. It didn't work with the NetLink. Almost no digital phone services work. In fact, I've only found one person so far who was an exception to that, and for some reason, it only worked if I hosted the game.

[Krazystyle83]

I used my cell phone to connect to a dial up bbs. It doesnt really matter since I wont actually be using a Netlink. The plan is to try to host, and try to join. See which side initiates the first packet. Disconnect, then I will add it to my program, and it's response. We will keep ping ponging till we have the protocol. It should in theory work.

Sorry, i've actually spent the entire night looking at this dump and getting sleep deprived and disgruntled. Hopefully tonight we can test the cell phone theory

[Warp2063]

I don't fully understand... but I think that could work. What's doing the recording of the communications? This BBS? I don't know very much about old dial-up BBSs....es. How do you write the plural of BBS without spelling out the whole thing? =P

My other concern is long-distance charges. I would assume that for this to work, both of us would have to take turns dialing.

[Krazystyle83]

No, I just tested using my cell phone as a modem with a dial up bbs that was still online. One from Tennesee.

The plan is i'm going to write a com program with 2 text boxes, and a command button. Just basically log the first packet I can read. And that will be our first packet... We switch for 2 seconds. I manually send that first packet, and log the response. we switch again. Eventually we have a text file with every command. I can then write a socket server for the Xband in about 15 - 20 minutes. We can see if the Genesis or Snes modems responds to the same commands. Either way we're going to finally be able to archive at least one of the xband protocols.

[Krazystyle83]

Do you have an instant messenger?

[Selvis52]

I'm glad people are still trying to bring Xband back. I'll be interested in how this all works out.