THE XBAND: SNES ONLINE

***Cosmonautical*** · 08-23-2010, 01:20 AM

Well, I was just reminiscing over the stranger artifacts available in Retro-gaming history, and it occurred to me that most people think online-gaming is a recent thing to happen for consoles.

This topic is here to inform you that, "NO, IT ISN'T!"

Ever heard of the X-band? Unless you're older or a retro-phile like I am, probably no. I was around back in THE DAY, though, so unlike the majority of the members here I have a first-hand knowledge of the world of old-oldschool Nintendo.

The X-band was a modem for the SNES. It made many popular pre-existing 2-player games into an online-compatible games, much in the same way that modern Emulators can.

It's wasn't just a dial-up-your-friend's-house setup, either, but a fully functional Service-Provider for your SNES (or Genesis/Mega-Drive). You could setup profiles and find opponents for games like Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, and plenty of other games that don't abbreviate to MK.

Here's some footage of the thing in action:

Click to view video.

It even had a built-in splash room to chat in, like the PC games that became popular:

Click to view video.

So, that's online functionality on a system that was released in the US in 1991. Pretty impressive, eh?

What SNES games would you guys be most interested in playing over Xband with friends?

Robotazy · 08-23-2010, 02:39 AM

KILLER INSTINCT

or King of the Monsters 2 >_>

Interesting find, btw. It's nice to know that Online gaming existed on consoles farther back than the Dreamcast. Though, the Dreamcast is still the first to officially do it.

I remember reading that the NES had a modem plug-in somewhere. Or that could've been the SNES. I don't really know.

***Cosmonautical*** · 08-23-2010, 02:55 AM

There was an add-on developed for the NES, but it was never released.

Teleplay Modem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There was also a modem for the Famicom, which was almost exclusively used for business purposes like reading stock prices and banking:

Nintendoâ€™s secret online past: The Famicom Modem // Siliconera

I REALLY HATE POKEMON! · 08-23-2010, 04:37 AM

If it were still supported then I would hook up my SNES and give it a whirl.

***Cosmonautical*** · 08-23-2010, 05:53 AM

^You and me both, bud.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo Tazy Ten

Interesting find, btw. It's nice to know that Online gaming existed on consoles farther back than the Dreamcast. Though, the Dreamcast is still the first to officially do it.

Actually, if you have a look at the photo of the box I linked, it's officially licensed by Nintendo. That's as official as it needs to be, IMO.

Robotazy · 08-23-2010, 09:01 AM

I suppose so. Though it apparantly involves the use of an entirely different company.

It's still impressive though, especially for back in the 90s when the only real way to play online with others was with Quake 2.

Probably wrong about that bit of info.

**Valigarmander** · 08-23-2010, 11:42 AM

It's funny, the other day I was looking up what Satellaview was, and was thinking, "An online multiplaying system from the 16-bit era? How pioneering."

***Cosmonautical*** · 08-24-2010, 08:16 AM

^ Interestingly, the Satellaview wasn't actually an online multiplayer system. It was actually a network built to operate through a satellite television system, and was more of a predecessor to modern digital distribution. You paid for the service, and got unlimited downloads while you had a subscription. The downloads could occur at set times only, like a TV program. Because of this manner of distributions, data uploads would've required the users to actually have the ability to broadcast signals to the parent satellite.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo Tazy Ten

I suppose so. Though it apparantly involves the use of an entirely different company.

It's still impressive though, especially for back in the 90s when the only real way to play online with others was with Quake 2.

Probably wrong about that bit of info.

While it's still an impressive feat for a limited system like the SNES, and it's amazing that it could patch unintended games to run through it, it certainly wasn't the first.

Your info is certainly off, but I can clear a lot of that up for you. The Dreamcast even launched in 1999, still being the 90's. The predecessor to Seganet was Heat.net, a network of servers Sega ran for online gaming on every PC game imaginable in the later 90's. The first true MMO game, Ultima Online, launched in 1997. Before it, Sierra launched the Realm Online in 96, which was considered a MUD at the time, although it blurred boundaries with MMO as it supported around 25000 simultaneous users. So yeah, there were a lot of online games before and after Quake II, which launched in 97.

The first Quake was the first over-IP online deathmatch game to make big waves. Before that, you could still use Doom/DoomII to actually directly dial another computer. That kind of gameplay was pretty common. Blizzard is well known for having pioneered standard online gaming in part with their Battle.net servers, which were first compatible with Diablo, which launched in 1996 (the same year as Quake).

The history goes wayyyy before that, but let's start at the first official Internet-based multiplayer game (rather than just network or BBC based).

The first Internet-based game was Island of Kesmai, which launched in 1984 on Compuserve. It was a Rogue-like dungeon crawler. Here's a screen:

It wasn't really the first MUD (multi-user-dungeon), but it was probably the first internet-based one. Its predecessors were all network-based. Its graphics, as you can see, were primarily symbolic characters, typical of Rogue-like games.

A good example of first proper graphical-based internet games is Air Warrior, by the same company as Island of Kesmai (simply called Kesmai). Released in 1986, it was a 3D flight-combat sim (yes, 3D in 1986) based on simple white-on-black wireframe graphics. It launched on the business-oriented internet service called GEnie. Can't fine any screens of the game, sadly, although there are plenty of images of its sequels floating around.

**Cravdraa** · 08-25-2010, 03:02 AM

Heh, saw a topic about X-Band and thought to myself "AI's probably the only other person on the board that knows about it..."

***Cosmonautical*** · 08-25-2010, 06:18 AM

^ There's actually a pretty good reason why I'm the Retro mod. HotD made me it. >_>

Metal Man · 08-25-2010, 02:33 PM

There's also the Sega Saturn Netlink, in all its outdated glory. Capable of going on IRC and poorly, slowly loading web pages, the bucket o'bolts modem could go as high as 24 kbps. Maybe 48, on a good day.

It was the predecessor to the Dreamcast's modem, but also probably one of the few systems you can still use today. There's even a small league of people who still use it for slow-mo dial up battles.

08-23-2010, 02:39 AM	#2
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	KILLER INSTINCT or King of the Monsters 2 >_> Interesting find, btw. It's nice to know that Online gaming existed on consoles farther back than the Dreamcast. Though, the Dreamcast is still the first to officially do it. I remember reading that the NES had a modem plug-in somewhere. Or that could've been the SNES. I don't really know.

08-23-2010, 02:55 AM	#3
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,156 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	There was an add-on developed for the NES, but it was never released. Teleplay Modem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia There was also a modem for the Famicom, which was almost exclusively used for business purposes like reading stock prices and banking: Nintendoâ€™s secret online past: The Famicom Modem // Siliconera

08-23-2010, 04:37 AM	#4
I REALLY HATE POKEMON! Goku lives on the Sun Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: California, U.S.A Gender: Posts: 12,717 Thanks: 1,334 Thanked 275 Times in 234 Posts Blog Entries: 1	If it were still supported then I would hook up my SNES and give it a whirl.

08-23-2010, 09:01 AM	#6
Robotazy PRESS ANY KEY TO PANIC! Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: A Tiny Shed Gender: Posts: 16,483 Thanks: 529 Thanked 1,254 Times in 897 Posts Blog Entries: 46	I suppose so. Though it apparantly involves the use of an entirely different company. It's still impressive though, especially for back in the 90s when the only real way to play online with others was with Quake 2. Probably wrong about that bit of info.

08-23-2010, 11:42 AM	#7
Valigarmander The Bee's Knees Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: The land of rain and trees (Oregon) Gender: Posts: 29,755 Thanks: 1,649 Thanked 5,701 Times in 2,581 Posts Blog Entries: 20	It's funny, the other day I was looking up what Satellaview was, and was thinking, "An online multiplaying system from the 16-bit era? How pioneering."

08-25-2010, 03:02 AM	#9
Cravdraa VGF RPG Mod Join Date: May 2001 Location: It's Round on the sides and high in the middle. Gender: Posts: 8,470 Thanks: 171 Thanked 662 Times in 404 Posts	Heh, saw a topic about X-Band and thought to myself "AI's probably the only other person on the board that knows about it..."

08-25-2010, 06:18 AM	#10
*Cosmonautical* Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: I rub my tilde all over your asterisk Gender: Posts: 28,100 Thanks: 2,156 Thanked 5,338 Times in 2,433 Posts	^ There's actually a pretty good reason why I'm the Retro mod. HotD made me it. >_>

08-25-2010, 02:33 PM	#11
Metal Man Fairy-Slaying Maniac Join Date: Apr 2000 Location: 1592 Miles Away From Here Gender: Posts: 18,062 Thanks: 148 Thanked 683 Times in 482 Posts	There's also the Sega Saturn Netlink, in all its outdated glory. Capable of going on IRC and poorly, slowly loading web pages, the bucket o'bolts modem could go as high as 24 kbps. Maybe 48, on a good day. It was the predecessor to the Dreamcast's modem, but also probably one of the few systems you can still use today. There's even a small league of people who still use it for slow-mo dial up battles.