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Netlink and servers

Daniel Eriksson - Mar 17, 2003

		Daniel Eriksson	Mar 17, 2003
		What if we use the Netlink to connect to a server? If we create a game that supports it, for example bomberman, it would be possible to play four or more players on the Saturn Netlink. Ill try to find some docs about the netlink, to see if it is possible. What do you think?

		Jaded God	Mar 17, 2003
		Yes I am highly interested in this! I posted a few days ago about the netlink. I would love to get this hooked up so we could all play online via servers in a game like saturn bomberman Or bomberman fight!

		slinga	Mar 17, 2003
		I've been dreaming about that for years. Anybody have any documentation for the netlink? I haven't seen any...

		antime	Mar 17, 2003
		As far as the hardware is concerned, it's a standard modem chipset used in many modems of the period. My belief is that the Netlink maps a couple of addresses to use as a "parallel port". If you want more info on the hardware, you'll have to ask Conexant, I haven't found anything on the web. You can get the part numbers from N00bs' FAQ, the important parts are the data pump and controller. For the Netlink-specific bits your best bet is probably to disassemble the browser executable.

		Dyne	Mar 17, 2003
		*remembers buying the netlink and all the netlink games years ago only to realize nobody around him had one* actually there were 2....only two other people in my city that had one and they sucked bad. for direct dial and at the time such a slow speed (28.8 wasnt it?) i never remember having any lag at all in any of the games. even though it supported so few players i still thought it was impressive.

		Daniel Eriksson	Mar 17, 2003
		I would like to create a simple FPS game, like Wolf 3d and make it playable on the netlink. The modem should be fast enough to support about 8 players if the game is relatively simple. I guess i learn to make any game at all first... I try to find some docs about the netlink...

		Daniel Eriksson	Mar 17, 2003
		Here is some links with info about the netlink : http://www.planetweb.com/netlink/... http://www.unixathome.org/adsl/docs/nzchello-faq.h... http://www.gue-tech.org/darkgrue/attic/seg...rnet/... http://www.gue-tech.org/cgi-bin/netlink/netlink-pw... http://www.jtap.ac.uk/projects/jtap-448.html... http://www.riehlthing.com/vgame/saturn/har...re/ne... http://members.rogers.com/sofronov/Web/Put...AT/Ne... http://www.shokushu.com/campus/sega.html... Seems to be some info atleast.

		antime	Mar 17, 2003
		None of those will help you with what you're planning, especially     http://www.unixathome.org/adsl/docs/nzchello-faq.h... which has nothing to do with the Sega Saturn.

		TakaIsSilly	Mar 17, 2003
		Maybe it could be worth wait for my results on the serial cable. You could then use one of those cables to connect a modem, and start from there. Luckly there are some (non-saturn related) controller boards based on SH-2 that can run patched versions of uCLinux, and that means a easy TCP/IP stack and PPP protocol.

		mal	Mar 17, 2003
		Originally posted by antime@Mar 18, 2003 @ 08:21 AM None of those will help you with what you're planning, especially     http://www.unixathome.org/adsl/docs/nzchello-faq.h... which has nothing to do with the Sega Saturn. Funny that there should be completely unrelated references to 'Saturn' and 'Netlink' though.

		antime	Mar 19, 2003
		I've toyed some with the Planetweb executable and noticed accesses to the following addresses: 0x25000000 word writes 0x25000100 word writes 0x25000300 word reads 0x25000380 word writes These addresses are in the A-bus dummy area, which is surprising. I'm also sure that the Netlink can produce A-bus interrupts, but I haven't tried to figure out the code yet.

		DBOY	Mar 19, 2003
		Why not homebrew an EthernetLink

		SAG26	May 14, 2003
		I too, am interested in this because I have a Net Link and I would like to actually use it and play some games with people. If someone could make a server where people could connect and play games instead of direct dial that would be awesome.

		antime	May 14, 2003
		A long time ago, Mysticales tried out some "modem emulator" software, but we couldn't get it working. The idea was that in the game you'd dial your PC which would be running software that could forward the connection over the internet to another PC running the same software which would be connected to another Netlink. Unfortunately all the free software we found didn't work, was outdated, unsupported etc. IIRC there are some commercial alternatives as well, but since it's fairly specialist niche software it cost serious amounts of money.