rush6432

I put my reservation in for a skunkboard Gorf. sounds intresting, ill have to check it out when i get the skunkboard. ive been looking into playing with code on the jag again a little bit for fun. dont know if anything will ever come from it. Anyway. im really looking for a copy of BS classic... anyone happen to have one for sale maybe??? i've never even gotten to play this game. ive seen it in action but never played it myself. anyone out there got a copy they want to get rid of please msg me

Looking for ONE copy of battlesphere classic. I realize these are hard to come by but if anyone is out there that has Multiple copies and is willing to let one go PLEASE pm me. i originally had my name on the list to get this game when it came out but had to give up my spot when the time came as i was short on cash at the time... looking forward to hopfully being able to play this game for the first time.

I have a couple images of Arkanna. It looked pretty cool. I think I put up a video of it on youtube... lemme check... ah yeah, I did video of all I could figure out to do with the demo hehe. I have that Zer0 title screen image as well. Is there something else to it? All I see is the cool logo being manipulated, but you mention you can move things around on the screen? Also, any insight into what can currently be done with the available Arkanna demo? Is there anything I missed? It would be awesome if you found something else we could check out on one of your old hard drives, but I'm sure it will take time to search through stuff, hehe. Regarding the Skunkboard, you need to put your name on the request list: http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=137032 Welcome back! As for arkanna thats all that could really be done for the demo if i remember correctly. There might have been a little code at the main menu with a combo of pressing keys but i cant even remember anymore. as for Zer0 there was way more to it. it got pretty far and the buggy title screen was fixed. but i only released a demo of the title screen and then another of the title screen with options i believe and then it loaded into a very primative screen allowing you to move a small triangle sprite around on the screen and it had some collision detection stuff for borders as well as a scrolling background i believe. the later version (never released) was about 35-40 percent done which had some enemies and a nice layer background, some techno style music, it also had a transitioning point in the first level where it flipped to a top down view when you went into an asteriod field which took forever to code and make it a nice transition. was pretty fun. only had a 2 levels finished and a 3rd started, the 2nd wasn't totally finished but the first was complete. very crazy playing field with lots of on screen stuff. similar to native on the side scrolling part. had debris flying at the screen when things exploded, background was composed of multiple layers to simulate some depth to the game. the screen did get somewhat cluttered with stuff if alot of enemies were blown up on screen in a row.

LOL!! Looks like you have a new start in some senses. Me, always appreciated what you did for JagFest 2002 and the development of games. Sorry to hear about the sold Alpine, the games were looking cool, but then I find that when I go back to things I usually have much better ideas. Try getting a skunkboard (basically a modern day, much cheaper alpine) when they come available. Welcome back! Thanks, i got pretty far with both of those projects but... it didn't seem like it was worth finishing with all the bs flying around. im sure one or two people have copies of the Zero title screen with the basic game physics moving and the ability to move around an object on the screen. that might surface if anyone reads this probably. as for me having any copies, i MIGHT still have some stuff (very slim chance) but im sure if i did some digging on old hard-drives i might find somthing... Yah, i heard about the skunkboard. so im guessing its more or less a flash cartridge with a usb port in a sense that allows loading of programs to $802000 (cartridge if i remember) or $4000 (ram beggining) Anyway ill have to snag one of those when they become available for playing homebrew stuff and prototype games. Anyone know what protos have surfaces since 2002ish ??? im totally out of the game here... i thought i heard tiny toons surfaced as well as quite a few others.

god i believe it was around 2000-2001ish or so... its been a long while.

Well.... its been years since ive been in the jag scene.... a few of you may remember me as the guy that created the arkanna demo..... Obviously i was experimenting with programming back then and only a pitiful demo showing a few basic things was released. Sadly, that game grew quite a bit and was really nice but a demo of the totally revamped program was never released. the game was about 45-50 percent done. I also had game that was a mix of trevor mcfur and raiden that was very functional and pretty fun, but i stoped creating arkanna and the other game (Zer0) due to the drama and bs that was said about me by a few so i trashed it all and sold the dev kit stuff (alpine, flash cart, bjl, ect ect ect). Anyway enough back history and talk and bringing up old drama. I just stopped by the songbird site and bought a jag again with hyperforce and skyhammer I figure whynot support some jag vendors. Im looking to get back into it again...now only if i can get a copy of battlesphere.... As for creating games i dont think ill venture down that road again as i dont have the time with my career these days. BUT i do have an idea im acting on right now and testing that might make networked jaguar games VERY fun ill keep you guys updated if things pan out. its good to be back again.. - Jeff N.

Well I do still have these laying around on a shelf somewhere in my house... --Selgus Care to lend or sell them??? PM me and let me know..

the server side software is lost from what ive been told. no one has the source or programs anymore...... so mimicing the server would be hard as a bulletin board type system would need to be setup with multiple phone lines. obviously id have to charge for the server to keep it running and i dont think anyone would want to pay for it..... obviously charging for that its not somthing the original owners would want... im sure there are legal issues here. The idea ive got to get it working is feasable and shouldn't require a whole ton of re-coding. if the whole thing works out id assume there would be a release of a new rom image on a chip that could be installed. this is of-course if the original developers approve of this. Anyway..... i believe modifying the source code and re-compiling the rom image is the best way to go..... modifying for direct dialing of your opponent or waiting for your opponent to call is the best way.... so far ive got 4-5 game patches with source code.... im not sure what other patches are out there, but i believe more are probably floating around. Anyway, does anyone know where i can get another xband modem for the genesis... im going to need another for testing purposes with the patches and debugger.. looking to buy one or maybe a retro gaming site that would stock these????

under no cercumstances are we re-writing the code to do gif or any re-writing of networking for the server. I hate to say it but lots of features will have to be ommited (xband news, xmail, few other things) many people have a HUGE mis-conception as to how the service worked. it wasn't like dial up internet where you dial up and are connected permanently... basically you inserted a cartridge that was supported on xband into the top of the modem and then fired it up. once you had it running you selected you wanted to play a game and it would dial up to the server. the server would identify the game, download the patch to play it and then download the phone number of another player wanting to play that game as well that was in your area or nationwide (depending on the xband settings in the options menu) the modem the disconnected, and directly dialed the othe players number. the number was never ever shown so you never knew who them modem was dialing. alternatively (however the server decided) it would either kick you back and dial that opponents number or it would kick you back and set you to wait for a call. there was never any internet involved at all. basically a nice system to get two opponents linked up via modem without users actually interacting. also i think slight tweaking would allow direct dialing with the input of a phone number no problem. which eliminates the need for the server side. obviously you lose cool functions like news, xmail, tournament, rankings agains other players, but it retains the main purpose which is to play a certain game vs your buddy or opponent. I think this will be much more feasible than trying to re-create the server. As i said before i do have a few patches that the xband modem used to insert its own routines to transfer info over the phone lines for the games. so an idea of maybe making the onboard chip contain all the patches would be best.. assuming we can get past any memory hurdles if there are any major ones. obviously a bigger chip could be installed to take advantage of this idea.

It's been like 13 years since I programmed for the XBAND Modem, so I am probably a bit fuzzy on all the details currently. Basically there was the OS that was in flash on our dev cards, or in a masked ROM on the retail version, and the game patches that were downloaded and stored on the SRAM. The OS is what allowed the whole interface and connection to the Compuserve modem bank. It's what talked to the servers. The game patches worked with the modem's FRED chip (I believe that was its name) and allowed us to vector a small number of addresses to the SRAM on the modem. This allowed us to "patch" ROM cartridges to modify the supported games. Patches would include sending data back and forth between the peers (32-bits every vertical blank), adding determinism, statistics and synch'ing consoles together. We actually had two different types of synch methods: Synch-O-Tron, which allowed two games to run free, using the vertical blanks to speed slow down one of the consoles to keep them synched within a timing window. The other was to allow each vertical blank to do its thing, and then wait for the other machine to get to the same point, so they run in lock-step. During development, we could hook two modems together via a null-modem, to do peer-to-peer games. You may be able to do something along those lines. I do have to say the folks I worked with at Catapult on the XBAND Video Game Modem and Network, were the smartest people I ever had the pleasure of working with. They created such amazing hardware and software in such a short amount of time. --Selgus from what ive aquired i have the schematics to build a cable out of a production genesis xband modem which will have a db25 connector and was used for debugging as well as loading files to the flashrom which replaced the production rom on the hardware. However, i do not have any of the compiled programs to send files to the modem and such. i figured there are programs out there that allow serial port to serial port over TCP/IP connection theoretically the modem could recieve a patch and then do a peer to peer game over null modem cable which is connected to a pc running the serial connection over tcp/ip to another console. Its an idea.. im currently trying to re-create the "debug/flash" setup with the schematics i have and hopefully with the supply of more tools from a few previous employees hopefully. i just MIGHT be able to get somthing out of this. ive also got a few game patches (probably 4 or 5) not sure if they are the most current but im sure they work...

Well ill admit im not one to program a bunch of 68k but i do understand it and can do modifications here and there and such as well as hardware being a strength for me. what i need are some people that can program 68k fluently, have the knowledge of the genesis hardware and programming as well as debugging. also more hardware guys cant hurt.

Hmm, I worked at Catapult Entertainment too, what are you trying to do with the modem? Do some peer-to-peer hacking? The modem was only one half of the equation, as there was a large server-side architecture. --Selgus i agree that the modem is only half, but from what ive gathered direct dialing of an opponent with the patch for the specific game can be done. you lose the stats feature and the news and email and such but you get the core modem to modem game, which is what really matters. PM me and we can talk. It would be great if you would be willing to share some info.

Not sure if any of you even remember the xband.......but ive gotten in touch with a programmer that worked on the project and he has agreed to help and give out some files and info for the genesis version of the modem. Not sure if anyone is intrested in helping to get this work or to tinker with it and see if somthing can come of it but ive got the info and figured someone might want to help or work with it. pm me if intrested. if not, dis-reguard this message.