The end of an era

[liveinabin]

This will touch the Dreamcast faithfull.

 

Tonight, at one minute to midnight, the very last server for Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast closes down.

To anyone who played, to everyone I may have met down on Ragol, wasn't it one hell of a ride?

[+kisrael]

Heh, never played it but it's still kinda sad...how much use was it getting?

[NE146]

Yeah but the good news is that BORDER DOWN just got released and I hear it's 100% kick ass!

 

Supposedly it's even better than Ikaruga. I'll have to check it out later for sure.. Dreamcast woohooo!

[Atariman]

shouldn't there be a way to obtain the server information for the DC so that someone could run their own server? I bet someone would run one if Sega would release the info. I'm no pro when it comes to this kind of stuff, but wouldn't this work?

[2600Lives]

Honestly, I never played it much online anyway. I hated the fact that you had to pay to play ver .2, and the cheaters and sharkers made the game HORRIBLE. I got my level 100 (ver 1 character) ranger totaly ganked by some idiot one night. Lost my best weapon and it jacked up the memory card save. Never played it online after that again. And I still say screw Sega. I will never buy another product made by them as long as I live.

 

On a side note, anybody know if the Unreal and Quake 3 servers are still up? I used to get crazy go nuts with some Unreal, lemme tell ya!

[liveinabin]

Well, yeah - the cheaters did ruin it - but you just had to be more careful who you played with (which oddly added to the excitement).

I remember my first game online, it was 1 day before UK release (so no cheaters at all yet) and I met these two guys - both Android rangers, who took me through level one (and the awesome dragon) and gave me RICHES. A couple of great weapons (including that really rare sword - I forget what it was called, I had the 1975 version - the good one) and a bunch of money. Given the brand new status of the game they can only have been from Sega. Nice way to welcome early adopters I thought.

 

So, in short, yeah - it did get ruined by the masses (what doesn't?) but, for that brief time, it was more than a game - a beautiful mass conceptual hallucination that enchanted many. My first 5 days on PSO were the best in my whole life of gaming. I'll miss it.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I too was playing PSO almost nightly last year. It wasn't until I had to move in January that I stopped playing it. I picked up the keyboard and everything for this game. And the highest I ever got to with my guy online was like lvl 40 something. I am several of my buddies would always meet in the same ship in the same place each night and just go for the whole game.

 

I will miss those days, and I have version 1 so I didn't have to pay to play. True ver 2 had some more stuff but it never had enough to make me really want to fork over the extra dough and pay each month.

 

It was a cool game, and the first MMPORG type game I have every really played. None since have really captured me as much. It is a sad day, but at least I can still build my guy up someday on the single player game.

 

Perhaps in the future someone will find the means to create and put a DC PSO server online. Heck the DC I did alot of gaming with, Quake 3, Unreal, and even Starlancer were all very good online. My modem is shot now, and my dial up account no longer valid. Perhaps some day, I might find the means to bring it all back and do it again.

 

*sniff*....

[chrisbid]

i had PSO addiction for a good four months after it first came out. what a game. sure the cheaters ruined it later, but im looking forward to upcoming Phantasy Star titles.

[SteveW]

I got my character to level 96. I never went online with it, either. Going online would mean playing with other people, which clashes with my core belief that all other people truly, deeply suck. (I've worked in retail a long, long time. Does it show?) I bought PSO for the GC when it came out, but didn't have the energy to build my new character up to the same level. Are there a lot of cheaters on the GC version? Can cheaters on the Xbox version screw with me on my GC? I just don't know. I've never looked into playing PSO online before, so I don't know the pros and cons.

[Nintendo Penguin]

I never played it on my Dreamcast.... but it is kinda sad.

[Atariman]

shouldn't there be a way to obtain the server information for the DC so that someone could run their own server?  I bet someone would run one if Sega would release the info.  I'm no pro when it comes to this kind of stuff, but wouldn't this work?

 

nah. I'm sure it would never work.

 

Thanks Atariman!

No problem, Atariman.

[liveinabin]

I got my character to level 96. I never went online with it, either. Going online would mean playing with other people, which clashes with my core belief that all other people truly, deeply suck. (I've worked in retail a long, long time. Does it show?) I bought PSO for the GC when it came out, but didn't have the energy to build my new character up to the same level. Are there a lot of cheaters on the GC version? Can cheaters on the Xbox version screw with me on my GC? I just don't know. I've never looked into playing PSO online before, so I don't know the pros and cons.

 

While I agree, people do generally suck (have worked in retail myself), the core structure of PSO does bring out the best in a lot of people, ie. the whole idea is co-operative play. The only way you can actually harm anyone is to use Gameshark codes (and then there were always hundreds of good people ready to report them to Sega).

PSO offline is a lonely and boring game, is it not? I mean, it's just Gauntlet in 3D.

[Clock]

I got my character to level 96. I never went online with it, either. Going online would mean playing with other people, which clashes with my core belief that all other people truly, deeply suck. (I've worked in retail a long, long time. Does it show?) I bought PSO for the GC when it came out, but didn't have the energy to build my new character up to the same level. Are there a lot of cheaters on the GC version? Can cheaters on the Xbox version screw with me on my GC? I just don't know. I've never looked into playing PSO online before, so I don't know the pros and cons.

 

There are no cheaters on Xbox Live - It can't happen (well not yet at least - and hopefully never).

[PuddWakkr]

There are no cheaters on Xbox Live - It can't happen (well not yet at least - and hopefully never).

 

Ohh yes there are. Not player killers but there are programs you can get that let you pick and modify any weapon in the game. I don't own the game ( don't care for monthly fees per game ) but I know of the programs. It uses your game save so it doesn't touch the actual program, allowing you to still log into live.

[liveinabin]

I never really had much of a problem with weapon modding. Any 'straight' player would have to basically dedicate their entire lives to searching the upper levels just to find a couple of half decent weapons. For anyone who actually had other things to do (occasionally) it was nice to be given a Spread Needle by a friend, knowing full well that it was modded. Sonic Team need to be a bit more liberal with the goodies next time.

As long as PKing stays out of the Xbox version, I might be tempted to have a look sometime:)

[Raijin Z]

shouldn't there be a way to obtain the server information for the DC so that someone could run their own server?  I bet someone would run one if Sega would release the info.  I'm no pro when it comes to this kind of stuff, but wouldn't this work?

 

nah. I'm sure it would never work.

 

Thanks Atariman!

No problem, Atariman.

 

You'd be surprised what a little initiative can do. Warp Pipe Project isn't even the most advanced network-emu-simu project.

[Godzilla]

That is very sad truly an end of an era. I really hope that some creative types come up with a way to keep all the online dc games running... that would be so awesome. and no monthly fees!

[JankenTheGreat]

It truly is the end of an era, but it wasn't one hell of a ride...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...It was two hells.

 

I'll miss it dearly.....

[Brad2600]

It does piss me off to think that there were many people who pissed on the Dreamcast in favor of a PS1 or N64 in those days.

 

Hell, I had a Dreamcast for several months but I was a very stupid man to have sold it off. I can get another one for about 20-30 bucks now and I do intend to pursue it sometime.

 

As for PSO, it's a sad thing to hear about. I've heard a lot of good things about the Dreamcast online ability and it was light years ahead of the next-gen consoles. It IS a next gen system in my view.

[2600Lives]

For well over a year my Dreamcast was my ONLY link to the internet. The web browser included in the PSO discs was actually quite good and allowed me to do a lot of fun stuff. And don't get me started on how fun PSO was man, I mean, WOW. Me and my roommate each made a character, one an android ranger and the other an android hunter and we named them ABC Bot Ver. 01 and ABC Bot Ver. 02. We talked to each other with little "bzzzt" and "Crrrrkkk" in our text, so it was like a robot's voice box crackling. Hehe, that was SO damn fun when we were playing with strangers who pretty much didn't know what to make of us. Man, now I actually wanna go back and play again. I guess I am gonna have to spring for the GC version after all. At least it has the split screen so we can play without having to link to the internet if we don't wanna.

[liveinabin]

I hear the split screen mode on GC is pretty bad. The graphics really nosedive:(