Taisen Netplay has reached its public beta, opening up a whole new avenue of online play for Dreamcast fans.
Taisen Netplay is a tunneling script that leverages the signal from the Dreamcast’s serial port to enable online multiplayer for select serial link compatible games — see the list below. This software features optional matchmaking, peer-to-peer connections, and basic NAT traversal.
Thanks goes out to eaudunord (lovingly known within the SHIRO! community as Sega RPG Fan or simply Joe, the latter of which he will be referred to as from here on) for his efforts.
“Finally figured out how to make Virtual On taisen link work online. Here’s a preview of me and @Xiden He was on wi-fi, but not too bad for wi-fi actually.” — Joe
Supported games:
- Aero Dancing F (JP)
- Aero Dancing I (JP)
- F355 Challenge (US/JP)
- Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram (US/JP) – region must match
- Maximum Speed (Atomiswave to Dreamcast conversion)
- Hell Gate (Beta)
Unsupported games:
- Sega Tetris (JP)
Extending the Reach of the Taisen Cable
Joe, the homebrew developer behind Saturn Netlink Tunnel software — which recently received a matchmaking update — began investigating the Dreamcast Taisen, or VS, Cable with the hopes of documenting its capabilities about a year ago.
“The biggest hurdle initially was just documenting the serial baud rates that the games use. They’re all different and some are non-standard. I don’t have a logic analyzer so it was pure trial and error.” — Joe
A framework for capturing and sending Dreamcast serial port communications was established in the fall last year, with public testing beginning in January, but compatibility with all retail titles with Taisen link capabilities was not yet achieved.
“The next biggest hurdle was Virtual On: finding where I could stall its finicky handshake long enough to get both sides of the connection synced.” — Joe
A breakthrough would come in August this year, when Joe returned to the project with refreshed eyes. A serendipitous moment followed: “[a] coding error on my part at one point actually gave me the key to putting it all together,” he said.
Joe’s work seemingly progressed rapidly at that point, as he was able to share videos demonstrating Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram Taisen Netplay gameplay in the SHIRO! Discord server on Aug. 20.
By mid-September Joe had ironed out the small kinks that remained in the tunnel script and web UI — detailed below — as well as organized hardware recommendations for those in the community who would want to try it for themselves — see below. Joe shifted the project into public Beta on Sept. 16 with five out of six serial link compatible titles functioning — Sega Tetris is currently unsupported but playable online via its restored server.
Taisen Netplay and standard Dreamcast online modes are not necessarily interchangeable experiences. “It’s important to be clear that this isn’t a replacement or re-implementation of any online mode a game might have,” he said.
Joe emphasized that this was effectively extending a serial link cable between Dreamcast consoles using the internet, which comes with a number of new features that were not possible online previously.
“The Japanese version of Virtual On had an online mode that has yet to be restored, so this is the only way to play online on real hardware. Maximum Speed never had an online mode, so again this is the only way to play. Lastly, F355 has an online mode but no real-time races. This offers real head-to-head racing.” — Joe
That is not to say that the traditional laws governing online play are not present in the Taisen Netplay tunneling method, i.e. ping.
“The only game I noticed that anything felt different from offline play is Virtual On. It’s latency sensitive, so as your ping goes up, the game slows down to compensate. With ping under 35ms, i.e. playing against someone reasonably close, you’ll get good game speed. I haven’t tested any of the games in a high ping scenario so I can’t exactly say how they’ll play.” — Joe
Setting Up Taisen Netplay
For those planning to use a computer for the Taisen Netplay tunnel, the software is self-explanatory. Download the tunnel from the GitHub and follow the installation instructions in the included readme.
For Dreampi users, Joe created an installer and optional Web UI at this GitHub to facilitate getting up and running.
To install:
- Place install.sh in a folder on your DreamPi
- Make it executable with the command sudo chmod +x install.sh
- Use the command ./install.sh to begin the installation.
The web UI can be reached at http://dreampi.local:1999.
Alternatively, a Windows application that both installs and manages the web UI for Taisen Netplay on Dreampi is available – link to Taisen Netplay Installer Github – thanks to SHIRO! Community member Farkus.
As for the hardware component of the project that enables Taisen Netplay, Joe said that it is “fairly easy” to source the pieces to assemble the needed hardware, at which point it is “a matter of plugging things into the right spot.” Thus, he has no plans to make an official product and will leave it as a DIY project.
As per the instructions provided in the Taisen Netplay GitHub readme, the easiest way to get up and running hardware-wise would be to acquire the following:
Assembly:
- Attach header row pins to the SD sniffer. Solderless press fit, or friction fit options are available if you can’t solder.
- Connect the appropriate wires from the USB-serial adapter to the corresponding pins using the provided chart as a guide.
- Insert the SD card sniffer fully into the SD card slot on the SD adapter.
- Insert the SD adapter into the Serial port on the Dreamcast console.
Joe said that a Coder’s Cable — including the prebuilt RetroOnyx USB Coder’s Cable — as well as some USB-UART Serial Adapters also could be used, though modding might be needed depending on the revision or brand. He also said that these methods are potentially more costly than the method detailed above.
Additionally, purchaseable versions of the build described above will be available soon, thanks again to Farkus.
The Dreamcast Taisen Cable was a Japanese exclusive piece of hardware released in December 1999. The Taisen Cable can connect a pair of Dreamcast consoles via their serial ports, enabling full screen or extended multiplayer depending on the title.
While five retail games featured Taisen compatibility, listed earlier in this story, only two of those retained said functionality in their Western releases: Cyber Troopers Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram and F355 Challenge, although the serial link features were locked behind cheat codes. Traces of Taisen functionality also can be found in the code of AeroWings 2 (the international version of Aero Dancing F), but these features are not otherwise accessible.
This story originally appeared on Sega Saturn SHIRO!