solbadguy
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"The only thing that doesn't change is the thrill of the fight." ~Cody (SFIV)
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Post by solbadguy on Feb 23, 2016 20:39:57 GMT
I have always been really curious about the Saturn Netlink. Did anyone ever get to use it when it was in its prime? Or use it as their primary internet browser? I always remember as a kid talking to a guy who was leaving kmart and had a new Saturn and Netlink in his shopping kart. He said he was soo stoked for it and that he was going to use it to surf the web, lol. As a kid, this totally blew my mind and made me feel super envious for a long time.
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Post by xDerekRx on Feb 24, 2016 0:58:11 GMT
The Netlink was one of the coolest things about the Saturn. I knew about it in its prime of course but I knew it wasnt something Id bother my parents to pay for. It was so ahead of its time. The fact that you play Duke Nukem 3D Online on a game console blew my mind. I had Duke 3D but never played it over a Netlink until years later. That brings me to my next part. When I got back into Saturn in my late teens early 20's, I got back into it by joining the Saturn Netlink League forums in like 2005-2006. I was always intrigued by the Netlink and even more amazed that people still played it in 2006! The first games I tried to buy for my Saturn collection were all the Netlink titles which is why I was able to get Bomberman back in its $40 days. Some of my best Saturn memories so far were playing real Netlink matches in 2008. I got to play full matches of Bomberman, Duke 3D, Virtua On and Sega Rally.... so surreal. Even in 2008 because it uses analog phone, there was no lag. It played just as good as you play COD on an XBOX One. My youtube channel, which I plan to do more with, only has a couple Netlink gameplay videos from 8 years ago if you want to check it out: Bomberman www.youtube.com/watch?v=99BMVSgtX2sIts unfortunate alot of people on this board won't be able to chime in as it never made it to Europe (other than a small Finland test market). Such an amazing ahead of its time idea. |
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solbadguy
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"The only thing that doesn't change is the thrill of the fight." ~Cody (SFIV)
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Post by solbadguy on Feb 24, 2016 2:54:16 GMT
That is freakin' awesome man. I really wish I could have experienced it back in the day. The Dreamcast was my first online system (other than PC) and I had such great times playing games online. Doing all that back in like 1997 would have been mind blowing. I had no idea that the Netlink never made it to the PAL regions. That's pretty unfortunate. I wonder how long the Netlink was decently usable for surfing the net?
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Post by xDerekRx on Feb 24, 2016 7:53:22 GMT
That is freakin' awesome man. I really wish I could have experienced it back in the day. The Dreamcast was my first online system (other than PC) and I had such great times playing games online. Doing all that back in like 1997 would have been mind blowing. I had no idea that the Netlink never made it to the PAL regions. That's pretty unfortunate. I wonder how long the Netlink was decently usable for surfing the net? There was a guy on here that talked about his days surfing the web on the Netlink. He was part of a message board where just netlinkers would meet up. He only posted briefly. Forgot his name. But I imagine it was quite a thrill. I recommend that you buy one (netlink) just to mess with. You can access some things still if you have access to an analog phone line. If you do still have an old school phone line, you can actually play me sometime too  SOA and SOJ had a lot of turmoil and carelessness at the top but ideas like Netlink were great. If the system had survived any longer in the US the Netlink library would have been pretty cool. As it stands even the 5 games that did make it are impressive. |
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martiniii
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Post by martiniii on Feb 24, 2016 15:50:30 GMT
That is freakin' awesome man. I really wish I could have experienced it back in the day. The Dreamcast was my first online system (other than PC) and I had such great times playing games online. Doing all that back in like 1997 would have been mind blowing. For my fellow nitpicky factoid lovers out there, the Saturn NetLink was released in North America in early 1996. |
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antime
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Post by antime on Feb 24, 2016 22:17:59 GMT
I had no idea that the Netlink never made it to the PAL regions. It was released in Finland, and the web browser was even translated into Finnish ( some footage here). I think I went online with it once ca. 2003. The browser was too old to show most websites by that time, but the IRC client worked. |
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mick_aka
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Post by mick_aka on Feb 25, 2016 2:11:29 GMT
UK Netlink owner here, I acquired one around 2005 originally then picked up another in 2011, it works fine here in the UK for both direct-dial gaming and web browsing (a very small selection of very old websites and some older mobile site versions) as long as you still have an analogue phone line.
Sadly I've not had a matchup with anyone in the UK for some years and my last attempt to long-distance someone from NetlinkLeague in the US just didn't work so I keep it packed away now.
Also obviously if you're not in the US you'll need US NetLink titles and a console capable of running them, or a system that can run region patched copies.
The JP NetLink worked on an entirely different system, the JP NetLink modem and games are nothing but collectable curiosities now.
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Post by xDerekRx on Feb 25, 2016 7:23:53 GMT
That is freakin' awesome man. I really wish I could have experienced it back in the day. The Dreamcast was my first online system (other than PC) and I had such great times playing games online. Doing all that back in like 1997 would have been mind blowing. For my fellow nitpicky factoid lovers out there, the Saturn NetLink was released in North America in early 1996. Well I have to give him the 1997 since all the actual Games came out in 1997 or 1998 that I remember. I think had you bought it in 1996 you had to wait quite a while before any actual gaming could be done. |
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solbadguy
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"The only thing that doesn't change is the thrill of the fight." ~Cody (SFIV)
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Post by solbadguy on Mar 4, 2016 4:14:40 GMT
For my fellow nitpicky factoid lovers out there, the Saturn NetLink was released in North America in early 1996. Well I have to give him the 1997 since all the actual Games came out in 1997 or 1998 that I remember. I think had you bought it in 1996 you had to wait quite a while before any actual gaming could be done. Right you are xDerekRx, that was the dangle of my angle . When you played these games online back in the day, did you wait for other players in some sort of lobby usually? I wonder how often you would get to do eight player Bomberman Saturn online? |
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Post by xDerekRx on Mar 4, 2016 6:19:45 GMT
Well I have to give him the 1997 since all the actual Games came out in 1997 or 1998 that I remember. I think had you bought it in 1996 you had to wait quite a while before any actual gaming could be done. Right you are xDerekRx, that was the dangle of my angle . When you played these games online back in the day, did you wait for other players in some sort of lobby usually? I wonder how often you would get to do eight player Bomberman Saturn online? There was no 8 player bomberman. That was only for local play. You could only do 1v1 or 2v2 over netlink. It was the only Netlink game to allow more than 2 players which was still cool. You had to have 2 people on 1 Saturn and 2 people on the other Saturn. I tried to do this back in 2008 with my brother and I on my Saturn but didn't find the time to get someone else to match up with. Most people back in 1997 would meet up on a Netlink message board or IRC that popped up when you logged on. They meet and exchange info. Its pretty wild stuff. Truth is Dreamcast really got things going with Phantasy Star Online (which was awesome) along with the FPS games like Quake. But the Saturn was the first to have the online FPS with Duke. |
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martiniii
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Post by martiniii on Mar 4, 2016 15:13:01 GMT
For my fellow nitpicky factoid lovers out there, the Saturn NetLink was released in North America in early 1996. Well I have to give him the 1997 since all the actual Games came out in 1997 or 1998 that I remember. I think had you bought it in 1996 you had to wait quite a while before any actual gaming could be done. It wasn't meant as a correction, just an added factoid. |
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solbadguy
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Post by solbadguy on Mar 11, 2016 4:03:59 GMT
Thank you for it sir.
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dj898
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Post by dj898 on Apr 12, 2016 1:42:45 GMT
while browsing I came across an interesting article. www.segagagadomain.com/hardware-sat/modem.htm"A bit of pointless trivia for you. The Japanese Saturn modem was a sad 14kbps modem while the US one was 33kbps. Victor (JVC) also made a few prototype modems to sell alongside their V-Saturn however they pulled the plug on the idea probably after seeing how poorly Sega's modem was received." Now I know where my JVC Saturn modem came from. It must be one of few JVC prototypes they sold before they pulled the plug. JVC modem is more like American Netmodm with the no charge card slot unlike the Japanese Saturn Modem. |
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Post by xDerekRx on Apr 13, 2016 23:51:08 GMT
I know about the modem 14k didnt know about the JVC prototype. Still love/loved the idea of the Netlink even though it only made it so far. Glad I got to experience it.
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haightc
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Post by haightc on Apr 14, 2016 18:25:44 GMT
For awhile this was the only graphic web browser I used... The rest of time I just used my Apple IIgs for eveything else. I am pretty sure I got rid of my netlink modem along time ago. I think that last time I bother to have a land line was probably more than 10 years ago.
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