PSO Ver.2 Dreamcast Image Released!

Congratulations.
The Dreamcast has one of the best greatGames/junkGames ratios at all.

What genres are you looking for?
Do you want to hunt down great collector's items on eBay or do you want to get good arcade games for about 3$? There's both.


I don't know well about FPSs...
Quake III and Unreal Tournament should please you I guess.
Personally I'd recommend you to have a look at Toy Commander or Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense if you don't mind changing the mutants and monsters for vehicles.

I'm a known cheapskate (see purchase of Dreamcast solely because it was a good deal), so good games for that cheap are winners.

I'm generally looking for good titles under $30. If it's incredible and less than $50, that's pretty ok. But, I'll be pretty reluctant to buy anything over $50.

Basically, any genres besides Sports works for me. I can't stand sports games, with the sole exception of if they have a twist. >_>

Skies of Arcadia is of course epuc.

I've heard Skies of Arcadia is amazing, but I've also heard it's not for everyone. I'll see if I can borrow the GCN version from a friend and see if I like it. Speaking of which, would it be better to buy the GC version or the DC version?

Also, I'm known for being frugal. Really, any good game that's not directly a sport game (ie. Mario Golf>Tiger Woods Golf) under $30 is good for me. If you really feel that a game under $50 is worth my time, tell me. But, anything above $50 has to be a 100% classic with absolutely no alternatives.

Also, Ives...


;-;

I've been busy seeding Bill Nye the Science Guy which I still only have a 53% ratio on, and right now someone else has to use the bandwidth so I'm not running BT at all. ;_;

Whether you play the original or a port is a matter of taste. Some people like upgrades and tweaks, others prefer the original. I finally bought a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 yesterday.

That's funny, I was just thinking of buying SA2. Something about the bigger chao gardens and VMU intrigued me.

Got my Dreamcast today!

Didn't get my torrent finished! Should only be another week or so! >_>; Really, though, the torrent would just be to hold me over with something to do until my other games arrive. That brings up a question of mine though; would I be able to have a US v1 character and a EU v2 character separately? Or a US v1 and a US v2 character separately (a lot less likely). Or, a US v2 and a EU v2 character separately?

By the way, Bill Nye was the only science video ever worth watching in school. =/ It's the truth. I'll get the torrent later, you learn about rocks and pressure and stuff now. =D

I guess I'll just have to play these sports games until the other games arrive though (currently on list are Sonic Adventure, PSO US v1, and Soul Calibur, along with Sonic Adventure 2 if I can afford it). The racing game which came with it (Speed Devils or something like that) is acting weird. I get to the start screen, hit start, it goes to a loading screen, and goes back to the "Hit Start" screen. All of my other games work fine. I' just have to look further into it. =/

If you want to play EUv2 online you must either use EUv1 or no Ver.1 at all.

...Unless the whole "make up a serial" thing works on USv1 and EUv1, then it might not matter. Ver.2 might be the only one with protection for that, but I'm not sure.

Mind explaining a bit more indepth?

EDIT:

The torrent decided I should wait another week or two before I can play it.

Some people say you can use serials like 7777777777 in Ver.1. If this is the case, then Ver.1 has no protection and you could use USv1 and EUv2. If it's not true and Ver.1 has protection like Ver.2 does, you can't do it. In Ver.2, there's an algorithm used to generate serials. A USv2 serial and an EUv2 serial look the same, but PSO knows the difference. You can't use a USv2 serial in EUv2 or vice versa. Since PSO records your serials to the internal flash memory, you are required to re-enter serials when you create a new character and try to go online the first time. If the serial you enter and the serial in the flash don't match, PSO says BZZZZZ and deletes the serial you tried to enter. If the serial you enter in Ver.2 is invalid, the same thing happens. In addition, if you have used Ver.1, Ver.2 requires that you re-input your Ver.1 serial when taking a new Ver.2 character online. Furthermore, serials are also saved in your character save file, and if the serial in the flash and the serial in the save don't match, PSO says your character is corrupt and refuses to load it. Obviously, DC has a lot more protection on characters than GC does. This protection was most likely removed to make it easy to implement offline split screen play, but in actuality Sega would have only had to disable the check when selecting that mode...

Also, the Dreamcast won't let you save too many serials to the flash. If you do, your flash can get fucked up and your characters will get their serials messed up and register as corrupt. I lost my DC version of Ives at ~ lv 130 due to trying to use EUv2 and then loading him.

The short form is save yourself trouble and don't mix regions. Use EUv1 and EUv2 and the appropriate serials, or don't use Ver.1 at all. For those of us who used USv1 and USv2 before the HL server went down, we can still load our USv2 characters with EUv2 since they already went online once and the serial in the flash and the save file match. However, we can no longer create new characters and go online with them since EUv2 won't let us enter our USv2 serials, and the Dreamcast won't let us enter our EUv2 serials since they don't match the ones already in the flash. (...Or if the Dreamcast will let us enter them, it will probably hose the flash and who knows what'll happen.)

Be that enough depth for j00?

Yes. I actually love it when people go indepth, it always helps me understand why things work. It always gives me a little bit of enjoyment when I can figure out how something works and why. /geek

So, long story short, I decided to not take my risks and buy a PAL PSO v1 which I coincidentally (and luckily) found for less than fifteen dollars, shipping and all. ^-^

Does this mean I'll be able to create new characters when I download PSO v2 and use it, because I'm starting with a EU PSO v1? Also, is Dreamcast region free, or will I have to buy/download a codebreaker too? I'd buy one if I need one, but I just spent all of my money on new games for the Dreamcast. >_<;

Also, torrent sped up. <3 If all goes well and my brother lets me leave his computer on overnight just this once, I may have a working copy of PSO v2 by tomorrow morning. I'm sure it'll stop 15 MiB from the end and go back to being 5 days again though. >_>

Another question though, because I know you love to answer them.
What exactly was the Hunters License server, and what purpose did it serve?

Finally, sorry to hear about your character. 130 levels, too. >_<

furrypaws wrote:Does this mean I'll be able to create new characters when I download PSO v2 and use it, because I'm starting with a EU PSO v1?

Yes, you should be able to go online with both Ver.1 and Ver.2 as long as you have an EUv1 serial coming with the game.

furrypaws wrote:Also, is Dreamcast region free, or will I have to buy/download a codebreaker too? I'd buy one if I need one, but I just spent all of my money on new games for the Dreamcast. >_<;

You will need a bootdisc to play EUv1. GD-ROM games are region protected, so you either have to change your Dreamcast's region, use a bootdisc, or buy a modchip. CD-R games such as my EUv2 are modified to be region free, so they boot on any Dreamcast.

furrypaws wrote:Another question though, because I know you love to answer them.
What exactly was the Hunters License server, and what purpose did it serve?

Sega charged a monthly fee for PSO which users would pay by entering their serials in a website form and paying with a credit card. When connecting, PSO sends the serials to the HL server, and if the user has paid the fee then the HL server sends confirmation and PSO tries to connect to the game server. If PSO does not connect to the HL server it disconnects automatically without trying to contact the game server. The problem is that the HL connection uses SSL encryption, so we cannot create a homebrew HL server to emulate Sega's. As such, all versions with the HL check can no longer go online (JPv1, JPv2, USv2). Again, GC has reduced security and no longer has any kind of mandatory security check that uses SSL (most likely the HL check was performed by the game server itself on GC without SSL, and since our server does not make that check, users can sign on with no problems), and this is why GC is unaffected.

furrypaws wrote:Finally, sorry to hear about your character. 130 levels, too. >_<

All of my main characters corrupted at least once on Dreamcast, sometimes from console problems, sometimes from being hacked, and others from problems like this. XD This is one reason I stopped using console PSO. It's too unstable.

By "change my Dreamcast's region", did you mean there's a way to do that in the settings, or did you mean buy a EU Dreamcast? Switching between the two settings would be a bit annoying, but better than having to use a bootdisc (could you reference me to one?) or modchip, or buying a whole 'nother Dreamcast. .-.

Also, if the game had to connect to the HL server even when connecting to SCHT, did you still need to have an account going, because that seems to sorta defeat the purpose of a free server. I'm guessing not, but why not? Again with my curiosity, sorry if I'm starting to become a bit of a hinderance. =/

Speaking (generally) about your characters, how far off is Giovanna from 200? Last I recall she was 193 and like 10 mil away? Go Ives go!

And EU serial is coming with the game. =D It shipped today, but from Great Britain. I hope it's here in less than two weeks. .-.

Finally, I might just have to test this out (without saving of course) because...the torrent decided to work!

Hah. I guess it was wrong about those 24 days, huh?

EDIT: Of course, the disc with the most memory I can find is 700 MiB. Figures. I bet my dad has some bigger ones down at work though, so I might be able to try it out tomorrow. Any idea where I could find an 800 MB CDR in a physical store? Best Buy doesn't seem to sell them.

If there was some specific detail I was missing (because I do recall hearing something about this), please let me know. .-.

furrypaws wrote:By "change my Dreamcast's region", did you mean there's a way to do that in the settings, or did you mean buy a EU Dreamcast?

I believe it's possible to change your Dreamcast's region by opening it and doing some soldering and such. It's not a process for novices and not something you can do on a daily basis. It would allow you to turn a second Dreamcast into a PAL Dreamcast, though.

furrypaws wrote:Switching between the two settings would be a bit annoying, but better than having to use a bootdisc (could you reference me to one?) or modchip, or buying a whole 'nother Dreamcast. .-.

The Codebreaker on my site should be able to boot EUv1.

furrypaws wrote:Also, if the game had to connect to the HL server even when connecting to SCHT, did you still need to have an account going, because that seems to sorta defeat the purpose of a free server. I'm guessing not, but why not? Again with my curiosity, sorry if I'm starting to become a bit of a hinderance. =/

Originally, if you had played on Sega's server and purchased a Hunter's License at least once, logging on here would work even if your HL had long since expired. Players using serials that had not been used on Sega would, however, receive the message saying they needed to buy a HL. However a few years ago, Sega removed the fee for playing JPv1 and JPv2, and when they put up a new HL server, this new server would blindly validate any serials, even if those serials had not been used online. As such, we were leeching off that benefit until the final Sega closure in 2007.

furrypaws wrote:Speaking (generally) about your characters, how far off is Giovanna from 200? Last I recall she was 193 and like 10 mil away? Go Ives go!

I think she's still about there. I have many characters, and I've never felt the need to reach level 200.

furrypaws wrote:Of course, the disc with the most memory I can find is 700 MiB. Figures. I bet my dad has some bigger ones down at work though, so I might be able to try it out tomorrow. Any idea where I could find an 800 MB CDR in a physical store? Best Buy doesn't seem to sell them.

You should burn that disc with an 80 minute / 700MB CD-R. Don't use an 800MB one, the Dreamcast probably won't be able to read it.

I'd do the quote thing, but it's like 12:40 at night...er, in the morning, and I'm tired. x_x I'll just be kinda brief.

If that Codebreaker can do it, I'm not risking wasting a Dreamcast to try switching regions. As long as I would be buying another Dreamcast, I might as well buy a PAL one in the first place. >_>

Ah, that's cool (referring to 200 thing). I have just one character, so 200 is a more viable goal, not to mention I want a sense of closure on my GC char. Sure, I'll still play, but just not as often, and on other versions more, satisfied with my sole 200.

Finally, I must be missing something, but...how do I burn a 761.2 MB file to a 700 MB disc? Is it a special Disc Juggler operation, because I haven't been able to get access to my Windows for a while (but I'll try tomorrow).

furrypaws wrote:Ah, that's cool (referring to 200 thing). I have just one character, so 200 is a more viable goal, not to mention I want a sense of closure on my GC char. Sure, I'll still play, but just not as often, and on other versions more, satisfied with my sole 200.

Being level 200 is a bad thing on Ver.2 anyway since nobody will want to play with you.

furrypaws wrote:Finally, I must be missing something, but...how do I burn a 761.2 MB file to a 700 MB disc? Is it a special Disc Juggler operation, because I haven't been able to get access to my Windows for a while (but I'll try tomorrow).

Depending on the mode used to burn, CD-Rs can hold different amounts of data. The way Dreamcast discs are burned allows them to hold more than standard data CD-Rs.