GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[Rey]

I know I made a forum about this somewhere but I can't find it. If it does show up. I'll ask to move the conversation there.
But I was reading about this Item. I was wondering.,If it maybe possible to somehow play online using the everdrive 64 drive which ever. As most people agree. Not the same experience is given when playing on an emulator. I'm aware that they do have codes to let you play the games.
So can there be a way to code in a server to play on console?
Just a thought
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[SubDrag]

I've thought about it too but iI didn't think I could synchronize the two carts.

[MRKane]

Working with systems and sync myself, I can think of some hacky ways to sync the data (mainly by pumping it straight into the system) but I can't think of a way that it'd work graphically (as in you'd get data in but it wouldn't result in an actual game that's being played).

Zoinkity might have some more thoughts on the matter (and they'll be accurate also).

It's a novel idea however, perhaps in the next few years as N64 starts to go out of license we'll start seeing some cool stuff like that!
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[Kerr Avon]

I've no idea, but you could ask Krikzz (the man who makes the Everdrives) on his forum at;

http://krikzz.com/forum/

I don't know if the ED64 hardware can support online (or other networks), but even if not, the hardware might be added later, as Krikzz does sometimes update the hardware, plus he updates the software too (the ED64's OS was recently massively updated), and he actually listens to, and converses with, Everdrive users on his forums.

I don't know if many existing ED64 users would buy a new ED64 just for network (even online) play, but if the new ED64 also allowed for hardware snapshot save/loading then probably quite a few people would be willing to buy a new one. He has added snapshot save/load to some Everdrives (I think the SNES, Megadrive, and now the NES?) but at the moment, ED64's (which are currently at hardware v2) can't be made to create/use snapshots as the N64 had write-only ports that current ED64's can't monitor, so it would require a new hardware revision for the ED64 to support snapshot save/loading, and if Krikzz does make this change, then I'd imagine he could put a network connector (or more than one?) into the mix.

[zoinkity]

Savestates aren't that difficult to generate actually. All you really are is a dump of the hardware and software registers plus rdram. On console, the best time to run a capture would be after the RSP finishes a task, preferably at the exception handler. At any rate, you'd have to make certain the RSP isn't running at the moment.
Reloading would require a somewhat different bootloader, but chances are you could even do it from a GameShark with PC support--especially now that we can upload random data into rdram inside it's menus ;*)


That aside, online play. The only titles with online connectivity weren't running real-time. From what I've heard from programmers, it wasn't endorsed due to latency issues. High latency = desync, and you probably don't have enough unused memory to keep track of multiple fallback states N64-side. That said, there's ways to soften the blow.

Hardware-side requirements first, since it's more concrete. An Everdrive would need a retrofit to either attach a port or permit direct PC communications. It doesn't have a native modem.
The 64drive can exploit PC communication though. There's a demo game where you can control a character on console with the PC's mouse. You need a software-side driver though, though that could be in the form of a trainer or directly patched.

Software-side, the demands for each game and the amount of data passed is going to vary wildly. GE, for instance, could be largely playable by passing controller data and random number registers. You could do what the X-Band did--applying patches to each game--or code games specificly to support it. Also, you could wrap a trainer around the game to do the communications for you.

Another possibility is to have one host and generic ROM clients. The clients would accept copies of the video and audio buffers, any PIF writes, and only send controller data. The host would run the game as they normally would, and a trainer would send copies of the video and audio buffers. The trainer on the host's end would also have to redirect PIF I/O requests and build some fake data.
In this way the clients would be little more than a viewscreen.

It's only theoretical right now, but there's people in the N64dev community that have been looking into it.
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[Rey]

I forgot about all of that. It is true. How would the gaming stay together. How could we even have the internet to run threw. That would be a large project to have to put together. I'd be product after product till it would actually work.
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[MultiplayerX]

That would be AWESOME but NO. You would have to write a whole new game engine. Your console would have to also be equipped with wifi hardware so you can connect wirelessly OR via lan/ethernet. LOVE the idea but it would be a FEAT. If it was that easy someone would have already done it. It's not impossible at all but I would imagine unless we could find a really DIE HARD fan that can design his own hardware and programs this would be a dead end. Be kind of pointless too because you'd still have to change hardware in the console to make it work properly. Double

[SubDrag]

I don't think Everdrive could at moment because it doesn't have an external connection to the PC while running, but the 64drive does have the USB connector. I had flirted with the idea once, but I found synchronization too difficult. The client/server model running on one game is a better idea.

[MultiplayerX]

SubDrag wrote:

I don't think Everdrive could at moment because it doesn't have an external connection to the PC while running, but the 64drive does have the USB connector. I had flirted with the idea once, but I found synchronization too difficult. The client/server model running on one game is a better idea.

that would be a pretty cool thing Sub. hope you get bored enough some day to try it