jessecrx

I was just wondering if anyone here remembers the Xband network. It was a network set up so players can compete against eachother in real time. Games like Super Street Fighter 2, Doom, Super Mario Kart, Weaponlord, Mortal Kombat 2, Killer Instinct. I was on it for over 2 and half years!! I was addicted to the comp. Sure it had some lag, but nothing you couldn't get used to. It was available for both SNES and the Sega Genesis, and was planned to go to the Saturn but the company went bankrupt. I still have my modems for both systems. That was the best online gaming experience I ever had simply because it supported FIGHTING games. And it was all done over phone lines with crappy 14.4 modems too!

Anyways, were any of you guys on it??

I was! What were your XBAND names?? What games did you play??


On the SNES my name was Fortune Cookie

On the Genesis my name was Deadly Arts*

JC

DVDKrayzie

god i loved the xband. It was soooooo expensive though. I played MK2, SSF2, and Mario Kart. I was always one of the top 5 in mk2 every week. kinda funny how they did that then on a 14.4 modem yet I can't play SF3 or CvsS2 on my PS2 now

jessecrx

Yeah, I know...they had to charge both players long distance charges if they wanted to play eachother from out of town. If you didn't have local comp to play, you were pretty much out of luck! I would beat the crap out of my local comp so badly that they wouldn't wanna play me anymore. The interesting thing about it was the cool features about it...the email, the personal profile space, the pregame taunts, the aftergame chats. It was really doing well for a while until players found a way to cheat the system and play nationwide for free(illegaly of course)and ultimately caused Catapult(the company who produced Xband)to go bankrupt!

That was the last time I ever had real fun with console gaming. I tried it with the Dreamcast, and with PC's but it's just not the same. I really hope the new gaming systems come up with a plan to have some really good networks set up so we can play in a low lag arena!! They already do it in Japan!! Those guys get to play Super Street Fighter 2 X over the net LAG FREE!!(I know this because several of the top players I spoke to said that its very good) We're still over here waiting, while great sports, racing, and fighting game titles keep coming out with no online features....bummer!

Does anyone have any input on the future of console gaming??

JC

tygloalex

Man I used to love my xbands. My roomate at the time had a genesis and a snes one, and I had a genesis one. I was ranked like 17th in Killer Instinct. I knew every single move for one character, Orchid, I think (the chick). As a matter of fact, tuesday, I was talking to a guy at work and he and I used to play nhl 94 online all the time. Weird.

I used to play
mk2
mk3
nhl 94
ballz
on genesis

ki on snes

Sominex

X-Band was great...


I bought it on the 4th of July one year..


the coolest part of it..

the background music it played suring setup and when you were "calling in" to the system

great stuff

I forget how the tune goes now, but I remember liking it a lot

Josh H

I remember it, but I never used it. I had the same amount of interest in online gaming back then as I have now -- none.

Plus it was damn expensive, with the long distance charges to play people out of town. If I wanted to play with someone from my town I'd just have them come over and not deal with lag and enjoy trash talking in person.

used_submarine

Xband was my life back in 96 and 97!

I had a decent sized local area in the Summer of 96, but they started to fade away over the next few months. So my buddy and I jumped on nationwide and started playing Super Mario Kart like crazy. I was good, but he (OmEgA DeAtH) was AWESOME!

I'm getting a website set up with a list of former Xbanders. If anyone would like to be added, email or PM me the following information:

- Your main screen name
- What city you played from
- What console you played on (SNES or Sega)
- Your email address

http://home.comcast.net/~thou1/xband.html

Not only do I have a contact list, but I have links up to Xband forums/message boards as well as links to tons of different Xband related sites. Hope you can check it out sometime.

- Mike aka $aVaGe DeAtH

Flay

I had it! Super Mario Kart online was friggin awesome. I don't remember my online name though.

The only thing I do remember was getting pissed when my family members would pick up the phone severing my uber 28K connection in the middle of a tense race.

DeanoBKN

I always wanted one, but I knew my parents would never buy it for me.

Then I remember seeing an ad in GamePro magazine GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE. As a kid, I'm sure you could tell how excited I was. Sadly, I never received my XBand.

littlefuzzy

I never had it back then, but I now have an X-Band modem for the SNES, and one for the Genesis (still in the box.)

I wonder if they could be hacked to be used over the internet (maybe turning them into a network card?) Of course, the number of people probably playing a SNES or Genesis at one time would be pretty low, much less someone playing one of those games...

Blitz6Speed

Ive never had one myself, i remember reading about it in gamepro but the super high phone charges turned me off from it. I still till now do not play games online in anyway, i hate FPS games so that took me away from the whole online PC game movement. Im hoping that this gen of console gaming will take care of this finally, for lag free online gaming, more specifically, online fighting games!

used_submarine

We're actually working on it now. I just sent one of my functioning Xbands to a guy from the CherryRoms.com forum (no ROMS, just an old domain name they had registered). He's going to hook it up to a copier and see what's left in the SRAM. Aparently, this is the first time anyone's been able to work with it in this capacity, so we'll see what happens. He should have it by Saturday.

used_submarine

Too bad you can't remember your name. We have a bunch of SMKers coming out of the cracks (including myself).

- OmEgA DeAtH
- Justin Clark
- Eddy Vitkauskus
- Nytmare (SiK)

And we're still trying to reach Starfox and Luminessence. What city did you play from, and did you have Nationwide?

DVDKrayzie

Weird, i just got some invite today to join an Xband group on myspace, wonder how they knew? I didn't jump on the XBAND scene until I got one free from Gamepro, but once I did, I was hooked (and my parents were PISSED since I racked up HUGE phone bills due to it.) When I was on it I was in the top 10 every week for MK2 on SNES, but I was only on XBAND for like 6 months. Only guy who ever beat me regularly was Dream Theater, but I beat him in CvS2 on Xbox know all the time, so I guess we're even.

used_submarine

*hehe* That invite was probably from me. I'm doing former xbander detective work now, and I'm turning up a lot of people. You wouldn't happen to be Krayzie Bone, would you? That's what your DVDTalk user name reminds me of. Also, would you like you contact info to be added to my site?

http://home.comcast.net/~thou1/xband.html

You can see how people are listed there and decide if you want to be added or not.

jessecrx

Dream Theater+

Yep, thats Jason Wilson..he's an editor for Tips and Tricks Magazine. A very hardcore SF2 player as well.

I suck at CVS2 but I'll be happy to play you once SF2 HF comes out for XBox Live Arcade!

Now the closest thing to Xband is playing on Zbattle/Zsnes hehe

marioxb

I can't believe I never saw this topic before! Of course I do! My username comes from the XBAND. No lie! Mario was my name on the SNES XBAND and when I got a WebTV, Mario was already taken. I added XB after it, for XBAND, and I've used that name ever since (no I don't still use WebTV).

I actually randomly played Ron Francis of the Pittsburgh Penguins once in a game of SNES Doom, of all games.

mhg83

heres a promo video i found on youtube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lizVsR1XJ...elated&search=

Music

I just found an old webpage file I had created that listed my XBand names. ( I believe I created it using the Sega Saturn), used to hook up on there and then switch to XBand for gaming until the Saturn Netlink games came out.

Mr. Music

Guns N'Roses

The_Undertaker

Mrs. Music (wife)