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XBAND was an early online console gaming network for SNES and Sega Genesis systems. It was produced by the Cupertino, California software company Catapult Entertainment, and made its debut in late 1994 and 1995 in various areas of the United States. Initially, it had a very limited staff and virtually no advertising. Many avid gamers first learned of it via small news articles that were published in the popular console gaming magazines and strategy guides of the day. By January 1996, XBAND network playability had reached practically every metropolitan area in the country, and several rural areas, but there had only been a handful of advertisements published: the most well known of these such advertisements had appeared in gaming magazines, and were directed towards people wanting to be able to play their favorite videogames against anyone, anywhere, at anytime. The actual XBAND modems were carried by a handful of software and video rental chains across the United States. Internationally, the XBAND saw some limited expansion in the Japanese market, and Catapult was working on PC and Saturn based versions of the platform before the company ceased operations. The spelling XB∀ND, was used in the logo. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia. ...
The Sega Mega Drive ) was a video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and the PAL region in 1990. ...
Location of Cupertino within Santa Clara County, California. ...
Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ...
Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...
Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ...
Service
The concept of playing online was, at the time, fairly new. Arcades were still quite popular, and the concept of online gaming was not yet a household term. Image File history File links Xbands. ...
The Sega Mega Drive ) was a video game console released by Sega in Japan in 1988, North America in 1989, and the PAL region in 1990. ...
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super NES (also called SNES and Super Nintendo) is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australasia between 1990 and 1992. ...
The modem itself was useless until an account was purchased and set up, which required a monthly fee of $4.95 that was based on an amount of 50 "connects" a player was allowed to make without an additional fee of .15 per connect. Another option allowed players an unlimited amount of "connects" for $9.95 per month. A "connect" was made whenever you dialed into the XBAND server to play, or to download mail (called "XMAIL"), or to get the daily edition of the two XBAND newsletters, one which had generic news, and the other was network specific, such as: weekly rankings, tournaments, and contests. Nationwide play was available for $3.95 per hour for the duration of the long distance call, whereas playing against somebody in your local calling area was free.
Up to 4 different codenames could be saved on one modem, and on each of the codenames there could be up to 10 people saved on a friends list for those who wanted to keep track of other players, and the Xmailbox was also limited to 10 incoming and 10 sent messages per each of 4 possible codenames created. There was also an on-screen keyboard that required painstakingly using your controller to type letters, or for a bit of money, an XBAND keyboard could be purchased from the company. Statistics were also kept on each player's rank and how many matches they had won or lost, and how many points they had accumulated in these games. Players could also add information about themselves in their personal info section, along with choosing 1 of 40 pre-set avatars.
XBAND also had an official website where a member could check the statistics of anyone, along with other information and updates that were not available to view on your console.
Gaming Due to the limits of dial-up, many of the games were high in latency, and the company only improved this based on the demand of the games. For example, in January 1996, Mortal Kombat 3 for the SNES version was nearly unplayable, but in the following months this improved a bit, though because of the complexity and speed of the game, it retained a large number of exploitable glitches. To this day, many XBANDers remember the SNES MK3 as being cumbersome due to lag, whereas simpler games such as Super Mario Kart, or NBA Jam, rarely experienced such trouble. The Sega Genesis counterpart, being much simpler, had nowhere near the same synchronization problems with its games. In telecommunication, the term dial-up has the following meanings: Dial-up access, typically to the Internet A service feature in which a user initiates service on a previously arranged trunk or transfers, without human intervention, from an active trunk to a standby trunk. ...
Mortal Kombat 3 (also known as MK3) is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. ...
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, and Australia. ...
Super Mario Kart is the first video game in the Mario Kart series, released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. ...
NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game created by Midway in 1993. ...
When one connected to play, unless you specified someone in particular from your player list, you would be paired up with a random person somewhere in the country (or your local area code depending on your preference settings), who was also connecting to play in the same game. When the network matched two people up, their telephone would ring once, and the big XBAND "X" would slide together on your screen. Moments later they would see the matchup screen, which would display their codenames, city and state, a "taunt" that one could have typed and ready, along with one's avatar.
Demise By March 16, 1997, people could only play within their local area code. On April 30, 1997, the entire network was removed. March 16 is the 75th day of the year (76th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar). ...
is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar). ...
XBAND published in their newsletter a month prior that they were shutting down, with the newsletter writers citing the service's lack of popularity. During XBAND's existence, only a handful of advertisements were ever made, and only one game, Weaponlord, had the XBAND logo on its box. XBAND stated in their newsletter that players were their best form of advertising, and offered the "XBAND 6 pack", where members could discount order six modems in exchange for a month of free gaming if they signed up a certain amount of people to the service. Weaponlord (sometimes WeaponLord) is a 1 or 2 player fighting game originally designed for release on the Super Nintendo by Visual Concepts, and published by Namco. ...
Heavy contributors to XBAND's demise was lack of support from game developers and limited internal resources. With the exception of Weaponlord, Catapult had to individually reverse engineer each game's 65816 assembly language code, then develop a hack to intercept two-player activity so the game could be shared over a hi-latency (slow-response time) 2400 baud modem connection.
Catapult's next-gen attempts were blocked by the hardware manufacturers. The XBAND was tested in Japan (14,400 baud modem) for a short time for the Sega Saturn, but met competition from Sega's own Sega NetLink service, which used XBAND technology. An expansion into the PC market also didn't pan out as developers frequently opted to include their own TCP/IP network linking rather than deal with Catapult's subscription based service. NetLink (or Seganet in Japan) is a 28. ...
Service Issues The most costly problem of the XBAND service was the free long distance hack. It wasn't actually hacking into anything but through an understanding of telecommunications, someone discovered that with the sounds and other noises the modem used to connect, one could utilize it, (if applied correctly) and force XBAND to get charged for your long distance bill, this information spread like wildfire. There was another company at the time, called SkyTel, that was having similar problems with XBANDers and their own customers. XBANDers hacked into SkyTel's mobile paging system by entering random voice mail boxes using the same number as the login and password. XBANDers used SkyTel's voice mail system to create an extension to XBANDers communication with others on XBAND. Most were simply Shout-out with music blaring in the background. Some say these voice messages resemble somewhat of modern day MySpace with voice. Few voice mail messages were "voice mail boards." A shout-out is a greeting or acknowledgment of a person, group, or organization of significance. ...
MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. ...
Another one of the serious problems, was "pulling" as it was termed, where if someone was losing a match, they could simply pull their phonecord out (or turn off their system) so they wouldn't take the loss, and the other player wouldn't get the win. In spite of complaints, the company could never find a way to discern who disconnected. Catapult was also unable to prevent harassment; there were no filters or privacy controls to prevent vulgar language and obscene mail.
Publishing statistics
 Tips and Tricks Magazine April 1996 Despite poor marketing the XBAND team took another attempt to attract the mainstream of gamers who were left in the dark about the modem by joining forces with a number of gaming magazines, starting on the web with Game Zero magazine and then later in the print magazine Tips and Tricks Magazine. Daily stats were accessible via 'XBAND News' on the modem although they were not visible to the general public. Publishing stats added a 'cool' factor to brag about in the early forefronts of online gaming. The top ranked gamers of the previous months were published first in January of 1996 in Game Zero (see external link below) and then later on in Tips and Tricks starting in early 1996. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (540x778, 506 KB) Summary Tips and Tricks Magazine XBAND Top Ranked Gamers - April 1996 Licensing File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...
Game Zero Magazine was a U.S. based video game magazine published from 1992 to 1998 (although primary publication stopped in 1996). ...
Supported XBAND games Genesis: SNES: Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. ...
Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. ...
Mortal Kombat was the first entry in the famous Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway, released in arcades in 1992. ...
Mortal Kombat II (also referred to as MKII) is an arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. ...
Mortal Kombat 3 (also known as MK3) is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. ...
NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game created by Midway in 1993. ...
NBA Live 2000 is regarded as one of the best in the series The NBA Live series of basketball games, published by EA Sports, is one of the leading National Basketball Association simulations on the market currently. ...
NBA Live 2000 is regarded as one of the best in the series The NBA Live series of basketball games, published by EA Sports, is one of the leading National Basketball Association simulations on the market currently. ...
NHL 95 is a video game released by Electronic Arts for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis game systems. ...
NHL 96 is considered to be the zenith in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System series of NHL games. ...
Primal Rage is a versus fighting game developed and published by Atari Games. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Street Fighter II. (Discuss) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers was the penultimate release of a long string of fighting games in the Street Fighter II series. ...
Weaponlord (sometimes WeaponLord) is a 1 or 2 player fighting game originally designed for release on the Super Nintendo by Visual Concepts, and published by Namco. ...
Saturn (Japan XBAND branded releases only) Doom (or DOOM)[1] is a 1993 computer game by id Software that is a landmark title in the first-person shooter genre. ...
Ken Griffey Jr. ...
Kirbys Avalanche (Kirbys Ghost Trap in the PAL version) was an SNES game developed by HAL Laboratory and released by Nintendo in 1995. ...
This does not cite any references or sources. ...
Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. ...
Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. ...
Mortal Kombat II (also referred to as MKII) is an arcade game and the second title in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. ...
Mortal Kombat 3 (also known as MK3) is the third game in the Mortal Kombat series, released in arcades in 1995. ...
NHL 95 cover for the Sega Mega Drive (aka Sega Genesis). ...
NHL 95 cover for the Sega Mega Drive (aka Sega Genesis). ...
Super Mario Kart is the first video game in the Mario Kart series, released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Street Fighter II. (Discuss) Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers was the penultimate release of a long string of fighting games in the Street Fighter II series. ...
Weaponlord (sometimes WeaponLord) is a 1 or 2 player fighting game originally designed for release on the Super Nintendo by Visual Concepts, and published by Namco. ...
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, released in Japan on November 21, 1991, as ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース (Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Toraifōsu, literally The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods...
Daytona USA is a racing arcade game released by Sega in 1993 for Japan and 1994 worldwide. ...
A decathlon is a sportive contest made up of 10 events. ...
Puyo Puyo SUN is the third instalment of the Puyo Puyo games series, and the sequel to Puyo Puyo Tsu, made in 1997 by Compile. ...
Puzzle Bobble 3 is the second sequel to Puzzle Bobble. ...
Saturn Bomberman is video game for the Sega Saturn and arguably one of the most enjoyable Bomberman games up to date. ...
WWS98 cover Worldwide Soccer is a football videogame franchise by Sega initially released for the Sega Saturn in the Christmas of 1996, and later spawned to three more titles: Worldwide Soccer 98 still on the 32-bit console and two editions of Worldwide Soccer 2000 for the Dreamcast. ...
Virtua Fighter is a 1993 fighting game developed by the Sega studio AM2, headed by Yu Suzuki. ...
Originally a game for the arcade, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast/Sega NAOMI, then the PlayStation 2. ...
Intellivision World Series Baseball is a baseball video game simulation (1983), designed by Don Daglow and Eddie Dombrower and published by Mattel for Intellivision. ...
See also - Sega Meganet - Sega's own online gaming service for the Mega Drive
- Satellaview - A satellite modem for the Super Famicom with no online play facility
Megamodem attached to a Mega Drive The Sega Meganet was a network service in Japan for people using the Sega Mega Drive. ...
The BS-X logo. ...
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