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lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:41 pm
quote : #1
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
Chu Chu Rocket went offline in the US during November of 2003. Since then, many of us were left wondering whether the Japanese version was still online. We have had no real confirmation to support this theory. No links or press releases were presented, to support or contradict the hypothesis, until now. The disturbing reality is this information could have been brought to light almost a year and a half ago. Instead an individual withheld information in order to direct traffic and attention to themselves and their own personal website. I can’t tell you how frustrated I am right now. Due to another person’s immature, selfish behavior, we could have not only played Chu Chu rocket for a longer time, but also logged the packets needed for future research.

Recently I have been taking the time to really flesh out the historical record of Dreamcast Online. What games were released in each region, and their release and termination dates in order to determine their total online lifespan. From further digging I stumbled across the following URL:

http://sega.jp/dc/netservice.html

As you can see this list shows all of the current games online in Japan for the Dreamcast. Or so it seems. Notice in the content list below the online games, Trizeal or Shikigami No Shiro 2 are not listed as having their Internet rankings. So this list may or may not be out of date. However the Japanese Sega homepage at sega.co.jp did go through huge changes, and the net services section was altered to reflect the information for Xbox games. The Dreamcast content, which used to be separated into 2 different sections in December of 2003, was now merged into one. Showing both the online games, and online content functions on the same page. This type of change most certainly would have involved a re-verification of which services were still online.

It should also be noted that no announcements at the official Chu Chu Rocket website have been made regarding the termination of its online functions. The Chu Chu JP BBS still gets posts. Sonic Team cannot be completely oblivious to the website. So if it were offline, they surely would have posted so on the official web page.

Regardless of whether Chu Chu Rocket is still online in Japan right now, it is my assumption that Chu Chu was most definitely online for a period of time well after the US and EU versions were pulled.

Hoarding time sensitive research material can be catastrophic to the Dreamcast Online community. Giving information to EVERYONE is not always the best course of action. For example: Showing the email address of a high level corporate executive, to an over-zealous 13 year old wanting all Dreamcast games back online, could result in equal negative results. At least give the information to SOMEONE who has a shred of common sense on how to approach the situation to yield positive results. Keeping information to yourself in order to hold the spotlight on you does nothing for Dreamcast Online. It only serves to pacify an immediate craving to reap the benefits of social attention.

As far as Chu Chu Rocket, the damage may have already been done. The game might be offline already. If anything I plan to put any doubt to rest. I plan to work with other community members who currently have the JP version of the game and have tried to connect in the past. Knowing for sure it’s online status lets us “Move On”, rather than be left wondering day after day if something was done wrong, and it is still online. I have since ordered a JP copy, which should be arriving sometime this week.


Last edited by lordnikon on Fri Sep 09, 2005 8:33 pm; edited 5 times in total
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segadreamcaster
rank 37
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 3:48 pm
quote : #2
profile : pm
Posts: 811
Type: NTSC-U/C
Hmmm, interesting...would certainly be very annoying if it is now offline and that something could "possibly" have been done for all that time, but somebody was holding back info Evil or Very Mad . But hey, lets hope that the game is still online and that work can still be done to give this game a chance...I certainly hope something could be done with this game as I think it would be great fun online...sadly I never got to play Sad Goodluck in your investigation anyway Laughing

Cheers, Craig
  _________________
Game Names:

PSO = Ryo or SEGADCER
Q3A, Starlancer
Max Pool = Segadcer
4x4 Evo = Segadreamcaster

Visit the NEW Saturn netlink league www.saturnleague.com
Blast
rank 43
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 4:35 pm
quote : #3
profile : pm
Posts: 1285
Type: Pal
Seems someones been naughty Sad

Ive often wonderd why we dont just ask some japenese people?. There are enought of them on PSO that speak english. Also GohanBR is studying Japaneses you might want to enlist his help.

Laters
  _________________
Now have a working PC DC server courtesy of Segadreamcaster. Bring on the DC on line games yeeee haaa.
Chris5687
unknown
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:25 pm
quote : #4
profile : pm
Posts: 333
thats a really interesting link. i wish we have seen this one earlier.

i really hope youre not referring to our isao research about "withhelding information"

when we were doing tests we posted all progres shere for everyoen to see... asked for help. no one was very concerned with it.
 
Dreamcast â„¢
rank 39
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:31 pm
quote : #5
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Posts: 923
Type: NTSC-U/C
I don't know if you've seen this or not...

Link

Talks about private software or something.

- Dreamcast ™
 
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:33 pm
quote : #6
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Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
Chris5687 wrote:
thats a really interesting link. i wish we have seen this one earlier.

yea Mad

Chris5687 wrote:
i really hope youre not referring to our isao research about "withhelding information"

No way. I am not accusing you or anyone involved with the ISAO research.

---

Also I won't be getting into a speculation war about who it was. At this point it is inconsequential. I know who it was, but won't be discussing it further. The fact is, its done, and I wanted to bring up the situation to show people what can happen when someone acts so selfishly.

Dreamcast ™ wrote:
I don't know if you've seen this or not...

Link

Talks about private software or something.

- Dreamcast ™


That is just a link to sega support forms.
  _________________
I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list...
Chris5687
unknown
Posted:
Sun Jun 19, 2005 5:56 pm
quote : #7
profile : pm
Posts: 333
lordnikon wrote:
Chris5687 wrote:
thats a really interesting link. i wish we have seen this one earlier.

yea Mad

Chris5687 wrote:
i really hope youre not referring to our isao research about "withhelding information"

No way. I am not accusing you or anyone involved with the ISAO research.

.


OK just checking, i know there was some sort of deal going on with doomkiller back then but we always tried to keep our stuff public... but osmeitmes it was a little too public and we acted too fast and just mad things harder. Oh well.

Anyways by the looks of the link its definitely worth checking out.

The games on that list were PSO ver 1 and 2, Sakura Taisen online (teito and paris versions) and Guru Guru Onsen 2+3. PSO is obviously still online you can see thaat every time you log on with PSO PAL and we can even test that ourselves like idrepublix has in the past. Sakura Taisen and Guru Guru Onsen are part of the opendice servie. you gotta buy licenses for them. i havent been on guru guru onsen yet, but i'll willing to almost gurantee it works online. the license process is ht esame as STO and if they are selling liceses for it is obviously is online.

The only game that doesnt fit in CCR but its on the list. obviously there something we need to ifnd out here. what it is... i have no clue. i can try giving ccr a spin in my dreamcast again... but nothing special would probably be found. were ognan have to look into this much deeper.
 
mcmonkey
rank 44
Posted:
Tue Jun 21, 2005 3:27 am
quote : #8
profile : pm
Posts: 1314
Type: PAL
i hope its still online in japan cos id love the chance to be able to play this game online as i love playing multiplayer offline.
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Blast
rank 43
Posted:
Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:43 am
quote : #9
profile : pm
Posts: 1285
Type: Pal
Just a thought I had, on the Pal version of Chu Chu you had to have your email account info filled in on Dreamkey or the game would not connect online. Could there be something similar for the JP version?, maybe you need to have your dricas email filled in on your browser in order to get online. I think this was used as some kind of authentication on Pal Chu Chu.

Laters
  _________________
Now have a working PC DC server courtesy of Segadreamcaster. Bring on the DC on line games yeeee haaa.
Chris5687
unknown
Posted:
Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:14 pm
quote : #10
profile : pm
Posts: 333
Blast wrote:
Just a thought I had, on the Pal version of Chu Chu you had to have your email account info filled in on Dreamkey or the game would not connect online. Could there be something similar for the JP version?, maybe you need to have your dricas email filled in on your browser in order to get online. I think this was used as some kind of authentication on Pal Chu Chu.

Laters


yeah we thought of that too. for some reason you had to have email... even if was random bullshit.... so it would definitely make sense that it required isao settings... but we tested with that in it and it had no change.
 
Mertens
rank 14
Posted:
Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:13 pm
quote : #11
profile : pm
Posts: 236
Type: NTSC-U/C
I've got three friends going to Japan this summer, one is from japan. I could ask them to check out if the game connects. Only problem is that I don't think any of them have ever owned a DC and probably wouldn't know how to set it up to go online. I already told them to keep an eye out for BBA though Smile
 
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun Jun 26, 2005 2:03 am
quote : #12
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
Btw all my copy of chu chu came today. Started messing with it some earlier, and gonna resume testing now. Will drop some info as soon as I have it.
  _________________
I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list...
segadreamcaster
rank 37
Posted:
Sun Jun 26, 2005 5:17 am
quote : #13
profile : pm
Posts: 811
Type: NTSC-U/C
lordnikon wrote:
Btw all my copy of chu chu came today. Started messing with it some earlier, and gonna resume testing now. Will drop some info as soon as I have it.


Excellent, goodluck with that...hope you find some "interesting" information Wink
  _________________
Game Names:

PSO = Ryo or SEGADCER
Q3A, Starlancer
Max Pool = Segadcer
4x4 Evo = Segadreamcaster

Visit the NEW Saturn netlink league www.saturnleague.com
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:04 am
quote : #14
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
All the information I have found so far leads to Chu Chu Rocket being offline indefinatly. Chu Chu hits 3 subdomains including a variant of the US versions main address. All of which currently are stacked onto the same IP address. I will have a report on this, however I am currently 99% certain chu chu rocket japanese version is non-functional. Kind of sucks because thats 32 bucks down the tubes. Atleast the copy is in mint condition with the disc being flawless, including all materials. Otherwise I would be a bit irritated.
  _________________
I'm already numero uno on Dark Helmet's hit list...
charmed_699
rank 21
Posted:
Sun Jun 26, 2005 8:21 am
quote : #15
profile : pm
Posts: 423
Try to sell it to get at least some of your money back .
Maybe that will help I guess seems uselless to keep it .
still thanks for doing what you did Very Happy
 
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