Dreamcast Online at OnlineConsoles.com

I was doing some tinkering and such to figure out exactly how all of 4x4 EVO's internet functions work online. Many people kept asking how the whole direct-ip feature worked. It first just signs you online. So at this point your just signed into the internet not onto any specific server. Then it lets you go from there, letting you make the next decision in your online process. You can join a dedicated chat server to organize games, or sign on to gamespy and retrieve your buddy list, or join a direct-ip game, or host a game.

Originally when you join the main 4x4 evo server and host a game there it doesn't display a message showing the IP and port your running off of. I guess this is what never prompted people to try actually hosting a game before ever entering the primary 4x4 communications server. However I did just that, and just signed on with the game and then went directly to host game.

It was interesting because I went and hosted a game without joining any chat room, then it shows your IP and port number that you are hosting on! It actually shows the IP you have and what port. So basically you don't even have to sign on to anything at all!!!!!! All you have to do is have your dreamcast, 4x4 evo and an internet account and the dreamcast itself can act as a server allowing you DIRECT IP ADDRESS based user to user gameplay.

So that means 4x4 EVO and Quake 3 are now online forever and can never be taken away from us. :) Confirmed :D It's like a warm blanket.

*EDIT*(This is actually a reply from later in this thread, but added it as an edit to this, since it was important for people to read this all in one spot.) Another thing I just found out, it seems that the DNS on the master server was having issues again and I couldn't connect to tonights sunday game.

Well at first I am like...well...great this means that if we can't connec to the master server then we can't ever play this online because it needs to hit the master server to get to the direct-ip option.

BUT I was letting it idle and go through the motions, it took forever but eventually it would just say 'we could not reach the master server, would you like to connect anyway? or try again?' I hit connect anyway and it will then connect to th net allowing me to sign into gamespy or use the direct-ip option.

The only crummy thing about this is....if the master server really does ever go down...then in order to play this online we have to wait quit sometime for it to timeout and allow us to play. It takes about 2-3 minutes I would say for it to timeout. No that huge of a deal. I'm not really complaining cause hey altleast we'll always be able to play it online.

Close call there, at first I thought I would have to take down this post and put up some bad news :[ Thank god the game still connected to the internet allowing us to access the direct-ip option.