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Topic: Dreamarena Archive

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rjay63
rank 5
Posted:
Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:47 pm
quote : #1
profile : pm
Posts: 39
Type: PAL
I recently found an expired link showing how to access the old European gaming portal Dreamarena using your PC instead of your Dreamcast

http://web.archive.org/web/20021024032830/http://downloader.free.fr/index_en.htm

Did anyone manage to make their own archive of this service? Unfortunately I'm unable to find anything extensive on the web apart from later pages stored at archive.org)

Thanks in advance
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Favrenation
rank 9
Posted:
Mon Dec 06, 2010 6:55 pm
quote : #2
profile : pm
Posts: 106
Type: NTSC-U/C
Lord Nikon would be the one to ask. He archives many things so he would be your best bet.
 
Maturion
rank 3
Posted:
Wed Sep 07, 2011 2:26 am
quote : #3
profile : pm
Posts: 12
Type: PAL
Getting a backup of this, would probarbly one of the greatest things thing ever in the dc scene. Getting up again the original dream arena would just be awesome!!
 
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Thu Sep 08, 2011 7:07 pm
quote : #4
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
I didn't start archiving until mid-2003, and this only * barely * started when I was archiving DC VMU download files. I didn't begin archiving websites at a serious level until 2004, and it was a slow gradual process as my expertise then was at zero. I was saving sites by hand, file by file. Today I automate everything as much as possible by writing scripts, using various apps, and sneaky tactics.

I would have had to be at the height of my expertise and an active user in Dreamcast Online back when Dream Arena was running to truly archive it.

Dream Arena was essentially a community in the form of a web site that was for PAL Dreamcast users, and was restricted to Dreamcast browser user agents.

All that I can do is archive glimpses of what it looked like. I have been doing this, but it has been difficult scraping together the evidence. I have a decent amount of media on Dream Arena but not as much as I would like.
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Mazonemayu
rank 27
Posted:
Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:59 am
quote : #5
profile : pm
Posts: 573
you should've seen my phonebill in that day. chatting & darkrooms were hot back then Very Happy Very Happy
It even went as far as me going to the UK to have sex with a girl because of this contraption
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rjay63
rank 5
Posted:
Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:23 pm
quote : #6
profile : pm
Posts: 39
Type: PAL
Thanks for the posts, great to see new replies for an old topic.

The main reason I asked the question was to see if anyone had copied the leaderboards for Metropolis Street Racer (that was hosted on Dreamarena). Since then I've learned it was easy to hack game saves for MSR (and alter lap records) so any leaderboard could not be 100% truthful.

I think the easiest capture would have been hooking the DC to a VCR while surfing. Maybe someone did do this and there's a video tape lying around somewhere? In the meantime there's footage of Dreamarena screens here (1.52 onwards) and also by typing www.dreamcast-europe.com/english/* into the Wayback machine (filter using .php and .htm).

Also an ex-Sega designer has his own blog where he has uploaded Dreamarena pictures and provided some insight behind their creation: http://www.luc.me.uk/tag/dreamarena/.
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jial
rank 3
Posted:
Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:39 am
quote : #7
profile : pm
Posts: 12
Type: PAL
Hi lordnikon,

It´s awesome that you rescued a part of dreamarena, I guess it was a hard work. I would like to ask you a question. All this material is published somewhere? I´m very interested in dreamarena stuff and websites. Would be fantastic to resurrect the dreamarena again.

Thank you for your effort !!!
 
lordnikon
rank 87
Posted:
Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:31 pm
quote : #8
profile : pm
Posts: 5902
Type: NTSC-U/C
Hi jial,

Currently my archives are not published yet, because they are not finished. I am still working on them. Everything I have will be made publically available, I just do not know when. I know this might be frustrating, but the goal of my projects isn't merely to "save as" and post it somewhere else quickly. I am creating more complete archives from multiple sources, and also creating projects based off the data that add greater historical context to the material.

As far as Dreamarena, all I have is media such as screenshots and video of what the service looked like. I don't have any archives of any source code.

Dreamarena was basically a series of websites, and then an authentication gateway for PAL players to access certain games.

Here are 4 great pictures of Dreamarena:

http://www.gamehope.com/dossiers/15-dreamcast/1-1-specifications-et-dream-arena.html
  _________________
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jial
rank 3
Posted:
Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:50 pm
quote : #9
profile : pm
Posts: 12
Type: PAL
Whoah!! it looks like great, I´m very grad that someone save a little part of dreamarena and you have my support if you need .

Thanks you again Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
 
iitsstillthinking
rank 1
Posted:
Fri Sep 22, 2017 9:44 pm
quote : #10
profile : pm
Posts: 1
Type: NTSC-U/C
lordnikon wrote:
I didn't start archiving until mid-2003, and this only * barely * started when I was archiving DC VMU download files. I didn't begin archiving websites at a serious level until 2004, and it was a slow gradual process as my expertise then was at zero. I was saving sites by hand, file by file. Today I automate everything as much as possible by writing scripts, using various apps, and sneaky tactics.

I would have had to be at the height of my expertise and an active user in Dreamcast Online back when Dream Arena was running to truly archive it.

Dream Arena was essentially a community in the form of a web site that was for PAL Dreamcast users, and was restricted to Dreamcast browser user agents.

All that I can do is archive glimpses of what it looked like. I have been doing this, but it has been difficult scraping together the evidence. I have a decent amount of media on Dream Arena but not as much as I would like.


I know its been years but any chance you still have this archived?
 
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