[Andlabs]

(formerly Sega Modem, Library Cart, "MegaNet"/"Seganet", ROM • I'm confused)

So I decided to talk about this here — hopefully to find some people who would know more about all this.

All we have on the cumulative topic of all this is this page. This talks about the service, but it shows a picture of the modem — something which was also used for Mega Anser, so shouldn't it be a separate page?

The name of the service also seems to confuse. no-intro recently came to the consensus that it was called SegaNet in Japan and MegaNet in Brazil, but what about the Saturn and Dreamcast services? Is there really a name?

And finally, there's that Library cart. What's the deal with it? I don't know anything about it, and doesn't it have all the games or something? There's some documentation on Sega's archive page but I can't read Japanese...

In fact, the original page on the modem also lists the service. ?????

Oh and finally, how DID we get dumps of all these MegaNet/SegaNet/???Net games anyway?

CODE

$ ls mdroms/*MegaNet* mdroms/*SegaNet*
mdroms/16t (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Aworg (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Hyper Marbles (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Ikazuse! Koi no Doki Doki Penguin Land MD (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Kiss Shot (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Medal City (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/MegaMind (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/MegaNet (Brazil) (Program).md
mdroms/Paddle Fighter (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Amia's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Anne's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Huey's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Kinds's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Nei's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Rudger's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Shilka's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Phantasy Star II - Yushis's Adventure (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Putter Golf (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Pyramid Magic (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Pyramid Magic II (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Pyramid Magic III (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Pyramid Magic Special (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Riddle Wired (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Robot Battler (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Shi no Meikyuu - Labyrinth of Death (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Sonic Eraser (Japan) (SegaNet).md
mdroms/Teddy Boy Blues (Japan) (SegaNet).md

Actually where's that library cart on this list?!

Thanks.

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 17 March 2011 - 03:33 PM

[Black Squirrel]

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/tra...POonZOYNweekUxg



Also I think there was a "SegaNet" service for the Sega Saturn Japan. It's all poorly documented stuff.

[Scarred Sun]

The Meganet ROMs were dumped through B-Club releases.

[Andlabs]

So what I'm piecing together form this:

There were two or three models of the Mega Modem, which is the device's actual name; these were only used for the Mega Modem and MegaNet.

MegaNet isn't a singular technology — games that were already compaible with modem might not have a name and the game delivery system was actually called Sega Game Library (セガゲーム図書館) and the cart is what you would need to connect to it. It'd be great if we could get a dump of the cart... or had more information about the game compatibility...

That still leaves the identity of the name "MegaNet." I'm aware of the art in Sonic Eraser but...

Is there some other source? Manual scans? Translations of the advertisements? Television ads? etc...

PS - Isn't "Wonder Library (Japan) (Program).md" that Wonder Dog thing? Or could that be the cart dump?

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 20 January 2011 - 04:03 PM

[Sik]

SegaNet (Japan) and MegaNet (Brazil) have nothing to do with each other. In fact, they don't even use the same modem (SegaNet uses the standard modem, MegaNet has a modem built inside the cartridge itself).

Also I believe the name SegaNet was also used for the Dreamcast on-line service >_<

[Andlabs]

Also is there a mirror of the B-Club pages? Or are they still up?

[Andlabs]

Ok I started splitting the article in two with the info I know for certain:

http://segaretro.org/Sega_Meganet
http://segaretro.org/Sega_Mega_Modem

If someone who's more knowledgeable would like to correct any errors, please do.

[GerbilSoft]

The "RS232C" version of the Mega Modem was most likely for development purposes only, and probably was just a level-converter that converted the MD's TTL serial to RS232C. It makes more sense doing that than it does to tie up phone lines while doing development.

[Andlabs]

CODE

Game Toshokan (Japan) (Rev A) (Program).md

So we DO have the Sega Game Library cart after all, but Rev A? And has anyone actually looked into this (before I do, that is)?

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 27 February 2011 - 10:38 PM

[ICEknight]

Wasn't there yet another MegaDrive download service for the DreamCast? I know I have a folder with many MegaDrive ROMs that were supposedly intended for it, and I think the current Game Toshokan ROM we have was precisely found among them. This revision might be a different ROM than the retail one, with all its games already included offline.

If I remember correctly, they were also supposed to release PC-Engine games through this service, but I don't know if they cancelled that in the end. EDIT: Found it. It was the DreamLibrary service.



Also... ".md"? Do we really need yet another file extension for these? =\

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 28 February 2011 - 08:50 AM

[Andlabs]

Wasn't there yet another MegaDrive download service for the DreamCast? I know I have a folder with many MegaDrive ROMs that were supposedly intended for it, and I think the current Game Toshokan ROM we have was precisely found among them. This revision might be a different ROM than the retail one, with all its games already included offline.

If it is, I'm surprised the original one isn't in no-intro, as it's just a cart that has been circulating...

Hm, I'm not seeing Toshokan in GoodGen...? Should I assume the cart one is undumped?

If I remember correctly, they were also supposed to release PC-Engine games through this service, but I don't know if they cancelled that in the end. EDIT: Found it. It was the DreamLibrary service.

Do you have any more info on that? I tried doing a Quick Google Search® but that turned up nothing except news archives and the actual DreamPassport with the service...

Also... ".md"? Do we really need yet another file extension for these? =\

Blame no-intro :U (it's just another .bin/.gen)

This post has been edited by Andlabs: 28 February 2011 - 10:20 AM

[ICEknight]

Wasn't there yet another MegaDrive download service for the DreamCast? I know I have a folder with many MegaDrive ROMs that were supposedly intended for it, and I think the current Game Toshokan ROM we have was precisely found among them. This revision might be a different ROM than the retail one, with all its games already included offline.

If it is, I'm surprised the original one isn't in no-intro, as it's just a cart that has been circulating...

Hm, I'm not seeing Toshokan in GoodGen...? Should I assume the cart one is undumped?

Try looking for "X-Band Modem BIOS".

By the way, I mixed up that ROM with "Game no Kanzume o Tokuyou", in my previous post. That's the one that was taken from the DreamCast disc, no idea of where the Game Toshokan ROM came from.

If I remember correctly, they were also supposed to release PC-Engine games through this service, but I don't know if they cancelled that in the end. EDIT: Found it. It was the DreamLibrary service.

Do you have any more info on that? I tried doing a Quick Google Search® but that turned up nothing except news archives and the actual DreamPassport with the service...

I'm afraid I don't have any info about it, I just remembered that from back when it was announced.

Also... ".md"? Do we really need yet another file extension for these? =\

Blame no-intro :U (it's just another .bin/.gen)

Silly guys, everybody knows the Mega Drive ROMs were also named ".SGD" at SEGA, back then.

[Meat Miracle]

Sonic Eraser and the phantasy star meganet roms (and a few others) were dumped from the Gamehompo system by pachuka, ryoga and nemesis. Dunno about the rest.

[Andlabs]

Split up the Meganet and Game Toshokan stuff:

http://segaretro.org/Sega_Meganet
http://segaretro.org/Sega_Game_Toshokan (could someone fix up the categories on this? I'm not exactly sure where this falls...)
http://segaretro.org/Category:Meganet_Games
http://segaretro.org/Category:Game_Toshokan_Games

For the record, the two cheat codes I used to access the title screen were
0003D0:60
000466:60
(both should be byte-sized writes at the addresses, like with Gens/GS)

[Black Squirrel]

In other news what's to be done with the Brazillian modem

http://segaretro.org/File:MegaNet_BR.JPG
http://segaretro.org/File:MegaNet_BR_Box_Front.jpg
http://segaretro.org/File:MegaNet2_BR_Box_Front.jpg

Aside from sharing a similar name ("Mega Net" as opposed to "Meganet"), the whole system appears to be completely different. Sega Retro's not doing a great job documenting it at the moment.