DO NOT expect any of this to happen anytime soon or ever, its just something interesting to ponder.


A while ago I figured out it would be very easy to connect an ISA ethernet card to the NES and do networking. The software to handle network traffic ranges from fairly simple (UDP, DHCP) to amazingly hard (TCP). UDP does not handle retransmission from packet loss, so the game would have to deal with that. The NES would also be quite slow so high bandwidth is not possible. And finally the internet latency would be fairly large so a fast paced game would not work. This would absolutely not be turning existing games into internet games, the latency is just way too big.

What types of internet multiplayer games would be fun? With the above limitations it would have to be something slow paced or turn based. Multiplayer Dragon Warrior could be good, maybe something like 4 player ExciteBike. Only allowing LAN instead of internet would reduce latency but then you need many TVs in one spot. Possibly a computer server could be used to do more of a multi user dungeon setup with far more than 2-4 systems connected. The NES would then have much of the processing offloaded onto the computer, somewhat like a dumb terminal. Get Dain to write and host that app on NA

Camping outside your place waiting for it, get to work!
~~NGD

well they did have that Minnesota lottery modem that used the port under the nes. I would think you may be able to actually use maybe a 1200 baud modem. Granted you'd probably have to write custom drivers/etc. The NES processer run at 1.somthing mhz though and that may cause a problem. Not that I'm all that knowledgable about the nes but maybe you could have the modem act as say the 2nd controller port. Not actual run all the game, but just the actions and placement of the 2nd player. I think 1200 baud would be more than enough to transmit just controller imputs. The major problem I think would be more connecting 2 or more NES's over the internet. You'd probably have to do it like the infant internet days and direct connect somehow. Maybe you could use a seperate processor to read and caculate incoming information and feed it to the NES processor.

I'd be up for that!

Strategy games like romance of the three kingdoms would be great for this.  Eight players alternating turns? Sounds good to me.

The network hardware (ISA ethernet card) is actually the super easy part. Changing to a serial port modem would be harder, ISA modem would be the same. Still need all the network protocols. A direct BBS modem style connection might work but that would likely remove the computer server option. I am trying to get rid of my phone lines anyways

Having a game idea good enough to do all the work and to have enough people buy it is the hard part. A network multiplayer game when only a couple people buy it doesn't help... Somebody go out and design a graphical MUD type game! Or make World of Nintendocraft...

Even a text-based game like the old BBS game Legend of the Red Dragon would be super sweet in NES form. You play it alone, but all the characters are hosted server-side, so you can see what level everyone is, and attack their characters while they're not playing.

The inside-the-building parts of Rescue: The Embassy Mission would be fun with multi-player... each player could be one of the terrorists and go around trying to find and kill the other players... not sure if the NES could handle it, though.

woot for LOTR! And what was the other one, Trade Wars 2002 or something? ...wikis... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TradeWars_2002 yep I spent way too much time on both of these games. I used to join boards just to get more turns in different BBS universes. This was mmorpg before Warcrack.

Can you make some more PowerPaks before you attempt this?

I'm getting desperate

But I really like the idea, could be cool in a Lan too.

Haha, glad I wasn't the only one. I played both those as well, and would join all the BBS's I could to play as much as possible.

A graphical MUD would be *perfect* for this type of system, IMO. Kinda like Shadowgate on crack.

if the NES was only acting in a dumb terminal fashion, it could work very nicely

Hm...quite interesting, indeed. I think I have some old ISA ethernet cards lying around here, as well..I'd have to check...

Hmmm...Im all about the LAN's.  Buying 5 tv's and 5 xbox's was no big deal to me, lol.

The biggest problems with MUDs are no easy text input (everyone can be in NA chat room) and the MUDs I have seen have tons of commands you type in. Unless many multilevel menus are used the command input would be annoying. If there was a computer server it would be more possible to download game code from the server and keep it in cart ram. That way at least some game updates could be made. Having it be entirely a dumb terminal would likely be too slow, don't want to wait half a second between pressing a button and something happening.

But think of how cool it would be competing with other real people from NA! I just found out there is a Legend of the Red Dragon remake called Legend of the Green Dragon that you can play web-based and I'm in love all over again. Having something on the NES would be so damn cool.



Plus having a computer server you could have the game run in waves, so after three weeks or so it would start over and everyone that came in late in the game would have a fair chance from the start.



Sorry, I'm way too excited at the potential of this.



If anything like this is possible, I'd be happy to help out in any way I could.



I, for one, have no qualms with waiting half a second after every input, for something as unique as this.

I'm also excited about the prospect of this, and I'll help out any way I can (ie, host the server). I know this would require some very serious programming.

For anyone that wants to help, all you have to do is design the complete game Only thing close to a mud I played was Angband, then the multi player version wasn't stable. Another option would be an original Warcraft, Civilization, or other castle building type game. NA clan warfare? I generally don't like Koei games but a strategy type like L'Empereur may also be good. I will have to check out Shadowgate...

For a MUD type most likely the entire game engine would need to be on the cart, then the player/weapon/map info would be downloaded every time you connect to the server. As you play the nes and server would constantly exchange updates.

For a castle building it could be simultaneous timed turns. Everyone gets 10-30 secs to set up what they want to do, then it is transferred to the server. Server then processes each person in order and sends out the updates. That way you are not waiting a long time for every other person to sequentially do their turn. Internet latency would also not be as much of a problem because its not real time action

I'd like to see the modem as a separate accessory (I'm picturing the expansion port actually being used).

Then games written to use it would not be expensive to make.

Al

Maybe something like Rampart would work, or like a NES version of crossbows and catapults.

I'd be happy to design the complete game. All you have to do is transfer my Photoshop documents into your assembly language.

So bunnyboy, have you found a connector that plugs into the expansion port? I've been looking for something for my own experimentation but haven't found a good match...

There is no plug that will fit in the expansion port socket. The closest would be chopping up some old floppy cables but it wouldn't be sturdy. A while ago I got a plug quoted and it was basically 5-7k for the molds, then $1 each for 2000 units. For something that might sell 100 thats $80 per plug There may be other places that will do it cheaper, but its not possible to avoid at least a couple thousand just for the molds.

I know I would buy something like this