Early Online Services

Early online services that predate Xbox LIVE, the service that kick started the modern era of Online Services.

Famicom Modem \ Network System

A Japan-exclusive network peripheral that allowed users to connect to a Nintendo server that provided extra content such as jokes, news, game tips, weather forecasts, horse betting and downloadable content via dial-up modem.

Satellaview (SNES)

The Satellaview was a subscription-based add-on released only in Japan that streamed content to the Super Famicom. BS-X or Satellaview software was broadcast to the console add-on and stored as temporary data to be deleted shortly afterward. As such, a wealth of games went undumped and lost forever.

Many of these games had Soundlink features and would have assets like streamed music and voice acting, as well as some extra data, but these have been lost forever outside of video recordings and OST releases. These games will likely play without music on your emulator. The entirely fan-made MSU-1 feature on the higan emulator tries to replicate the BS-X Satellaview and unreleased SNES-CD concept for streamed music in SNES games far beyond the 12 MB cartridge capacity,, but it's not the same thing.

Some games like BS Treasure Conflix make use of the additional RAM provided by the BS-X add-on. While you can try playing them on regular SNES emulators, you may face issues for many of these games (no font appearing, hangs with a black screen, and so on). You'll need Satellaview emulation to properly emulate those games.

bsnes and snes9x are recommended. They use your PC clock with no option to modify it, though. SNESGT had the option to modify the clock, but it wasn't updated for a while and isn't really recommended for SNES emulation in general. No$SNS has good BS-X emulation (and the best debugger tools for ROM hackers and translators) but falls behind the others when it comes to general emulation.

You'll need the BS-X BIOS to properly emulate the Satellaview. It goes as "BS-X.bin" under the "BIOS" folder when using snes9x. There are many variants. You'll want the translated one (with English text) with removed DRM so that you can play a given broadcast without restrictions on how many times you can do so, like in the original hardware.

Whenever you open a BS-X compatible ROM (that wasn't modified to behave like a normal SNES game, like most BS Zelda translations were), you'll be greeted by the BIOS software. It will ask you to choose your name and avatar, which you can control in a city. Of course, the St-GIGA broadcast service went defunct in 2000, so the big radio tower will just give you a "Hello Satellaview" test broadcast. However, you may be interested in seeing how Nintendo used to do loading screens. To see them without them shutting down instantly, open BSX0001-47.bin (bsxdat folder) in a hex editor and change offset 0x06 from 0x30 to 0x00. Most houses will be closed, though.

You'll want to enter the little red house you start in front of and load the stored data. Sometimes, you might have to wait a while before actual gameplay starts or until a given time. On real hardware, people would wait for up to 6 minutes!

Data Pack emulation

AKA DLC for the Super Famicom.

Data Packs are Satellaview 8M Memory Paks, which have data meant to be used as an expansion for a Data Pack-compatible game. Data Pack-compatible game cartridges look like the BS-X Cartridge. For most of these games, data was distributed via St.GIGA’s Satellaview streaming services. Same Game and SD Gundam G-Next had some Data Packs sold in physical form via retail stores. RPG Tsukuru 2, Sound Novel Tsukuru and Ongaku Tsukuru Kanaderu could save user-created data to 8M Memory Paks.

The following games were compatible with Data Packs:

• Derby Stallion 96
• Joushou Mahjong Tenpai
• Ongaku Tsukuru Kanaderu
• RPG Tsukuru 2
• Same Game
• SD Gundam G-NEXT
• Shigesato Itoi no Bass Tsuri No. 1
• Sound Novel Tsukuru

These Data Packs are available on ROM sites as regular SFC files, but their actual nature couldn't be more different. Unlike regular SNES games, they won't load in SNES emulators by themselves. These emulators support this feature:

• Snes9x: To play SFC games with Memory Pack support (also works with BS-X): Use File -> Load MultiCart... and put the main game in Slot A and the Memory Pack dump in Slot B. Memory Pack changes are not saved automatically, you need to use Save Other -> Save Memory Pack. (Optional) You can put Satellaview Broadcast Files in a folder named SatData (can be changed in the settings). Satellaview Time & Date are based on current time.
• bsnes-plus: To play SFC games with Memory Pack support: Under "File/Load Slotted BS-X Cartridge". Memory Pack changes are not saved automatically, you need to use File -> Save Memory Pack... bsxdat folder contains Satellaview Broadcast Files. Satellaview expansion needs to be enabled to work. You can change the Satellaview Time & Date in the settings to either use the current time or start with a specific time setup (recommended).
• higan: Importing a memory pak is like importing a regular game, but the name of the memory pak file must end in .bs (if it’s in a .zip file, that’s OK, but the name inside the .zip file must end in .bs) in order for it to be successfully imported. Sometimes memory pak filenames end in .sfc, which will make higan try to import them as regular Super Famicom games and fail. Rename the file and it should work beautifully. Playing a game that has a slot for a memory pak is just like playing a regular game, but after you have selected which game you want to play higan will open another filesystem browser to let you pick which previously-imported memory pak you want to insert into the game. If you press “Cancel” at this point, the game will load without any cartridge in its memory pak slot. If you load the control cartridge into higan, make sure the emulated Satellaview is connected to the emulated Super Famicom’s expansion port by opening the “Super Famicom” menu, selecting the “Expansion Port” sub-menu, and choosing “Satellaview”. If the expansion port was previously configured with a different option, power-cycle the Super Famicom (also in the “Super Famicom” menu) to make sure the control cartridge will find the Satellaview when it starts up. Note that higan’s Satellaview emulation is not very accurate, so the control cartridge may not work as it should. Playing a memory pak on its own doesn’t make much sense, it’s not a standalone cartridge. Play a game with a memory pak slot, and choose which memory pak you want when higan asks for it.

N64 Modem cartridge

The modem cartridge (NUS-029) connects at up to 28.8 kbit/s, for the defunct Randnet service and compatible 64DD games and web browser.

Mega Modem (Sega Genesis)

The Mega Modem is a modem for the Sega Mega Drive released in 1990 exclusively in Japan. It allowed Mega Drive owners to connect their consoles to various online services provided by Sega and third parties.

List of compatible games with Mega Modem

NetLink (Sega Saturn)

Sometimes called "XBAND" and is a modem for Sega Saturn. Possibly can be emulated by YabaSanshiro.

• XBAND Supported games for Saturn
• XBAND Supported games for Saturn #2

XBAND Modem (Multi Platform)

The XBAND was the very first console modem to allow online multiplayer using a dial-up connection. It was released on the SNES for a range of games in the mid-nineties - as well as the Genesis and Saturn.

SNES XBAND Modem compatible games list

XBAND: Wonders of the Retro Gaming World