Did anyone actually ever use Xband?

[gruzniak]

I was looking through a '96 issue of Game Informer and they did a huge story on it. I didnt know they made anything like that been than. With a phone line i imagine it must've been damn laggy. It was also damn expensive like $80-infinite dollars a year depending how much you played, $3.75 per hour. Did anyone here actually use it? If so how was it, and why didnt it get to popular.

[Jorpho]

Point http://www.archive.org to XBand.com. It used to be run by a former XBand employee.

[GunPanther]

Damn.... never in jesuphat's moon would I have ever expected to hear the name "XBand" again.


Seriously though, I used to use the Xband Modem for the SNES waaaaaaaaay back in 1995.


From what I can remember about the membership details, you had to have a credit card in order to purchase 'credits' (similar to arcade game 'play' credits) which you would then use to play a single game online.

You'd find a player to play against, depending on the 56k dial-up setting you chose (local or nationwide, all toll charges are charged to the person who did the calling/challenging) and the loser of the game would end up losing their credit. The winner, got their credit back, so it was like they played against someone for free.

Back in 1995, the "Internet" or "Information Superhighway" (as media really liked to call it back then) was still in it's infancy, so features like "e-mail" were pretty impressive, especially since you could send anyone an email from your Genesis or SNES XBand account. (Email extensions would be something like "username@xband.com") Emails were free to send, but definitely time consuming because you had to type EVERYTHING from the XBand program's "message" screen. No matter how comfortable the SNES or Genesis control pads were, it was still quite a chore to even chat with others before or after a match.


At first, the XBand was a new way to try and find opponents throughout the USA, but after a while, it lost it's kick once people found ways to cheat the system.

Game Genies (or cheat devices) were still also a bit new back then, but could surprisingly be used to cheat in XBand online games. Eventually, the XBand networks figured out a way to weed out the cheaters, but their system for doing so wasn't perfect, because cheat device codes were constantly being changed.

On top of the cheat device problem, the games that were playable, especially the fighting game titles, were filled with major glitches.

Here are some of the examples:

Mortal Kombat II (SNES)- Using "Scorpion", a player could do endless 'spear' moves, effectively defeating their opponent who has no chance to recover from the 'dizzying' effect of being hit by the spear move. In the regular game, Scorpion can only throw a spear once, hit the enemy and if the enemy is hit, Scorpion must either score a hit on them quickly or the opponent will recover. The computer did not allow Scorpion (human player or otherwise) to throw a second spear while the opponent was 'dizzy'. In the XBand version, a player could do this until their opponent's energy was fully depleted. (There was no escape from this move once you were nailed with it) The game itself was also plagued with lag, especially if you were playing against someone who was a far distance from you.


Super Street Fighter (SNES) -


Definitely a lag filled game. From the long lag times of the player select screen, to the 'multiple projectile' glitch, this game was still a bit 'cheap' because of the aformentioned glitch, but it was a lot funner to play since everyone liked the ability to throw 2-3 fireballs in quick succession.



Like all things, the XBand finally ended it's run and went out with more of a whine than a bang. People left because dishonest players were cheating and because they usually didn't have time to devote to playing online any more.


Me? I left because I got bored of the games. I mean, you can only play MKII and SSF so many times before it becomes all the same.





GunPanther

[cokelike24]

The one thing that sucked about the Xband was how cheap some people would be. For instance at the beginning of a mario kart battle my opponent would always run out real fast and if he got a red shell, would get me before id even started to move. This was possible because of the lag. I remember id always get some guy named "Brumby" who do this alot. Even so it was cool to use the Xband. You could also chat with people by pressing up, up, up before a race. I met a dude calling himself "Tha Drug Dealer" from Georgia. He had the Icon of the dude in the baseball hat. You could Pick from like 30 icons i think and then you could mess with the colors in them.

[evildead2099]

Cheating and cheap opponents are not problems that were exclusive to games played over the Xband network.

Dial up multiplayer gaming may seem absurd, but you have to remember that the internet was only beginning to enter the mainstream by that point in time. Very few people had broadband internet, and those that did payed a lot to maintain their subscription.

you can only play MKII and SSF so many times before it becomes all the same.

I disagree.

[digitalpress]

I used to play quite a lot. The Genesis version of the X-Band, to be precise.

Though I don't care nearly as much for sports games these days as I did back then, I used to obsess over NBA Live and NHL via X-Band. I even had an arch-rival, handle "Brother Sun".

It was a surprisingly effective tool for its time, I always wondered why it didn't catch on. I didn't see any REAL console gaming online until the Dreamcast.

[Melf]

Boom!

[thehistorian]

I was a player... still have my orignial unit.. and suprosingly it still has all my data... with the last few new updates and such...

[ubersaurus]

Me? I left because I got bored of the games. I mean, you can only play MKII and SSF so many times before it becomes all the same.

A good multiplayer game, like SF2, will be entertaining no matter how many times you play it.