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| Jul - The Cutting Room Floor - Phantasy Star Online Network Trial Edition (Dreamcast NTSC-J) (10/25/2000) |
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koolaidman Member Level: 20     Posts: 69/92 EXP: 37790 For next: 4649 Since: 07-17-10 Since last post: 17 days Last activity: 8 hours
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I was waiting for this to come around. This isn't my dump, I don't know who's dump initially made it to TOSEC but it's about time. About a month and a half before the final Japanese retail version of PSO V1 went gold, Sega allowed a few players a chance to play a "Network Trial" before the game's release to test the server load (as well as I think the last few parts of the game). Pretty rare as far as I know, and I don't know if the players had to send their copies back to Sega after they were done. But nonetheless, a few copies were distributed and found their ways into people willing to dump it. The trial now exists under the TOSEC catalog as of February of this year. To save you the trouble of hunting it down, you can download the trial here. Unfortunately, this was supposed to be an online only trial, so it's not possible to play the single player campaign. However, I believe the Sylverant PSO Server software can let you connect to a private server. I'm not sure how playable the server is, but there is login/lobby support at least. You'll also need an emulator that supports the broadband adapter. I think there were a few that can let you do this. When prompted, you need to provide a serial number and access key. These keys are from VasiliyRS' copy of the game: Serial No.: 4572564555550673 Access Key: pNgwyMTrN3VfuksW Here are some screenshots I took. 
And now, time for some differences! Just a few notable ones so far: General: - There are logos for ADX in the opening - No movie files - The options screen will only let you change one thing. I don't know what it is though. - The 'Homepage' only contains a page with a link to Dricas and Sonic Team's website. The official PSO web page isn't linked for some reason. - Instead of playing the opening cinematic when you start a new game, a text scroll detailing the game's story plays instead (see screenshot above). - After the text scroll, you can create a character. Everything seems to be here as far as I know. - OFFLINE MODE is listed but disabled, obviously. - When ONLINE MODE is selected, it'll give a disclaimer to agree on. I think it then does some kind of calendar or adapter check to see if it should allow you to enter the Serial/Access key info. I'm not entirely sure though. Sound and Music (click the link to hear and download the music): BASS.ACX - This is the level warp sound effect (when you're appearing in a new area). This is completely different in the NTE. CITY32K.ADX - This is 'Pioneer2". File not present in the final. I thought this was just a 32khz version of the Ship music, but it's actually a different mix of the song. A lot more reverb in this version. DARK2.ADX - This is 'Cry, for 'IDOLA' the holy'. Sounds slightly different in comparison to the final. DELO.ADX - This is 'From seeing the rough wave', the Cave boss theme. Differently mixed, uses sampled/synthesized strings instead of real orchestral strings. EPI2.ADX - This is 'After the story2'. Sounds like a demo version of the track, using synthesized strings instead of real orchestral strings, etc. J_CLEAR.ADX - Just a mono version of the jingle that plays when you complete a quest. File doesn't exist in the Final. VOL_OPT2.ADX - This is 'You have nowhere to go'. Sounds like a demo version of the track, using sampling instead of a real orchestra. Misc: DUMMY.BIN - Just a blank 704 KB file, nothing inside. GSL_#.GSL - All the GSL files for the maps are here, some even have the English script. There are a lot more MAP_ANCIENT##.REL files in the NTE. What are these? PLYMOTIONDATA.REL - doesn't exist in the final There are definitely some in game differences. As I said, the Sylverant PSO Server software can probably get you in game. BlueCrab (the author) posted some screenshots of what it looks like in the lobby which he took screenshots of (I don't feel comfortable rehosting them without permission, so I'll link to them instead). Note though, I don't know if these are indeed differences in the NTE or just something with the server: Lobby differences: - The NPCs at the counter are male instead of female. - The Lobby warps are all normal Area warps. That's it from me so far. There's a lot of stuff to go through file wise. I don't know much about the other file formats used in PSO, so it should be interesting to see what's in there. Hopefully someone with more technical know how about the games can take a look. Cheers! EDIT: Supposedly, the latest version of Demul is the only known emulator that can emulate the BBA well enough to connect to a server. I still can't get past this message after selecting Online mode though:  |
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koolaidman Member Level: 20 Posts: 70/92 EXP: 37790 For next: 4649 Since: 07-17-10 Since last post: 17 days Last activity: 8 hours
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| More music differences! I didn't notice these at first until I did a byte comparison in Hex Workshop, since they have the same size as their final counterparts.
The game uses two copies of the field music, one for the sound test and the other for in game. The ones used in game are divided into segments and played at different times depending on what's happening, these are stored in AFS files. The ones used in the sound test are stored in ADX format. The NTE purged some of the ADX files that wouldn't be used in this version (like event music, etc), but the in game music that exists in AFS files are still here. I compared all the ones in the NTE with the Japanese V1 release, these are the only two that are different. Also note that since these were in parts, I had to combine them so that the songs were continuous. They sound perfectly fine, but once the battle segments of the BGM begin it can get a little awkward sounding. This has nothing to do with the prototype, it's just how I ended up putting all the individual pieces together. I can upload what the final versions sound like when put together, but in the mean time: SLBGM_CAVE.AFS - The music used for the Cave maps, includes both the normal and battle BGM for the stage. There are some differences all around but most of them are due to the mixing of the track, but there might be some small differences here and there with the sampling too. SLBGM_ANCIENT.AFS - The music used for the Ruin maps, includes both the normal and battle BGM for the stage. The most notable difference is the sampled orchestra strings rather than the live recorded ones that were used in the final. The track also has a lot more reverb and has a slightly different mix all around. |
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Sik Level: 18 Posts: 70/90 EXP: 26446 For next: 3451 Since: 12-07-12 Since last post: 9 days Last activity: 9 days
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| Didn't actually translate that screen you're stuck on, but I think it's saying that you need to set up the Dreamcast for on-line access first (since it mentions the browser, and AFAIK you need to use the browser to set up the modem). |
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RecklessAbandon Random nobody Level: 2 Posts: 1/1 EXP: 19 For next: 27 Since: 07-10-14 Since last post: 380 days Last activity: 239 days
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| Cool! I have been trying to find info on this version of PSO for a long time. I really want to try to get it to connect to Sylverant PSO Server, but having trouble getting the game to boot in NullDC. I'm not very good with CD based emulators. Is there a way to turn this file into a selfboot to be ran on an actual Dreamcast? I want to try to load it with Sylverant PSO Server patcher to see if I can get it connected online.
I hope someone has a way to read into other files on the disc as well. |
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koolaidman Member Level: 20 Posts: 74/92 EXP: 37790 For next: 4649 Since: 07-17-10 Since last post: 17 days Last activity: 8 hours
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Originally posted by RecklessAbandon I think the game is small enough to burn on a CDI. I'm not sure what's involved in the selfboot making process though. Originally posted by Sik I tried to open the in game web browser as well and the same thing game up. I didn't try to set up the modem on another browser though... Also I located a dumped version of the Episode 1&2 trial as well. I heard that this version can be played offline, but can only be played offline in splitscreen multiplayer mode and with the modem adapter plugged in. Dolphin can't run the game at the moment because of the latter reason. The trial only works with the modem adapter, Dolphin only emulates the broadband adapter. :\ I'll try to get a link up in a bit. There are some differences there worthy of discussion in that version as well afaik. |
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Sik Level: 18 Posts: 72/90 EXP: 26446 For next: 3451 Since: 12-07-12 Since last post: 9 days Last activity: 9 days
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Originally posted by koolaidman That won't work, you need to use the browser that comes with the modem (i.e. the standalone browser disc). |
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koolaidman Member Level: 20 Posts: 85/92 EXP: 37790 For next: 4649 Since: 07-17-10 Since last post: 17 days Last activity: 8 hours
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| Something related, but I found and uploaded the Gamecube Network Trial Edition for Episode 1 & 2. You can grab it here.
This won't boot to the actual game unless you have the modem adapter connected (the broadband adapter wasn't out at the time of this release so support wasn't added yet). Dolphin doesn't have support for the modem, although I thought that work was done to make a dummy version of the adapter to let the game boot. Unlike the Dreamcast NTE, you can actually play this offline...multiplayer only though. I'm curious how much work it would take to patch the game to allow the other offline options to be enabled. |
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| Jul - The Cutting Room Floor - Phantasy Star Online Network Trial Edition (Dreamcast NTSC-J) (10/25/2000) |
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