XBAND

XBAND (stylized as XBⱯND) was one of the first competitive online console gaming networks and was available for the Genesis and Super NES. It was produced by Catapult Entertainment in Cupertino, California. It is the only modem released in America to have been officially licensed by Nintendo. It debuted in various areas of the United States between November 1994 and June 1995 and was later released nationwide between October 2 and 8, 1995.

History

The Genesis version of the XBAND was released in November 1994, with the Super NES version following in June 1995, and the Super Famicom version in April 1996. The Genesis version also works with the Genesis Nomad. In Brazil the Mega Drive service was released as the Mega Net 2, named after the Sega Meganet.

In 1995, Catapult Entertainment signed a deal with General Instrument, producers of the Sega Channel, which stipulated that the XBAND modem would henceforth be built into new Sega Channel adapters, and that the top 5 to 10 games offered by Sega Channel each month would be playable over XBAND.

Initially, Catapult Entertainment had a limited staff and virtually no advertising. By January 1997, XBAND network playability had reached practically every metropolitan area and several rural areas in the U.S. The actual XBAND modems were carried by a few software and video rental chains across the United States. Internationally, the XBAND had some limited growth in the Japanese market, and Catapult was working on PC and Sega Saturn support, though it merged with Mpath Interactive. The focus shifted to the online PC gaming service Mplayer.com which was taken offline and integrated into GameSpy Arcade in 2001, after being acquired by GameSpy in December 2000.

Service

The concept of playing online was fairly new at the time. Arcades were still quite popular, and online gaming was not yet a household idea.

The XBAND modem was widely available at Blockbuster Video for , with additional charges based on usage. Two pricing plans were available. One had a monthly fee of $4.95 and allowed the user to connect to the service up to 50 times a month with each additional connection costing 15 cents. The other had a monthly fee of $9.95 with unlimited connections. Activities that consumed a player's monthly allowance of connections included dialing into the XBAND service for matchmaking, downloading mail (called "XMAIL"), and downloading the daily edition of the two XBAND newsletters, one containing generic news and the other containing platform-specific information such as leaderboards and contest announcements. Players were assessed a fee of $3.95/hour for connecting to opponents outside their local calling area; player-to-player connections inside their local calling area were free.

The modem features built-in storage for up to four user codenames. It stores user friend lists, which can contain the codenames of up to ten of the user's friends; the users' XMAIL boxes, storing up to ten incoming and ten outgoing messages for each user; the users' rankings, win–loss records, and accumulated scores; a short profile section; and the user's avatar (chosen from 40 preset avatars). Text entry is done either through an on-screen keyboard or an optional XBAND keyboard add-on ($29.95 MSRP) released later in the network's lifespan.

The client-side system worked by manipulating the game's memory in a way similar to Game Genie or third-party computer game modifications do.

The XBand operating system was designed to ensure that connections are not lost due to phone activity; in the case of call waiting, the system would alert the user to the call and allow the game to be resumed.

XBAND had an official website to check other players' statistics, along with other information and updates that were not viewable on consoles.

At its height, XBAND had 15,000 subscribers.

Gaming

A 1995 article in '' Next Generation'' stated that the XBAND modem's "ultra-low latency is the key to its successful handling of realtime videogaming". The modem's data transfer rate is 2,400 bits per second, which, though low compared to PC modems of the time, was sufficient to handle the simple one-on-one games for XBAND.

When connecting to play, unless specifying a particular user from the friend list, players were matched with a random player elsewhere in the country (or the player's local area code depending on preference) who was also connecting to play the same game. The server would attempt to match players of like skill levels, using the Elo rating system. When the network matched two players up, the newly-connected player's XBAND modem would disconnect from the server and dial the other player, whose own XBAND modem would answer. At that point, the players saw the XBAND logo slide together, followed by the matchup screen, which displayed each player's codenames, avatars, locations, and a pre-typed "taunt".

In December 1995, XBAND launched its first national tournament. This was the first modem to modem tournament ever to be held over a console. The grand prize winner received a special Genghis Khan icon for their XBAND profile and a $200 cash prize from Catapult. Peter Kappes aka "SphiNX" of Orlando, Florida became the first person in history to win a modem to modem national tournament over a console.

Icon hacking

During the last few months of service, several users discovered a way to use a Game Genie to hack the icons of XBAND players. This enabled players to use icons that were otherwise restricted, such as unreleased icons or icons reserved for matches between XBAND team members. Icon hacking resulted in complaints from other users. Rumors about XBAND icon hackers often claimed they were part of elite hacking organizations or members of Catapult Entertainment. Eventually, the method used by the hackers was leaked and inevitably spread throughout the community.

Demise

By March 16, 1997, people could only play within their local area code. On April 30, 1997, the entire network was discontinued, with Mpath citing a lack of new games for the Genesis and Super NES.

XBAND had announced in its previous monthly newsletter that it was shutting down. According to '' Next Generation'', XBAND "never turned a significant profit". During XBAND's existence, only a handful of advertisements were ever made, and only one game, '' Weaponlord'', has the XBAND logo on its box. XBAND stated in its newsletter that players were their best form of advertising, and offered the "XBAND 6 pack", where members could order six modems at a discounted rate and receive a month of free gaming in exchange for signing up a certain number of people to the service.

Heavy contributors to XBAND's demise were the lack of support from game developers and limited internal resources. With the exception of ''Weaponlord'' and ''Doom'', Catapult had to individually reverse engineer each game's code, then develop a hack to intercept two-player activity so the game could be shared over a low-latency (fast response time), 2,400-bit/s modem connection.

Catapult's second generation attempts were blocked by Conexant due to the increasing use of the Internet, an effect from the shift to the Information Age. The XBAND was launched in Japan on April 1, 1996 for the Sega Saturn. Unlike the SNES/Super Famicom and Genesis versions of XBAND, it did not require an XBAND-specific modem, instead utilizing Sega's own Sega NetLink device (which included a 14,400 bit/s modem in Japan and a 28,800 bit/s modem in North America). Neither the Saturn XBAND nor an expansion into the PC market succeeded, because developers frequently opted to include their own network linking rather than deal with Catapult's subscription-based service.

Service issues

A major issue for the XBAND service was free long-distance phone calls. It was discovered that a user could record the tones sent from an XBAND modem and then receive the long-distance service number, the authentication code, and phone number of the player you were connecting to. This information allowed anyone to access long-distance phone calls that were charged to Catapult.

Paging company SkyTel faced similar problems from both XBAND users and their own customers. XBAND users performed brute-force attacks against SkyTel's mobile paging system in order to discover voicemail boxes using the same number as the login and password, using these to extend their communication with each other. Most messages consisted simply of shout-out

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