Dream Library (Virtual Console)

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Roareye
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Dream Library (Virtual Console)

Post#1 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 3:10 am

So there's been slivers of information on the Dream Library service in Japan, which effectively is Sega's version if Nintendo's Virtual Console, or Xbox's Live Arcade some 4/5 years before either of those services came into existence.

Only accessible via Dream Passport 3 (one of the last Japanese web browsers), we knew the service allowed Japanese users to log in and download smaller titles on a monthly basis, with games changing month to month.

While web trawling to try and locate all the original Japanese game websites, I found two titles AM2 listed as being for Dream Library, however very little information survived.
The two titles were both Mega Drive/Genesis titles. Dyna Brothers and Galaxy Force II.

I want to get a copy of Dream Passport 3 to see if there's an emulator built into it, or if these games were Dreamcast ports. If they were emulated, then it goes without saying that the service is able to be revived! I have Dream Passport 2 and despite being a Japanese title it can and does connect to the internet. As such it'd simply be a case of rebuilding the site that deals with Dream Library.

If we can include as much data here as possible we might get to the bottom of this system and potentially employ it ourselves.
Last edited by Roareye on Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

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DarkSynbios
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#2 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 6:47 am

I think Dricas is more complicated to bring online as you need to bring back a lot of services.The Dreamkara Karaoke will be nice :)

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Roareye
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#3 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 8:31 am

Depends on which aspects of Dricas. Dream Passport 2 works just fine, I have video proof that it connects to the internet and loads web pages. The official pages are still offline but we are working on bringing sites back online at the moment. Having brought Japanese DC games online using a PAL DC in the UK, I'm pretty certain the Dricas issues are solely issues with online multiplayer. The browser functions all operate fine.

mrneo240
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#4 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 7:39 pm

Columns folder
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Dreamlib folder
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dreamlib\dpdl folder
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100% accurately translated emu_rom.txt file

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S00001S00007102200.BIN S00001S00007102200 Ichidanthr
S00001S00007102201.BIN S00001S00007102201 Bear knuckle 2
S00001S00007102202.BIN S00001S00007102202 Bear knuckle 3
S00001S00007102203.BIN S00001S00007102203 Dyna Brothers 2
S00001S00007102204.BIN S00001S00007102204 Devils course
S00001S00007102205.BIN S00001S00007102205 Dragonslayer Hero Legend 1
S00001S00007102206.BIN S00001S00007102206 Dragonslayer Hero Legend 2
S00001S00007102207.BIN S00001S00007102207 Eternal Champions
S00001S00007102208.BIN S00001S00007102208 Comics zone
S00001S00007102209.BIN S00001S00007102209 Land stalker
S00001S00007102210.BIN S00001S00007102210 Light Crusader
S00001S00007102211.BIN S00001S00007102211 Pro striker '95
S00001S00007102212.BIN S00001S00007102212 Canned games
S00001S00007102213.BIN S00001S00007102213 Blood Buddha Tribe
S00001S00007102214.BIN S00001S00007102214 Langrisser 2
S00001S00007102215.BIN S00001S00007102215 Mage story 1
S00001S00007102216.BIN S00001S00007102216 Monster World 4
S00001S00007102217.BIN S00001S00007102217 Pulse man
S00001S00007102218.BIN S00001S00007102218 Fanter Sister 4
S00001S00007102219.BIN S00001S00007102219 Laguna Centi
S00001S00007102220.BIN S00001S00007102220 Lister the shooting star
S00001S00007102221.BIN S00001S00007102221 Road Monarch
S00001S00007102222.BIN S00001S00007102222 Rockman mega world
S00001S00007102223.BIN S00001S00007102223 Shining force
S00001S00007102224.BIN S00001S00007102224 Splatter house 3
S00001S00007102225.BIN S00001S00007102225 Street of toa
S00001S00007102226.BIN S00001S00007102226 Samurai Spirits
S00001S00007102227.BIN S00001S00007102227 Sangokushi 3
S00001S00007102228.BIN S00001S00007102228 Surging aura
S00001S00007102229.BIN S00001S00007102229 Shining Force 2
S00001S00007102230.BIN S00001S00007102230 St 2 Dash
S00001S00007102231.BIN S00001S00007102231 Street of Rising 3
S00001S00007102232.BIN S00001S00007102232 Subterranea
S00001S00007102233.BIN S00001S00007102233 Puyo Puyo 2
S00001S00007102234.BIN S00001S00007102234 Hybrid Front
S00001S00007102235.BIN S00001S00007102235 Blue wolf and white female deer
S00001S00007102236.BIN S00001S00007102236 Nobunaga's Nobuhiro Hideo
S00001S00007102237.BIN S00001S00007102237 Tantr
S00001S00007102238.BIN S00001S00007102238 Togehm andr
S00001S00007102239.BIN S00001S00007102239 Vector Man 2
S00001S00007102240.BIN S00001S00007102240 Vector Man
S00001S00007102241.BIN S00001S00007102241 Virtua fighter 2
S00001S00007102242.BIN S00001S00007102242 Miracle of Waialerae


info for S00001S00007102241.BIN S00001S00007102241 Virtua fighter 2

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S00001S00007102241.BIN size 4194304
HashCalc Info:
MD5:    61b922208e0518a2e127939d374a43cb
SHA1:   c283bf31b646489c2341f8325c52fb8b788a3702
CRC32:  937380f3

which just happens to match.....

Code: Select all

1. Virtua Fighter 2 (USA, Europe).md  No-Intro
Virtua Fighter 2 (UE) [!].bin  GoodTools
Virtua Fighter 2 Rev 1 (1997-01)(Sega)(EU-US).bin  TOSEC
mpr-19093-u.ic1  MAME
RA Checksum: 61b922208e0518a2e127939d374a43cb
CRC32 Checksum: 937380F3



all the rest of the hashes https://hastebin.com/oyewubuset.makefile

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Roareye
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#5 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 8:05 pm

So... those are games stored on the disc itself? They never released all of those titles on the service - I've just located the official download pages over the course of the three years. There also appears to be quite a few that are on the site and not on that list.

After I've revived the official site, we can see about getting the site code to match up with the Dream Passport code so hopefully the service will be re-usable. Since the Browser is effectively just calling upon a website - something that has been proven to work via Dream Passport - there's no issue with connectivity to stop this. Though how much, if any reverse engineering is needed is beyond me. I really have zero file coding experience.

EDIT::
Here's the full list of games available on the service that have survived the passage of time;

MEGA DRIVE
---16 SEPT 2000---
Bare Knuckle
Columns III
Battle Golfer Yui only
Phantasy Star III
Golden Axe
Puyo Puyo Preview Version
Dyna Brothers
Alien Storm
The Super Shinobi II
Sangokushi Denki
Galaxy Force II
Super Volleyball
Langrisser
Heavy Equipment Soldier Reynos
Star Cruiser
Columns
Tanto-R
Gain Ground
Party Quiz Mega Q
Monster World IV
Shining Force

--MARCH 2001--- [15 minutes freeplay while main server down - possibly due to PC Engine backing out]
Columns
Flicky
Great Makai Village (Ghouls n' Ghosts)
Pepen is a Penguo
Puyo Puyo

---NOVEMBER 2001---
Alien Storm
Gain Ground
Golden Axe
Columns
The Super Shinobi II
Sangokushi Denki
The Largest Warehouse Number Ever
Zinnow
Shining Force
Heavy Equipment Soldier Reynos
Super League
Star Cruiser
Sorcerian (warning of potential difficulties)
So Saar Kingdom
Dyna Brothers
Tanto-R
Dragon Slayer Heroes Legend
Party Quiz Mega Q
Battle Golfer Yui only
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star III
Phantasy Star IV
Puyo Puyo
Bare Knuckle
Monster World IV
Langrisser
Renta-Hero
Road Monarch Trout Battle Legend



PC ENGINE
---END ON SEPT 21st 2000---
Crosswire
Double Ring
Eternal City Urban Transfer Plan
---16 SEPT 2000---
USA Professional Basketball
Bevil's Sword Necromancer
New Topia II
Momotaro Legend Gaiden - 1st Collection
Power League
Sengoku Mahjong
Bomberman '94
The Kunio
New Topia
R-TYPE I
R-TYPE II
Soldier Blade
Hello y drinking water
Cyber Cross
Hello Everyone
Alice in Wonderland's Dream
Time Cruise II
Alien Crash
NAXAT OPEN
Digital Champ
Burning Angel
Vicinity
Major Adventure of Mr HELI
Last Nindo Road
Shot Shooting Boy
Fantasy Zone[/spoiler]

mrneo240
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Posts: 926

Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#6 » Tue Feb 19, 2019 9:32 pm

Code: Select all

MARCH 2001--- [15 minutes freeplay while main server down - possibly due to PC Engine backing out]
Columns
Flicky
Great Makai Village (Ghouls n' Ghosts)
Pepen is a Penguo
Puyo Puyo


All present on disc

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Roareye
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#7 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:54 am

Which is surprising since that selection as far as I can tell only came into use on March 2001, after the Dream Library (and in effect Dream Passport 3) had been established with a wider variety of titles. I'm guessing the 15 minute freeplay was used to promote the service prior to it going fully online, but the records don't go back far enough to be able to prove or disprove that, but it makes sense since those titles in the 15 minute freeplay state are the ones on the disc.

mrneo240
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#8 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:27 am

Also metallic said all the ROM bins match existing known dumps, so nothing to find in them.

Although I guess having the emu work could be really cool.

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Roareye
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#9 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 12:51 pm

That's awesome info mrneo240. :D

I am currently in progress reviving the dricas.com website (Dricas.ne.jp seems to have housed the game sites, while dricas.com hosted the Dream Passport services). It's VERY early stages, with only the main menu page, Dream Library index page (which I added as a text link to the menu before I try tackling the links in the SWF file), "What is Dream Library?", Title Listing and Bare Knuckle pages available for use. A lot of dead links that need to be fixed, and that's just a matter of time.

The coding for launching the title in slot 8 is present, but I don't believe the download service is active, though I don't have a copy of Dream Passport Premier to test it with. Some games are Premier exclusives as the service was upgraded to a point where Dream Passport 3 stopped working with the Library services. I'm guessing this was due to loading more ROMS onto Premier, but that's a guess on my part entirely.

Feel free to snoop around, and this link will work within Dream Passport if anyone wants to hazard a try via a DC browser.

http://seganet.co.uk/dricas-com/

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Anthony817
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Re: Dream Library (Mega Drive)

Post#10 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 10:53 pm

Here is the thing, the homebrew PC engine emu port only ran games like at 90% speed, and I believe one of the releases had sounds disabled to get that speed. So it would be pretty fantastic to have an official PCE emu with rom selection. So would this be possible using that PCE .bin?
Last edited by Anthony817 on Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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