Some of you may remember reading about the Xband 2.0 revival project in recent times. We were mildy successful at designing a modern version of the Xband network through emulation, but we had quite a few flaws in the first round. We've taken all of the issues with our first round, and thought much much much bigger. Let me tell you a little about about the Xband 3 project, why it's cool, why you should sign up for the beta, and what it means to classic gaming!
What is the Xband 3 project?
The Xband 3 project can be compared to the Xbox Live of retro gaming. The Xband OS can matchmake you in classic Snes / Genesis titles, send email(xmail), track wins and losses in those games, has 2 built in newsletters, and a chat room.
Will this be a revival of the original hardware?
Unfortunately no, but that task is incredibly difficult.
What is so special about the Xband 3 project?
ALOT! So you might have noticed if you tried to use Xband 2 that it required port forwarding to work properly, it also relied on Zsnes's wonky netplay.
This version of Xband will require no port forwarding, we will be building our own netplay code into newer emulators this time around as well!
What systems will this support?
This is probably the best part. As you know we will support the Windows PC platform, but this time around we will be developing the Xband Client for WII Homebrew! As well as an eventual Mac OSX / Linux release.
How do I signup for the Beta?
You can visit the XBAND 2 homepage. You can also read the latest version of Bandwidth and Xband news there. The site is a throw back to the classic UI, and also shows how far we've come as far as graphically since Xband 2.
Can I donate to the project?
If you think it's cool, sure! We do have a reward structure setup as we would love to take off a few days of our real jobs, and concentrate strictly on delivering what we consider to the be the next Wii Homebrew killer app! Donation info can be found here!.
Is there any footage of the Xband 2 project? I'm still kind of confused...
Yes! There is some videos on Youtube, I would post some links but right now i'm at work and Youtube is blocked I'll be back around though...
Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Tommy D.
Xband 2 Team
