Author Topic: NOA Confirms LAN Play for Mario Kart (Read 8239 times)

Jonnyboy117 · « **on:** April 27, 2003, 11:45:48 AM »

We all knew it was coming, and now it's 100% official.

Nintendo's pre-E3 website has updated with the following remark about Mario Kart: Double Dash:

Pack eight players into your living room and turn up the fun when you connect two Nintendo GameCubes via the Broadband adaptor. It's intense action coming soon to 2 screens very near you!

We first told you that GameCube is capable of connecting via ethernet cable at last year's E3...where we actually saw the feature demonstrated. Nintendo is expected to unveil a comprehensive GameCube networking plan at this year's E3, including games that will support the feature and possibly hardware that will make LAN gaming easier to set up.

Thanks to the guys at Console.Be for the tip!

Michael_82 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2003, 12:14:38 PM »

surprise, surprise.

Gharakh · « **Reply #2 on:** April 27, 2003, 12:39:46 PM »

i think nintendo's just too cheap to set up some servers for real online play, so they're throwing us this... gr

Locke Cole · « **Reply #3 on:** April 27, 2003, 12:57:47 PM »

ummmm Gharakh, I don't think Nintendo is in this buisness to lose money you know. Setting up servers cost money, money first of all for the servers, then the tecnichians that watch over the servers, and electricty bills for running that many servers A DAY!!!! It's not cheap to do this, unlike another certain gaming system that we all know and love*coughXBOXcough*, Nintendo doesn't have a unlimited cash flow. The only online service I can expect sometime soon is a second or third party, not a good chance at all. It doesn't bother me at all that we can't have online play, I don't understand why your complaining.

Arbok · « **Reply #4 on:** April 27, 2003, 01:08:17 PM »

"It doesn't bother me at all that we can't have online play, I don't understand why your complaining. "

If I am not mistaken can't you take Mario Kart online, beacuse of the LAN "mode," through Gamespy much like HALO back in the day?

grap3fruitman · « **Reply #5 on:** April 27, 2003, 01:10:48 PM »

Yes, it is possible to do that. So anyone that wants to play online still can through a method called tunneling.

The Doc · « **Reply #6 on:** April 27, 2003, 01:22:01 PM »

I do not understand why some of you are complaining about Nintendo's decision to unveil LAN play for the GCN. I have had experiences with playing video games via a simple LAN, as well as playing video games online via a huge cluster of servers. In the end, both of these methods are fun, but I have to agree with what Nintendo is doing in respect to their choice of LAN play. If you do not like it then do not use it, however I for one will be playing games with LAN support on my GameCube. In my opinion, Nintendo made the right choice when they choose a simple LAN strategy over a online setup that would mimic Xbox live.

The Doc

drpateman · « **Reply #7 on:** April 27, 2003, 01:52:20 PM »

So like cause each cart holds 2 characters and u dont really want to have the same character on different carts on the same race at a time plus then some characters that are Dudds so this must mean there are in excess of 20 playable charaters right or as it says in the thing on the e32k3 site is there only the 16??? and some players will get stuck with poos characters...But then at least u have an excuse for losing

demoncrono · « **Reply #8 on:** April 27, 2003, 02:36:35 PM »

I,like many people, am in a situation where I can't get together with my friends much. Espeacially to play games. So, that's the reason I would like for Nintendo to get on with the online stuff. Though I like it better that they're waiting to see for the best way to do this. One thing good I can say for Xbox is their online plan. $50 a year,unlimited play. Yes,very good. So lots of people have gotten this XboxLive. But Sega's plan of paying monthly turned some/most people down because of the hassle. I think Nintendo should go with that sort of a course. Although...

Anyway,this LAN thing won't help me at all. As I said, I'm unable to get together with friends,and besides I only have enough friends for a 4player game anyway. So, I'm afraid this nice little thing won't get my money....sadly......

sigh...

DustinRiley · « **Reply #9 on:** April 27, 2003, 03:00:18 PM »

I was expecting more than simply connecting 2 Gamecube's via a crossover cable. I was expecting a 3rd adapter for the bottom of the gamecube cube, a wireless Gamecube LAN Adapter (GC Wifi), so you wouldn't have to have 2 TV's in the same room of the house.

drpateman · « **Reply #10 on:** April 27, 2003, 05:01:01 PM »

will the GCN for this be able to be plugged into my router as it serves as a hub and will my flatmates GCN be able to be plugged into it as well and we be able to play mario cart over it?? cause that would be really hand cause we have our flat outfitted in CAT 6 cable and that would save alot of trouble carting stuff around??

So much more fun playing with 8 of ur mates in one room rather than be separated where u cant gang up on plaers by evil looks or jank the occasional controller out to be responded with beatings

This will be awesome me and my friends love micro machines V3 ont he N64 8 players RULE!!!!

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #11 on:** April 27, 2003, 05:23:03 PM »

Why does everyone seem to ignore posts around here?

YOU CAN PLAY MARIO KART ONLINE!!!!!!!

Strawberry Clock is kind of the portal.

Locke Cole · « **Reply #12 on:** April 27, 2003, 05:29:27 PM »

Ok grey thanks for the spam..oh i mean post.... what do you mean we'll be able to play Mario kart online?

Grey Ninja · « **Reply #13 on:** April 27, 2003, 06:08:31 PM »

Sorry, I was just looking for a command that would increase the size of my text, and I happened to notice the clock smilie, and well....

you can play Mario Kart online using the LAN connection of course. Just because it's intended to be played offline in no way prevents you from tricking the game into thinking that an internet connection is a LAN connection. Internet = LAN with broadband access.

Smithy · « **Reply #14 on:** April 27, 2003, 07:24:35 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: Grey Ninja
you can play Mario Kart online using the LAN connection of course. Just because it's intended to be played offline in no way prevents you from tricking the game into thinking that an internet connection is a LAN connection. Internet = LAN with broadband access.

The game may not run well with a higher latency though(just because it wasn't designed that way). Hopefully Nintendo will make it flexible though. I'd really like play with some friends via the net. I can already vision Nintendo brand crossover cables in the store.

PIAC · « **Reply #15 on:** April 27, 2003, 11:09:20 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: DustinRiley
I was expecting more than simply connecting 2 Gamecube's via a crossover cable. I was expecting a 3rd adapter for the bottom of the gamecube cube, a wireless Gamecube LAN Adapter (GC Wifi), so you wouldn't have to have 2 TV's in the same room of the house.

just get like an ass long ethernet cable, you could be in 2 houses if it was long enough

JoeSmashBro · « **Reply #16 on:** April 28, 2003, 01:56:10 AM »

It wouldn't cost Nintendo very much to put in some freaking IP address support. I'll find my own server or RUN my own server, if they just put in some IP support. It's like playing freaking Tetrinet. The people that made Tetrinet don't have to pay anything.

Tunneling will be lame because of lag that is unaccounted for in the software.

The fact that Nintendo won't put a game online may be "good business sense" to some people but it's just damn annoying to me.

JB · « **Reply #17 on:** April 28, 2003, 03:45:21 AM »

It is not yet known what form of LAN support Nintendo will offer. It is quite possible that the game will have a very basic form of IP support which will allow you to play the game over the internet without any tunneling programs.

Kulock · « **Reply #18 on:** April 28, 2003, 04:58:45 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: grap3fruitman
Yes, it is possible to do that. So anyone that wants to play online still can through a method called tunneling.

...Because reverse engineering is certainly a practically-instantaneous process not at all facing not only technical difficulties but questionable legality, and certainly Nintendo has never filed suit against another company in order to get something they didn't like or think was representative of "Nintendo quality" stopped.

And as someone else pointed out, there should be virtually no lag issues when you're talking about just a cable inbetween two GCs, it might not be flexible enough to handle unexpected significant lag or lower-bandwidth connections well.

I doubt Nintendo is "unofficially" relying on Gamespy to do this for them, they don't work like that. If they had wanted Gamespy-style linkup play to be available, they would've announced an official agreement in a press release, and then have forgotten about what they planned to do by four weeks later.

Although some Gamespy development on Gamecube was announced (maybe just for availability), as far as I remember there's been no real link between them and Nintendo. Yet. (Maybe that's Nintendo's ace in the hole about this? Nah, probably not, the E3 site would've said.)

Oh, and hello, grap3.

JB · « **Reply #19 on:** April 28, 2003, 06:06:55 AM »

If Mario Kart uses standard TCP over IP, you won't need to do any reverse engineering. There are already dozens of tunneling applications for applications that use TCP/IP. In the end it all depends on how Nintendo makes the two GameCubes communicate and we're probably not going to hear anything about that until at least E3.

Nintendork SP · « **Reply #20 on:** April 28, 2003, 06:16:38 AM »

Question: Since it uses the Broadband adapter to use the Lan support, will it work with a 56k also? I don't have broadband and I am not even online with my GC, but if I were going to be, I would be with a 56k. So I don't want to eventually by 2 modems.

I feel sorry for you guys who can't get the freinds,

I would be your friend if I could but hell I have a computer gaming club at our school that will be perfect for this!! WEEEE!

Arbok · « **Reply #21 on:** April 28, 2003, 12:56:03 PM »

Looking over this topic, I think Planet Gamecube needs to create a update later that explains how to play through Gamespy with "LAN Mode" once more details are released. Seems a lot of people here are simply jumping to conclusions from the news report without actually reading the rest of the thread.

thepoga · « **Reply #22 on:** April 28, 2003, 04:55:07 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: JoeSmashBro
It wouldn't cost Nintendo very much to put in some freaking IP address support. I'll find my own server or RUN my own server, if they just put in some IP support. It's like playing freaking Tetrinet. The people that made Tetrinet don't have to pay anything.

Tunneling will be lame because of lag that is unaccounted for in the software.

The fact that Nintendo won't put a game online may be "good business sense" to some people but it's just damn annoying to me.

ummm... it DOES cost a lot of money to run a server. not a server like with CS or something. tetrinet isnt really on a server is it? (i dunno this so whatever). for us normal folks who cant control the universe, it costs a lot of money to get the equipment, and you need constant maitenence for the server. there will always be errors and things like that. nintendo doesnt have much of a following of internet using people. if they were going to make a profit, theyd probably have to charge like 50 dollars or up a month. I WOULD like internet support too though. Tunneling lags a lot sometimes. its annoying to me too that they arent in the position to make some games hat would work well online possible. oh well. i wish i could be bill gates for a day and donate all his money to nintendo. then after a day i would revert to my own body again and play intendo games that have millions of katrillions of dollars of funding. or something. yeah...

BlkPaladin · « **Reply #23 on:** April 28, 2003, 10:01:10 PM »

It cost a lot to run a server. If you want to rent one it costs $100.00 a month and thats if you stay in bandwidth. And a static IP address costs about the same. Not to mention if you want a server to run decently to play games you have to have an T1 line at minimum and the recomended is OC. Which the last I check the T1 line run aroun $600+ a month, and OC goes into the 10s of thousands a month to use.

yrrab436 · « **Reply #24 on:** April 29, 2003, 09:15:53 AM »

I hope Nintendo doesn't pull "an AOL." AOL tends to use nonstandard garbage. For example, you have to buy an "AOL compatible" router to share an AOL Broadband connection, and such a connection isn't “always on” or compatible with any console gaming network.

How does this relate to Nintendo? I think Nintendo should embrace the technology that already exists. For example, I'm living in a duplex with one of my sisters. Downstairs, another of my sisters lives. She and her kids have a GCN, and so do I. We already have a three computer network, one of them downstairs. It would be nice to be able to unplug two of the Ethernet cables from the computers and plug them into the GCNs, forming an instant connection. This is how standard Ethernet stuff works. The router (with switch), switch, or hub handles the traffic direction (I think).

If I understand it correctly, if Nintendo follows the Ethernet technology already in existence routers (with switches), switches, and hubs or any other Ethernet stuff I don’t know about should work. The computers (be they Macs, PCs, Xboxs, or GCNs) don't care about what happens in the middle as long as the communication happens. As far as the Internet thing goes, even broadband is significantly slower than 10mbps Ethernet and if Nintendo uses FastEthernet (pretty much the standard now at 100mbps), broadband is about 100 to 50 times slower. I guess it all depends how much bandwidth the game needs. Even with online tricks, you'd still only be able to connect two GCNs though.

News:

Author Topic: NOA Confirms LAN Play for Mario Kart (Read 8239 times)