Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst

[Ikagura Ikagura]

You can also play online very easily with flycast with PSO ver 2, that can be extended to handhelds/phones, without being limited to only PCs/Winlator

One day I'll try going online but Blue Burst is more convenient.

 

[RandomHajile]

I used to play ion Scthack a long time ago, but nobody was very friendly or wanted to team up. Those who did join were quiet, not very helpful, and weird. I played the original PSO (and PSU) online when they came out and the community was awesome. I would SOOOO LOVE to find friendly, helpful people I can form relationships with and play for hours again. Is it worth going through the installs and setting everything up to try this server? I tried PSU's Clementine last year and it was a ghost town.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I used to play on Scthack a long time ago, but nobody was very friendly or wanted to team up. Those who did join were quiet, not very helpful, and weird.

I'm curious but when was that? I'm saddened if the community became harsher because I still remember that time where I started on it and people wanted to help to grind TTF (a quest with every bosses in a row) and gave me semi-rares (aka the most common red box weapons) freely as well as Mesetas (like 100.000).

I played the original PSO (and PSU) online when they came out and the community was awesome. I would SOOOO LOVE to find friendly, helpful people I can form relationships with and play for hours again. Is it worth going through the installs and setting everything up to try this server? I tried PSU's Clementine last year and it was a ghost town.

I wish I knew and had PSU back when online was still on for them... I feel like I've missed out but I'm glad I've been on PSO back when it was online on the Dreamcast.

 

[RandomHajile]

I'm curious but when was that? I'm saddened if the community became harsher because I still remember that time where I started on it and people wanted to help to grind TTF (a quest with every bosses in a row) and gave me semi-rares (aka the most common red box weapons) freely as well as Mesetas (like 100.000).

I wish I knew and had PSU back when online was still on for them... I feel like I've missed out but I'm glad I've been on PSO back when it was online on the Dreamcast.

As for when I played Scthack, this was late last year, around the holiday. I got nostalgic but it didn't go well. I did play there eons ago, like real eons ago, and back then it was pretty big and you met a lot of folks, but I didn't see that now. I have been trying to get two friends of mine from work to play it with me, but they aren't very gung ho and keep forgetting about it. Ahhh well.

As for PSU, when it launched, it was HUGE. I remember the main deck of the ship being CLOGGED with people. The first month was an absolute blast. The problem started when Sega determined US gamers were blowing through the content too fast and decided to dribble everything out in tiny bits over months/years. A lot of people, myself included, quit after a month since we hit the lv cap of 20 and had all the C rank weapons, which were the best ones at the time. We'd all come back 2-3 months later and barely see anything new added.

This pretty much killed the game, IMO. As the years went by, more and more content was added, and new players who didn't know how sparse and plain vanilla the game was for those first couple of years were blissfully unaware of what the early adopters went through. Especially when the meseta hack hit and mostly everyone's bank was wiped (Not mine, but that's another story)

I'd play off and on with PSU, but it was never the same. All the guys I knew were long gone, and the people on the server were all teens or early 20 somethings, and here I was, a guy in my late 40s. Everyone was speaking in memes/CAPS and spamming emotes nonstop thinking it was funny. (I know it's not bad, just not the way I like to communicate in games) I ended up playing alone or in random groups quietly supporting people and kicking rear. Had the best items in the game and was over level 100. Kinda want to play it again. Maybe I'll install Clementine on my new PC and give it a go.

 

[Lena CE]

I used to play ion Scthack a long time ago, but nobody was very friendly or wanted to team up. Those who did join were quiet, not very helpful, and weird. I played the original PSO (and PSU) online when they came out and the community was awesome. I would SOOOO LOVE to find friendly, helpful people I can form relationships with and play for hours again. Is it worth going through the installs and setting everything up to try this server? I tried PSU's Clementine last year and it was a ghost town.

Clementine is more or less a discord game. Unfortunately its like playing PSO EP.1 & 2 on console where you may see a person or two lounging around, but if you wanna get a squad to actually play you'll have to go to a chatroom and ask for people to hop on.

Ephinea is fantastic though. Ultra helpful community in and out of game, always super active and as far as maintaining the balance between a more faithful vanilla experience and tastefully integrating new content it is the best in its class. I miss pluggin away at Ephinea, hard to believe it was like 8 years ago lol. Might redownload it myself and jump back in, nothing has ever replaced that PSO1 shaped hole in my heart!

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Clementine is more or less a discord game.

That's a bad thing?

 

[Lena CE]

That's a bad thing?

Never even implied it was but its important to know. It sucks that the games aren't more populated but there are still ways to play if someone is willing to overcome that small barrier.

As someone who has desperately tried to get more ppl into discord games, that barrier is enough to stop many of them from even trying, sadly.

 

[RandomHajile]

Never even implied it was but its important to know. It sucks that the games aren't more populated but there are still ways to play if someone is willing to overcome that small barrier.

As someone who has desperately tried to get more ppl into discord games, that barrier is enough to stop many of them from even trying, sadly.

I spent the past couple of days trying Clementine, and you're right. I found a few people idling who were AFK I guess, didn't notice me. It's a shame, because I was having fun, even if by myself. I miss this game a bit. Was there when the server shut off. Game got me through a mini depression back in 2007. Nobody I know wants to try it, and the people I knew from the 2000s who once played it with me are scattered to the winds, so to speak.

I think I'll try this Ephiniea or whatever. If I had a nice daily group to play PSO1 with, I'd do it. I've burned through Borderlands 4 and I really want an old school multiplayer experience again.

 

[SpikeSlania]

I remember trying out Ephiniea briefly like a year ago. Lutris has the install scripts for it in their database so it's easy to install on Linux. I can't remember why I didn't really play it beyond entering the initial lobby but think I was having issues setting up my controller the way I wanted for the game. I might need to give it another try soon.

 

[RandomHajile]

Ok so i tried out Ephinea (even spelled it right now, it deserves the respect on its name) and it was very populated and had a nice little community. Sadly, nobody in my noobie level range wanted to play and I had to play solo. Anyone want to team up and start new characters and give it a go? Keep in mind I'm old as dirt and was 25 when this game came out and I have to relearn a bit.

 

[throughdarkness]

Ok so i tried out Ephinea (even spelled it right now, it deserves the respect on its name) and it was very populated and had a nice little community. Sadly, nobody in my noobie level range wanted to play and I had to play solo. Anyone want to team up and start new characters and give it a go? Keep in mind I'm old as dirt and was 25 when this game came out and I have to relearn a bit.

I play on Ephinea very casually and would be game to roll something new.

 

[RandomHajile]

I play on Ephinea very casually and would be game to roll something new.

Keep an eye out for me then. I play late, east coast time. I go into random games and grind with random folks. It's quite fun. the community is amazing.

 

[hazys]

I think I'm gonna hop on Ephinea as well. I miss PSO.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I understand why they've changed the title screen but I miss the view of Ragol from space

 

[Pudendum]

Sounds like the name of a PRIMUS song!

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Sounds like the name of a PRIMUS song!

Should I take this as a good thing?

I don't know that group well.

I should remember to celebrate the 25th anniversary because it got released December 21, 2000.

 

[JoueurCitoyen]

Hi everyone! My wife and I often play PSO:BB on Ephinea. If by any chance you gather sometimes, let's meet online.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

My wife and I often play PSO:BB on Ephinea.

#Couplegoals

If by any chance you gather sometimes, let's meet online.

If I get motivated I'll join. I think of trying Ultima and Schthack again but those last years I've felt more at home with Ephinea.

 

[Pudendum]

Should I take this as a good thing?

I don't know that group well.

I should remember to celebrate the 25th anniversary because it got released December 21, 2000.

What?

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

What?

What's Primus?

 

[Diadu]

Phantasy Star Online was something else. Especially back on release when the official servers were alive and kicking. I really miss those days and as much as I appreciated what Schthack did back then with his private servers, I think they never managed to capture the same feeling.

The early pre-alpha PSO BB tests on Schtserv were something else and quite the unique experience with not every server being up to date.

These days I still play offline mode of PSO Ep1&2 and Episode 3 every now and again but refrain from going online.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Phantasy Star Online was something else. Especially back on release when the official servers were alive and kicking. I really miss those days and as much as I appreciated what Schthack did back then with his private servers, I think they never managed to capture the same feeling.

I remember reading that Schtserv was a thing when Sega was still hosting servers.

You could even pay to port a Sonic Team character to their private one.

Schthack also had one big incident (I think the owner had a hard drive crash) so we all had a reset and some staff changes. Several years later there was another reset (this time on purpose I forgot why) so I played for like 2 months before going for Ultima for good.

The early pre-alpha PSO BB tests on Schtserv were something else and quite the unique experience with not every server being up to date.

I'd love to hear your experience if you were there. Did you need to pay something or was it free? Were there glitches?

These days I still play offline mode of PSO Ep1&2 and Episode 3 every now and again but refrain from going online.

On the Gamecube Emulator?

I need to convince myself to replay online someday.

 

[Diadu]

I remember reading that Schtserv was a thing when Sega was still hosting servers.

You could even pay to port a Sonic Team character to their private one.

Schthack also had one big incident (I think the owner had a hard drive crash) so we all had a reset and some staff changes. Several years later there was another reset (this time on purpose I forgot why) so I played for like 2 months before going for Ultima for good.


I'd love to hear your experience if you were there. Did you need to pay something or was it free? Were there glitches?


On the Gamecube Emulator?

I need to convince myself to replay online someday.

You heard that right, at least when it comes to the Gamecube version and PSOBB. Can't really say anything about the Dreamcast or PC version (I believe the latter was the original starting point since a lot of the mods and GMs were die hard fans of the PC version).
I think Gamecube support became a thing late into the Gamecube version's life, when cheating became really rampant and was no longer limited to just Action Replay codes. That's when I jumped ship.

PSOBB was a whole different beast, he (Schthack) started working on it when PSOBB was still alive and kicking on the official side of things, so he had to keep the whole thing super secret - he was very strict about it. If you got caught talking about it openly, you'd get your access terminated. And when I think back about it, it was probably the right approach. He worked on it in his free time and it was already amazing that you could log in with it and play and over the months and years the game became, slowly and steadily, fully functional. Sega stepping in could have ruined all that.
I got in because I knew him and some of the other gms (I really miss MSN messenger) and I donated once. When I asked him about BB access he told me that I can have as many accounts as I want and that's how I got 2 or 3 other people in. So you either had to know him or had someone else vouch for you, just buying your way in at the time probably wasn't possible, too much of a risk for him.

The early days were fairly crazy since a lot of things either didn't work at all (such as quests) or were kinda broken - enemies staying in place, only al rappies instead of rag rappies, item pick ups not registering and so on. If you put something into your bank (storage) and then pulled it out again it turned into something else. I remember feeding my mag a monomate and suddenly had a lvl 100 Sato. Honestly, it was fun to find all these bugs and verify the stuff that other people have found. He later released a tool for us that allowed us to download our character data from the official servers and have them uploaded to our Schtserv BB accounts.

I had a grand time, but if you earnestly wanted to play the game, I'd have recommended that you wait until the "official" launch. While I had no qualms about resetting my character or restoring items I had lost, I don't think it would have been fun for someone, who really wanted to play the game.

I think Schtserv BB went "live" during Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Universe was also the time I decided to call it quits. I felt it was time to move on, Schthack himself was getting ready to step down and there was always some kind of drama. I kinda lost contact with Schthack but still chat with the other guy (Wild One) from time to time to remember the good old days.

----

The hdd crash you are mentioning probably happened when Crono ran the show. He took over when Schthack left. I knew Crono from back when and thought he was quite the responsible and upstanding guy. So I was a bit shocked when I heard people complain about nepotism, pay 2 win schemes (character boosting and such) and him squandering the donation money. Then the hdd crash happened and I remember him (Crono) saying in a post that he didn't keep backups, so all these characters people created and worked on vanished into thin air. What happened afterwards? I don't really know. I remember that Sodaboy was working on his own private server (which is now known as Ephinea), I tested out a client for him once and it worked. I also remember that Wild One once thought of stepping in again but decided against it and I have no idea who is in charge now.

----

And yeah, I play them offline on dolhin. Over at gc-forever they got a whole lot of action replay codes that introduce a lot of QoL things such as additional action palettes, wide screen support and other stuff, it's worth a look. And on ragol.org they are hosting a patch for episode 3 with a whole lot of fixes.

 

[csanjuro]

tried it, fun so far

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

You heard that right, at least when it comes to the Gamecube version and PSOBB. Can't really say anything about the Dreamcast or PC version (I believe the latter was the original starting point since a lot of the mods and GMs were die hard fans of the PC version).

I remember that Schtserv allowed Ver.2 user on PC (the Asia exclusive Windows port) to be there but I don't know about DC players. Blue Burst just happened to be the only online-only entry and had the most content thanks to Episode IV.

I think Gamecube support became a thing late into the Gamecube version's life, when cheating became really rampant and was no longer limited to just Action Replay codes. That's when I jumped ship.

I dislike cheating myself but I'm glad that they found a way to make Online work on the Wii.

PSOBB was a whole different beast, he (Schthack) started working on it when PSOBB was still alive and kicking on the official side of things, so he had to keep the whole thing super secret - he was very strict about it. If you got caught talking about it openly, you'd get your access terminated. And when I think back about it, it was probably the right approach. He worked on it in his free time and it was already amazing that you could log in with it and play and over the months and years the game became, slowly and steadily, fully functional. Sega stepping in could have ruined all that.
I got in because I knew him and some of the other gms (I really miss MSN messenger) and I donated once. When I asked him about BB access he told me that I can have as many accounts as I want and that's how I got 2 or 3 other people in. So you either had to know him or had someone else vouch for you, just buying your way in at the time probably wasn't possible, too much of a risk for him.

I don't know Sega's stance but yeah, private servers are both unoficial and illegal for most since some are requiring having access to code non-devs aren't meant to have access to.

The early days were fairly crazy since a lot of things either didn't work at all (such as quests) or were kinda broken - enemies staying in place, only al rappies instead of rag rappies, item pick ups not registering and so on. If you put something into your bank (storage) and then pulled it out again it turned into something else. I remember feeding my mag a monomate and suddenly had a lvl 100 Sato. Honestly, it was fun to find all these bugs and verify the stuff that other people have found. He later released a tool for us that allowed us to download our character data from the official servers and have them uploaded to our Schtserv BB accounts.

Damn, I would've loved to experience that.

I had a grand time, but if you earnestly wanted to play the game, I'd have recommended that you wait until the "official" launch. While I had no qualms about resetting my character or restoring items I had lost, I don't think it would have been fun for someone, who really wanted to play the game.

True, beta test characters are often thrown away.

I think Schtserv BB went "live" during Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Universe was also the time I decided to call it quits. I felt it was time to move on, Schthack himself was getting ready to step down and there was always some kind of drama. I kinda lost contact with Schthack but still chat with the other guy (Wild One) from time to time to remember the good old days.

Wasn't BB's servers shut down around 2008? Or 2010 for Japan? I cannot find a list of the lifetime for the servers.

The hdd crash you are mentioning probably happened when Crono ran the show. He took over when Schthack left. I knew Crono from back when and thought he was quite the responsible and upstanding guy. So I was a bit shocked when I heard people complain about nepotism, pay 2 win schemes (character boosting and such) and him squandering the donation money. Then the hdd crash happened and I remember him (Crono) saying in a post that he didn't keep backups, so all these characters people created and worked on vanished into thin air. What happened afterwards? I don't really know. I remember that Sodaboy was working on his own private server (which is now known as Ephinea), I tested out a client for him once and it worked. I also remember that Wild One once thought of stepping in again but decided against it and I have no idea who is in charge now.

I do think that p2w wasn't the best idea. Yes it's nice to have a gift from donating but having a 100/0/0/100|100 attribute/hit weapon destroys the game easily.

Maybe that crash was for the best for everyone.

And yeah, I play them offline on dolhin. Over at gc-forever they got a whole lot of action replay codes that introduce a lot of QoL things such as additional action palettes, wide screen support and other stuff, it's worth a look. And on ragol.org they are hosting a patch for episode 3 with a whole lot of fixes.

I knew about wide screen but how did the Extra Action Palette work?

Post automatically merged: 55 minutes ago

On a side note I still remember that infamous Broomop guy that made many cheats.

I only cheated in PSO PC in solo for recreational use but never online. I like that Ephinea has a separate sandbox mode.