Playing Phantasy Star Online again

I forget why, but I've been playing Phantasy Star Online again on Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Blue Burst (Ephinea) and I might as well document things I've noticed: 

Dreamcast

Long gone are the days where you can pick up a new US copy of Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2. on eBay for cheap. So I did the next best thing and picked up a used JP copy of Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 and used my third Dreamcast with it.

I still need to use the Sylverant PSO Patcher with it since Dreamcast isn't region-free, but that's okay because I would need it to go online anyway. 

Even though I entered the Japanese serial number and access key and created my character with it, I could still start, save, and load my game with my US copy of PSOv2. The only difference I can see is "Jump Pack" text in Options was replaced with "Puru Pack" in the JP version. Also, the JP game on my Dreamcast defaulted to English text. I don't know if that's because the game always defaults to English no matter what the game's region is, or because my Dreamcast is US region. 

Going online was tricky, for two reasons. One, the best way is to use the homebrew Dreamcast browser, XDP, which you'll have to burn a CD for yourself. Then follow this tutorial, mostly. Key points and corrections::

1. 00:16: Press left at the first selection to choose Custom Planetweb 2.6X.
2. 00:56 After skipping the title screen, press Start to bring up the quick menu, then select Options. 
3. 01:12 Required Settings, Internet Connection. 
1. 01:17 When you enter "111-1111" as per the DreamPi Tutorial, have all the 1s on the second half, with no hyphen. Make sure to put all 0s for both DNS settings.
2. 01:53 Ignore other pages.
4. 02:16 Required Settings, Email Account
1. You can put anything you want here; these fields just need to be populated.

This email setting is important! When I tried to go online with my DreamPi without doing this, I couldn't connect was told in-game to complete my settings, and the DreamPi tutorial didn't mention anything else. So then I tried going online with the PSO Patcher + US PSOv2 disc, but the game wouldn't accept the Japanese SNAK. I eventually found this thread on Dreamcast-talk which described the exact same problem I had, and had the solution. 

The only thing I'm worried about is if I decide to go for a GDEMU, the "Ives Pack" versions of the game will force me into that region/SNAK problem again, necessitating the use of the PSO Patcher disk again, which means I might as well not even have the GDEMU. As a reminder, things to remember when playing PSO on a GDEMU: 

• Ives Pack is necessary for online play because it automatically patches the game for online play on Sylverant.
• Have the Ives version of PSOv2 as your second game on the list, and press the button on your GDEMU during the Dreamcast Swirl. That button chooses the next game on your list (the list itself being "game number 1"). If you don't do this, loading NPCs in quests will lock your game. 

Gamecube

I got PSO Ep 1 & 2 Plus and the Broadband Adapter back in 2019 for about $200 which I thought was a good (but not great) deal. The disc had a scratch that I sent out to get repaired, but the disc drive may have already been on its way out. The game seemed playable and fine other than one blip on the intro, but I shelved it. Then COVID happened...

Today, I have a MemCard Pro and a FlippyDrive so I decided to try PSO again, and it's fun. According to this video on techniques, the Dreamcast version is different than the GC/BB versions, but I couldn't tell you anything more than that. I just know grind limits are different; IIRC, a Soul Eater can be grinded to +35 on Dreamcast, but only +9 on Gamecube. 

I can appreciate how easy it is to get on the Schtserv private server. No boot disc necessary, just a change in DNS. 

For keyboards, instead of paying $400 for the Ascii Gamecube controller, I just paid less than $25 shipped for a GC2USB adapter (that's USB peripherals on Gamecube). They're about $40 on Etsy. All u need to do hit Scroll Lock and you'll be chatting online in no time. I didn't even really want to buy the adapter, but had to because I couldn't figure out how to use the wireless keyboard with the internal BlueRetro mod.

Some noob taught me about the /show all server command and it's pretty great. I'm a noob to anything newer than the Dreamcast version so it was helpful. Real nice guy too... rare that we aligned on so much. 

Blue Burst (Ephinea)

I thought this would be the only version I would play, and it does have a healthy amount of players, but the console versions have their charm too. Started before COVID and put it away after getting a new laptop, and the anti-virus program still doesn't like it so I stopped playing. Eventually I got a Steam Deck and heard I could play BB on it, and the Ragol.co.uk tutorial was the one I used. 

I still don't know how to sync the wireless keyboard I bought for it, so unless I play with the Steam Deck docked with a wired USB keyboard, I won't be doing any chatting. (Reminder: press Space to actually begin chatting, and don't forget about those server commands!) Ideally I'd not use any dongle at all because I need the one USB port on the Steam Deck for charging. Based on some other video, I should try syncing in Desktop mode...