Saturn Online Gets Matchmaking Server

“Two of the things I’ve been wanting to do for a while to improve the Netlink experience:

1. Make a simple matchmaking server so people don’t have to exchange public IP addresses.
2. Get rid of port forwarding.”

—Joe (SEGARPGFAN)

Less than two weeks after this message earlier this month, Saturn NetLink wizard SEGARPGFAN officially released an update for his NetLink Tunnel program, along with new online game patches, that makes getting your SEGA Saturn online much easier. According to Joe :

“I just pushed an update for the tunnel to use a simple matchmaking service. Xiden was able to get the service up and running on dreampipe.net , so it should have a more permanent home.

The matchmaking more seamlessly facilitates the connection between two players. Players will no longer need to share their public IP addresses to dial in an unintuitive way. Another added benefit is that, for most people, port forwarding will no longer be necessary , even for those behind CGNAT (shared public IP address). Port forwarding has been a frequent pain point for getting new players up and running. “

SEGARPGFAN has also hacked the dialing and player ID Code Name screens (depending on the region of the game) to now have instructions for what to enter:

Each game will now have its own listed three-digit code to dial , no longer needing public IPs to connect.

SEGARPGFAN said:

“ An updated set of games will be needed to take advantage of the matchmaking method.
The new patches are available here:

These can be considered the new definitive versions . If you prefer to not use matchmaking, the original direct IP dialing method is still supported.

Despite now having a matchmaking service, matches will still need to be arranged, with both sides dialing and waiting around the same time simply due to how the games are designed.

The process of setting up a match looks like this:

• One person selects “wait” to register for a match.
  For JP games, pick “challenge” after changing your Code Name to “sp” .
• The other person dials the listed game ID code for the current game.
  For JP games, pick “challenge” to dial after changing your Code Name to the game’s mp matchmaking number .
• The matchmaking server and tunnel scripts then connect the two players and head-to-head play starts.

If you are on PC, the tunnel will prompt you to update automatically. If you are on DreamPi, you will need to delete the file “noautoupdates.txt” from the boot partition to enable the update. You can move it back after it has successfully booted if you want to keep updates disabled.

Thank you to everyone who helped test this out. I think it is a big quality of life improvement. Please DM or @ me if you run into any issues and I will try to address them as quickly as possible.”

For more information on how to get your SEGA Saturn online, including the required USB voice capable modem (with line voltage) , check out our guide by SaturnDave . Also, head over to the #saturn_online chat on the SHIRO! Discord for help and finding matches.

	DoubleDime
		Shiro! Online Tournament Coordinator