Version of SegaXtreme Now Viewable on Saturn’s NetLink Browser

NetLink users have a new place to browse now that a version of the SegaXtreme forum is compatible with the PlanetWeb browser.

Earlier this month, Reye created a mirror of SegaXtreme at http://sx.reye.me/ that automatically converts it to a more basic form of HTML that Saturn’s Internet browser can understand. The tradeoff, unfortunately, is that it’s read-only — no posting through NetLink.

He recorded a video in which he used the NetLink browser to go to his new mirror of SegaXtreme:

sx.mp4

Early last year , Reye mirrored the SHIRO! website so it could be viewed with the NetLink browser. And he already maintains  a website  built to be viewed on ’90s-era browsers.

Reye said it took some work to get a version of SegaXtreme that’s HTML3 compliant.

“[The] forum likes to redirect the links to somewhere else, so I had to follow the redirects,” he said.

One feature of NetLink’s PlanetWeb browser that some may not remember is that it has the ability to download and launch software. It was used to allow people to run the latest version of the browser straight from PlanetWeb’s website .

Reye has tapped into that functionality to allow current-day NetLink users to download and run small homebrew games from SegaXtreme’s Resources section.

“Once [a] user presses the download button in PlanetWeb, it will download it and run it directly,” Reye said. “You can try it on your Saturn [right now] using this small test site: http://s.reye.me/ “

At that site are two demos for “raytracing” and the sound CPU provided by Purist, another SX user.

The binaries have to use the .netbin extension, which Reye’s site will recognize automatically. He said they can’t be larger than probably about 400 kilobytes, although Reye isn’t sure what the limit is.

“As long as the .netbin’s entry point is at 0x06010000 and it does not touch anything in HW RAM before that, PlanetWeb will be more than happy to launch it, you can petition some devs [on] SX to try and make some injector/loader.”
— Reye

He’s already got some ideas for how it can be used in the present day, but it’s up to other homebrew developers to take advantage of the possibilities.

“I was thinking that this could be pretty good use case for Save Game Copier for example since it allows to run anything on completely stock Saturn,” Reye said. “You just need PlanetWeb.”

	Danthrax
		Danthrax is a member of the SHIRO! Media Group, writing stories for the website when Saturn news breaks and helping to manage the group's social media accounts. While he was a Sega Genesis kid in the '90s, he didn't get a Saturn until 2018. It didn't take him long to fall in love with the console's library as well as the fan translation and homebrew scene. He contributed heavily to the Bulk Slash and Stellar Assault SS fan localizations, and he's helped as an editor on several other Saturn and Dreamcast fan projects such as Cotton 2, Rainbow Cotton and Sakura Wars Columns 2.