Back in January of 2023, Slinga released multiplayer mayhem onto Saturn in the form of Disasteroids, a 12-Player Asteroids clone submitted to the 28th Anniversary Game Competition . One of many in a series of 12-Player games that seek to take full advantage of two 6-player SEGA multi-taps, Disasteroids was already a ton of fun and practically an instant homebrew classic upon release.

Fast forward just 3 years, and community member, Farkus aka likeagfeld , (with help from multiple SegaXtreme community members and Claude AI) has gone and put the whole thing online. Not only that, but it’s also got support for simultaneous local and online multiplayer, so you can go head-to-head with the buddy sitting next to you in addition to the one sitting several states over!

SHIRO! and SegaXtreme Community member MrMxy uploaded a demo showing off Disasteroids online multiplayer on REAL Saturn hardware.

www.youtube.com

“Testing this new homebrew with online multiplayer via Netlink modems. At one point you see two of me because this supports mixing local and online players, with up to 12 total (eat shit, Saturn Bomberman).”

Disasteroids NetLink – Online Multiplayer

Disclaimer – Online Netlink functionality has been implemented with assistance of AI (Claude).

Disasteroids now supports online multiplayer via the Sega Saturn NetLink modem. Up to 12 players can connect to a central server and play cooperatively or competitively over the internet.

Features

• Server-authoritative gameplay : Asteroid spawning, wave progression, scoring, and ship-asteroid collisions are all managed by the server to prevent cheating and ensure consistency
• Custom name entry : Grid-based character entry screen for choosing your online handle (saved to Saturn backup RAM across power cycles)
• Online lobby : See connected players, toggle ready status, start the game when all players are ready
• Winner display : After a versus game, the winner’s name shows “WIN!” in the lobby player list
• Persistent leaderboard : Server tracks wins, best score, and games played per player across sessions
• Z-button stats overlay : Hold Z in the lobby to view last game results and the all-time online leaderboard (alternates every 3 seconds)
• Server bots : The host can add/remove AI-controlled bot players (easy/medium/hard difficulty) from the lobby
• Couch co-op online : Connect a second controller locally and both players join the online game from the same Saturn
• Score screen with names : The end-of-game ranking screen displays player names in online mode
• Delta-compressed input : Inputs are only transmitted when they change, minimizing bandwidth on the 14,400 baud modem link
• Ship state interpolation : Remote player ships are smoothly interpolated to reduce visual jitter
• Name persistence : Your name is saved to Saturn backup RAM and automatically loaded on the next power-on

How to Connect

Lobby Controls

• Start : Toggle ready status
• A : Start game (when all players are ready)
• L/R : Add/remove bots
• X : Cycle bot difficulty
• Z  (hold): View last game results and all-time leaderboard
• B : Return to title screen (stays connected)
• Y : Disconnect and return to title screen

Online Setup — DreamPi

If you have a  DreamPi  (Raspberry Pi with USB modem for retro online gaming), you can replace its default netlink handler with the one in this repo to route Disasteroids dial codes to the game server.

The  config.ini  maps dial codes to game servers. When the Saturn dials  #778# , the DreamPi routes the connection to the Disasteroids server. The  netlink.py  handles modem negotiation, authentication via shared secret, and creates a transparent TCP tunnel.

Online Setup — PC (No DreamPi)

If you don’t have a DreamPi, you can connect a USB modem directly to a PC and use  bridge.py :

Windows (easy):

Linux / macOS / manual:

The bridge listens for the Saturn’s dial-out, answers the call, and tunnels data to the game server over TCP.

Server Setup

The Python game server is in  tools/disasteroids_server/ :

Options:

• --port PORT  — TCP listen port (default: 4822)
• --bots N  — Number of AI bot players to add (default: 0)
• --secret KEY  — Shared secret for client authentication (must match config.ini/bridge)

The server stores a persistent leaderboard in  leaderboard.json  next to  dserver.py . This file tracks wins, best score, and games played per player name across sessions.

For production deployment on Linux, a systemd service file is provided:

Disasteroids

Disasteroids is a 12-player Asteroids clone for the Sega Saturn. Requires two  6 Player Adaptors  for full twelve player support. Requires a modded Saturn or another method to get code running on actual hardware. Build the code with Jo Engine or grab an ISO from  releases .

Disasteroids was my entry to the  Sega Saturn 28th Anniversary Game Competition .

Screenshots

How to Play

• Plug in as many controllers/multitaps as you have
• Select a game mode (CO-OP or Versus)
  • CO-OP mode is 1-12 players. Try to last for as many waves as possible. Game ends when all players are out of lives. Colliding players will bounce off of each other. Player projectiles will cause other players to bounce, not die.
  • Versus mode will not start if you do not have at least two controllers plugged in. Game ends when there is only one player left. Player projectiles will destroy other players
• CO-OP mode is 1-12 players. Try to last for as many waves as possible. Game ends when all players are out of lives. Colliding players will bounce off of each other. Player projectiles will cause other players to bounce, not die.
• Versus mode will not start if you do not have at least two controllers plugged in. Game ends when there is only one player left. Player projectiles will destroy other players
• Try is the number of lives
• HUD is the color of the display

Game Controls

• A/C to shoot
• Up/B to thrust
• Left/Right to angle your ship
• X to change your ship color (doesn’t work if all 12 colors are used)

Player One Special Commands

Only player one can:

• interact with the menus
• pause/display the score with the Start button
• Press Y to change the HUD color
• Press Z for debugging info
• Press ABC + Start to reset the game

Burning

On Linux I was able to burn the ISO/CUE + WAV with: cdrdao write –force game.cue.

Building

Requires Jo Engine to build. Checkout source code folder to your Jo Engine “Projects” directory and run  compile.bat  (Windows) or  ./compile.sh  (Linux). The build generates  game.iso  and a  game.cue  sheet that references the audio tracks.

Important : When running in an emulator, always load  game.cue  (not  game.iso  directly) to get CD audio music playback. The ISO alone contains only the data track.

Credits

Thank you to Reyeme for the disasteroid generation algorithm, advice
Thank you to EmeraldNova and KnightOfDragon for basic geometry refresher, advice
Lots of advice and feedback from the #segaxtreme Discord (Fafling, Ndiddy, Ponut, and more)
Tutorial I got ideas from:  Code Asteroids in JavaScript (1979 Atari game) – tutorial
Title Song:  Powerup!  by Jeremy Blake. No Copyright.
Game Over Song:  Dub Hub  by Jimmy Fontanez. No Copyright.
Thank you to  Emerald Nova  for organizing the Saturn Dev contest
SegaXtreme  – The best Sega Saturn development forum on the web. Thank you for all the advice from all the great posters on the forum.
Jo Engine  – Sega Saturn dev environment

	SaturnDave
		A massive Saturn fan since Christmas '96, Dave is enthusiastic about growing the community and spreading Saturn love and knowledge to fans old and new. Co-founding the SEGA SATURN, SHIRO! podcast back in 2017 and creating the SHIRO! SHOW in 2020, he seeks to create interesting and engaging Saturn-related content for the community. Dave's interests circle around game preservation, and he is a huge fan of game magazines and developer interviews.