Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit
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| Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System(s): Dreamcast | |||||||||||||||
| Publisher: N/A | |||||||||||||||
| Developer: WebTV Networks | |||||||||||||||
| Peripherals supported: Dreamcast Keyboard, Dreamcast Modem, Dreamcast VGA Box | |||||||||||||||
| Genre: Network (ネットワーク), ETC | |||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | |||||||||||||||
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WebTV for Dreamcast, known officially as Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit (マイクロソフト ウェブ・ティービー接続キット), is a Japanese-only disc that allowed users of Microsoft's WebTV service to access the Internet from their Sega Dreamcast. The disc used the Windows CE capabilities of the Dreamcast to run a port of the WebTV client technology, with the browser engine assumed to be based off of Internet Explorer 2.0. The complementing service for the software is believed to have debuted in Spring 1999. At the time of its release, the WebTV browser was an improvement over Sega's bundled Dream Passport software. By the release of Dream Passport 3, however, the Sega browser became more capable than WebTV.
As the software requires the Japanese WebTV service to work, which has been defunct for several years by now (possibly by or before the September 2013 shutdown of the American WebTV/MSN TV service), WebTV for Dreamcast can no longer be used for the time being.
Contents
Releases
There were only ever two major releases of WebTV for Dreamcast. The one released at launch, which was simply titled Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit (マイクロソフト ウェブ・ティービー接続キット), and a later revision released in December of 1999 that added 128-bit SSL capabilities not present in the launch disc, aptly named Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit 128bit SSL Compatible Version (マイクロソフト ウェブ・ティービー接続キット 128bit SSL対応版). The currently known methods of officially obtaining the WebTV for Dreamcast disc that were available back in the day were mailing a special postcard that came with Japanese Dreamcast units, or e-mailing an address operated by WebTV with a specific subject line.[1]. Both releases have since been dumped in GDI format.
In total, there are believed to be four known WebTV for Dreamcast variants, each with their own user agent:
- WebTV/1.0 (Compatible; MSIE 2.0)
- WebTV/1.2 (compatible; MSIE 2.0)
- WebTV/2.2.3 (Compatible; MSIE 2.0)
- WebTV/2.2.4.1 (Compatible; MSIE 2.0)
Magazine articles
- Main article: Microsoft WebTV Connection Kit/Magazine articles.
Physical scans
| Dreamcast, JP (non-SSL) |
|---|
  Cover
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 Disc |
| Dreamcast, JP (SSL) |
|---|
 Cover
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"Luck'n Luck WebTV"
The postcards for requesting the WebTV for Dreamcast connection kit that were bundled with Japanese Dreamcast units came attached with a small comic titled "Luck'n Luck WebTV" (らくらくウェブティービー). Currently what the comic is about isn't entirely known yet to those who don't understand Japanese but it has something to do with WebTV and is most likely meant as a way to introduce newcomers to what WebTV is. It can also be determined that it centers around a family, consisting of the mother, father, and possibly two brothers. Images of the pages from this comic have recently been found from a Yahoo! Auctions Japan listing and have since been uploaded here to preserve the contents of this otherwise-unknown comic.
Technical information
In the high density area of the WebTV for Dreamcast disc is a file named WEBTV.ROM, which uses a proprietary format specific to WebTV called ROMFS. When extracted, it contains numerous files pertaining to the user interface of WebTV for Dreamcast, which is mainly HTML files and images, but also includes proprietary .dat string files. WEBTV.ROM also contains numerous files either made for WebTV for Dreamcast that are unused, or in the case of the 128-bit SSL version, have files that belong to other versions of the WebTV technology entirely. The WEBTV.ROM file uses no compression or encryption and ignoring proper extraction tools, can be somewhat easily analyzed with a hex editor. It's believed that this file is used by the WEBTV.EXE program on the disc when it starts up.
All text used by WebTV for Dreamcast has so far been observed to be encoded in either Shift-JIS or ISO-2022-JP format.
External Links
References
- ↑ WebTV for Dreamcast (Japanese) (Wayback Machine: 1999-05-08 21:55)