25 Years Later, Saturn Online RPG Dragon's Dream Is Finally Playable Again (Kinda) 1
Image: memory_fallen

Released exclusively on Saturn in Japan in 1997, Dragon's Dream was an online RPG collaboration between Sega and Fujitsu.

Given away for free to people who purchased the Sega Saturn Modem or the Saturn Keyboard between December 1997 and the end of March 1998, the game required multiple charges to actually play, including a fee to use Fujitsu's Nifty-Serve service, a ¥500/month + ¥10 per minute game fee and the cost of your telephone call. In April 1998, a Windows 95 version was released, enabling cross-platform play.

Sadly, the servers were shut down on October 1st 1999, and the game has been unplayable since then – but @memory_fallen has just discovered a way of accessing the game's battle system without a connection to the long-dead servers.

The method involves accessing the game's debug menu via a special save file. You can't normally progress past the warning screen without a modem and a connection to the servers, but @memory_fallen has patched the game so this check is bypassed.

While this patch is still a long way off making the game playable, it does mean we can get a look at its turned-based battle system for the first time in 25 years.

[source x.com]