Couple of things: For one, if his idea is plausible, you WILL NOT have to use an emulator.

More importantly, though, I'm not sure how fundamentally sound his idea is. His solution is premised on his conclusion that the outbreak multiplayer is peer to peer; that is, once users create a game, when it is started, all the communications are directly between the ps2's, and the kddi server isn't used.

Problem is, this might not be the case. Since yesterday I've been capturing packets in-game. I'm using actual ps2 hardware connected to an ethernet hub (non switched), with a computer connected to the same hub, so I can view all the traffic coming in and out of the ps2. I disabled my router firewall so that the ps2 is exposed to the internet. In game, the only packet communication was between my ps2 and a kddi server IP address... this is the case no matter if I'm hosting the game or not. What I had expected to see, if his theory was correct, was communication with the other players, so I should have seen 3 other IP addresses, none of which should have belonged to KDDI.

I'm not sure whether this is because Wireshark is not capturing certain communications, or if the KDDI server is merely checking to see if the players are online, with the ps2's doing the rest of the work, but it doesn't seem to make sense. I've posted on his blog about it, and haven't received an answer. I messaged him directly yesterday and am hoping he will respond and reconcile what I saw with his conclusions.

If all the communications are going through the KDDI server in-game, as I fear, than that is bad news.

I Give it a full 2 months before It Gets Torrented By Desperate Outbreak Fans....
Yet I am Not One of them as I Dont Like I-Phones or Anything By Apple

Apple? iPhone? Well at least you know what we're talking about.

This won't work because your game is the client version and it connects to the server version. We don't have the server version of the game. You can only use the lobby system if you get the files/software for the server or you're some kind of an insane genius that can program in assembly a lobby system into the game to work with the one you made on your computer.

Now the easiest way to get it working would be to program into the game (through assembly or whatever godly means) a window that lets you type an IP address and connect to a room. And this is assuming that rooms made in lobbies are hosted by the room maker and not the lobby system.

And even that, there's so many problems you would have to deal with (game freezing from trying to send stats but easy to bypass, loading screen into start of the game is hardcoded to communicate with lobby system, etc. So unless you dedicate your life on learning how to program in assembly for a PS2 game that you don't even know how it was programmed to work and spending more of your life to build the simplest solution, it basically won't happen.

Actually, if you capture the packets, it's a matter of being able to know what the packets are being used for. There's no need for assembly code at all. What's needed is a server that sends the right kinds of packets. Capturing packets tells us what the PS2 is expecting to get from the server, it tells us what's being sent back. And if the server is simply a matchmaker, all we would need is to know what packets the ps2 expects to start the game and listen for connections from other PS2's.

Refer to Phantasy Star Online and the homebrew servers available for that game. Dedication is necessary; assembly code and a life's worth of work isn't.

I'm not the one moving forward with the project, but I suggest you read some of the older posts on that blog. He's already familiar with the structure of the server and matchmaking system.

I enjoy what you guys are doing and I am also dedicated to the cause... Hell i might even try to help... Does that make me a bad Octopus?

Agree with you Jordan,I support this guy 100percent fully,looking forward to hearing more news on this.

Yeah i find it interesting what this guy's trying to do and i support it 100% but when i think about all the work that has to be done, (packet sniffing, hex editing etc) just to see if this is even doable makes me cringe
So far it looks like hes onto something tho,

And yo cr8 its Derek btw :P

The anxiety of playing this game online is so huge for me. However I don't have the resources.

Don't have the resources?You could try swap magic and just play this on your regular ps2 for the last 2 months,till it shuts down june 30th =\.N Hey derek :) haha been awhile