newserv

newserv is a game server, proxy, and reverse-engineering tool for Phantasy Star Online (PSO).

This project includes code that was reverse-engineered by the community in ages long past, and has been included in many projects since then. It also includes some game data from Phantasy Star Online itself, which was originally created by Sega.

Feel free to submit GitHub issues if you find bugs or have feature requests. I'd like to make the server as stable and complete as possible, but I can't promise that I'll respond to issues in a timely manner, because this is a personal project undertaken primarily for the fun of reverse-engineering. If you want to contribute to newserv yourself, pull requests are welcome as well.

See TODO.md for a list of known issues and future work I've curated, or go to the GitHub issue tracker for issues and requests submitted by the community.

Table of contents

• Background
  • History
  • Other server projects
• Compatibility
• Setup
  • Server setup
  • Client patch directories for PC and BB
  • How to connect
• Features and configuration
  • Installing quests
  • Item tables and drop modes
  • Cross-version play
  • Episode 3 features
  • Memory patches, client functions, and DOL files
  • Using newserv as a proxy
  • Chat commands
• Non-server features

History

The history of this project essentially mirrors my development as a software engineer from the beginning of my hobby until now. If you don't care about the story, skip to the "Compatibility" or "Setup" sections below.

I originally purchased PSO GC when I heard about PSUL, and wanted to play around with running homebrew on my GameCube. This pathway eventually led to GCARS-CS, but that's another story.

After playing PSO for a while, both offline and online, I wrote a proxy called Khyps sometime in 2003. This was back in the days of the official Sega servers, where vulnerabilities weren't addressed in a timely manner or at all. It was common for malicious players using their own proxies or Action Replay codes (a story for another time) to send invalid commands that the servers would blindly forward, and cause the receiving clients to crash. These crashes were more than simply inconvenient; they could also corrupt your save data, destroying the hours of work you may have put into hunting items and leveling up your character.

For a while it was essentially necessary to use a proxy to go online at all, so the proxy could block these invalid commands. Khyps was designed primarily with this function in mind, though it also implemented some convenient cheats, like the ability to give yourself or other players infinite HP and allow you to teleport to different places without using an in-game teleporter.

After Khyps I took on the larger challenge of writing a server, which resulted in Khyller sometime in 2005. This was the first server of any type I had ever written. This project eventually evolved into a full-featured environment supporting all versions of the game that I had access to - at the time, PC, GC, and BB. (However, I suspect from reading the ancient source files that Khyller's BB support was very buggy.) As Khyller evolved, the code became increasingly cumbersome, littered with debugging filth that I never cleaned up and odd coding patterns I had picked up over the years. My understanding of the C++ language was woefully incomplete as well (as opposed to now, when it is still incomplete but not woefully so), which resulted in Khyller being essentially a C project that had a couple of classes in it.

Sometime in 2006 or 2007, I abandoned Khyller and rebuilt the entire thing from scratch, resulting in Aeon. Aeon was substantially cleaner in code than Khyller but still fairly hard to work with, and it lacked a few of the more arcane features I had originally written (for example, the ability to convert any quest into a download quest). In addition, the code still had some stability problems... it turns out that Aeon's concurrency primitives were simply incorrect. I had derived the concept of a mutex myself, before taking any real computer engineering classes, but had implemented it incorrectly. I made the race window as small as possible, but Aeon would still randomly crash after running seemingly fine for a few days.

At the time of its inception, Aeon was also called newserv, and you may find some beta releases floating around the Internet with filenames like newserv-b3.zip. I had released betas 1, 2, and 3 before I released the entire source of beta 5 and stopped working on the project when I went to college. This was around the time when I switched from writing software primarily on Windows to primarily on macOS and Linux, so Aeon beta 5 was the last server I wrote that specifically targeted Windows. (newserv, which you're looking at now, is a bit tedious to compile on Windows but does work.)

After a long hiatus from PSO and much professional and personal development in my technical abilities, I was reminiscing sometime in October 2018 by reading my old code archives. Somehow inspired when I came across Aeon, I spent a weekend and a couple more evenings rewriting the entire project again, cleaning up ancient patterns I had used eleven years ago, replacing entire modules with simple STL containers, and eliminating even more support files in favor of configuration autodetection. The code is now suitably modern and stable, and I'm not embarrassed by its existence, as I am by Aeon beta 5's source code and my archive of Khyller (which, thankfully, no one else ever saw).

Other server projects

Independently of this project, there are many other PSO servers out there. Those that I know of that are (or were) public are listed here in approximate chronological order:

• (Early 2000s) Schtserv: The first public-access PSO server; written in Delphi by Schthack. Still active and popular as of this writing (early 2024). Schtserv is also the only other unofficial server to support all versions of PSO, including Episode 3.
• (2005) Khyller: An early attempt of mine to support PSO PC, GC, and BB. See above for more details.
• (2006) Aeon: My second attempt. Better than Khyller, but still unreliable.
• (2008) Tethealla: A fairly extensive implementation of PSOBB, written in C by Sodaboy. The public version of Tethealla has been officially disowned (as it is now more than 15 years old), but closed-source development continues. Ephinea, currently the most popular PSOBB server, is the continuation of this project. Several other modern PSOBB servers are forks of the initial public version of Tethealla as well.
• (2008) Sylverant (source): The second public-access PSO server; written in C by BlueCrab. Still active and popular as of this writing (early 2024).
• (2015) Archon: A PSOBB server written in Go by Drew Rodman.
• (2015) Idola: A PSOBB server written in Rust by HybridEidolon. Functionality status unknown; the project has been archived.
• (2017) Aselia: A PSOBB server written written in C# by Soly. It seems this was planned to be open-source at some point, but that has not (yet) happened.
• (2018) newserv: This project right here.
• (2019) Mechonis: A PSOBB server with a microservice architecture written in TypeScript by TrueVision.
• (2021) Phantasmal World: A set of PSO tools, including a web-based model viewer and quest builder, and a PSO server, written by Daan Vanden Bosch.
• (2021) Elseware: A PSOBB server written in Rust by Jake.
• (2022) PSOSERVER: A server for all versions, written in C by Sancaros and based on Sylverant and newserv.

Compatibility

newserv supports several versions of PSO, including various development prototypes. Specifically:

Version	Lobbies	Games	Proxy
DC NTE	Yes	Yes	No
DC 11/2000	Yes	Yes	No
DC 12/2000	Yes	Yes	Yes
DC 01/2001	Yes	Yes	Yes
DC V1	Yes	Yes	Yes
DC 08/2001	Yes	Yes	Yes
DC V2	Yes	Yes	Yes
PC NTE	Yes (3)	Yes	No
PC	Yes	Yes	Yes
GC Ep1&2 NTE	Yes	Yes	Yes
GC Ep1&2	Yes	Yes	Yes
GC Ep1&2 Plus	Yes	Yes	Yes
GC Ep3 NTE	Yes	Yes (1)	Yes
GC Ep3	Yes	Yes	Yes
Xbox Ep1&2 Beta	Yes	Yes	Yes
Xbox Ep1&2	Yes	Yes	Yes
BB (vanilla)	Yes	Yes (2)	Yes
BB (Tethealla)	Yes	Yes (2)	Yes

Notes:

1. Ep3 NTE battles are not well-tested; some things may not work. See notes/ep3-nte-differences.txt for a list of known differences between NTE and the final version. NTE and non-NTE players cannot battle each other.
2. Some BB-specific features are not well-tested (for example, some quests that use rare commands may not work properly). Please submit a GitHub issue if you find something that doesn't work.
3. This is the only version of PSO that doesn't have any way to identify the player's account - there is no serial number or username. For this reason, AllowUnregisteredUsers must be enabled in config.json to support PC NTE, and PC NTE players receive a random Guild Card number every time they connect. To prevent abuse, PC NTE support can be disabled in config.json.

Setup

Server setup

Currently newserv works on macOS, Windows, and Ubuntu Linux. It will likely work on other Linux flavors too.

Windows/macOS

1. Download the latest release-windows-amd64.zip or release-macos-arm64.zip file from the releases page.
2. Extract the contents of the release folder to a location on your computer.
3. Edit the config.example.json file in the system folder as needed, then rename it to config.json.
4. If you plan to play Blue Burst on newserv, set up the patch directory. See client patch directories for more information.
5. Run the newserv executable.

Linux

There are currently no precompiled releases for Linux. To run newserv on Linux, see the "Building from source" section below.

Building from source

1. Install the packages newserv depends on.
   • If you're on Windows, install Cygwin. While doing so, install the cmake, gcc-core, gcc-g++, git, libevent2.1_7, make, libiconv-devel, and zlib packages. Do the rest of these steps inside a Cygwin shell (not a Windows cmd shell or PowerShell).
   • If you're on macOS, run brew install cmake libevent libiconv.
   • If you're on Linux, run sudo apt-get install cmake libevent-dev (or use your Linux distribution's package manager).
2. Build and install phosg.
3. Optionally, install resource_dasm. This will enable newserv to send memory patches and load DOL files on PSO GC clients. PSO GC clients can play PSO normally on newserv without this.
4. Run cmake . && make in the newserv directory.

After building newserv, edit system/config.example.json as needed and rename it to system/config.json, set up client patch directories if you're planning to play Blue Burst, then run ./newserv in newserv's directory.

To use newserv in other ways (e.g. for translating data), see the end of this document.

Client patch directories

newserv implements a patch server for PSO PC and PSO BB game data. Any file or directory you put in the system/patch-bb or system/patch-pc directories will be synced to clients when they connect to the patch server.

For Blue Burst set up, the below is mandatory for a smooth experience:

1. Browse to your chosen client's data directory.
2. Copy all the map_*.dat files and the data.gsl file and place them in system/patch-bb/data

For BB clients, newserv reads some files out of the patch data to implement game logic, so it's important that certain game files are synchronized between the server and the client. newserv contains defaults for these files in the system/maps/bb-v4 directory, but if these don't match the client's copies of the files, odd behavior will occur in games.

To make server startup faster, newserv caches the modification times, sizes, and checksums of the files in the patch directories. If the patch server appears to be misbehaving, try deleting the .metadata-cache.json file in the relevant patch directory to force newserv to recompute all the checksums. Also, in the case when checksums are cached, newserv may not actually load the data for a patch file until it's needed by a client. Therefore, modifying any part of the patch tree while newserv is running can cause clients to see an inconsistent view of it.

Patch directory contents are cached in memory. If you've changed any of these files, you can run reload patch-indexes in the interactive shell to make the changes take effect without restarting the server.

How to connect

PSO DC

Depending on the version of PSO DC that you have, the instructions to connect to a newserv instance will vary.

If you have NTE, USv1, EUv1, or EUv2 and a Broadband Adapter, edit the broadband DNS address to newserv's IP address with newserv's DNS server running. Otherwise, it is necessary to patch the disc or use a codebreaker code to remove the Hunter License server check and/or redirect PSO to the newserv instance. Patching the disc or creating a codebreaker code is beyond the scope of this document.

PSO DC on Flycast

If you're emulating PSO DC, the NTE, USv1, EUv1, and EUv2 versions will connect to newserv by setting the following options in Flycast's emu.cfg file under [network]:

• DNS = Your newserv's server address (newserv's DNS server must be running on port 53)
• EmulateBBA = yes
• Enable = yes

It is also necessary to save any DNS information to the flash memory of the Dreamcast to use the BBA - the easiest way to do this is to use the website option in USv2 and then choose the save to flash option.

If the server is running on the same machine as Flycast, this might not work, even if you point Flycast's DNS queries at your local IP address (instead of 127.0.0.1). In this case, you can modify the loaded executable in memory to make it connect anywhere you want. There is a script included with newserv that can do this on macOS; a similar technique could be done manually using scanmem on Linux or Cheat Engine on Windows. To use the script, do this:

1. Build and install memwatch.
2. Start Flycast and run PSO. (You must start PSO before running the script; it won't work if you run the script before loading the game.)
3. Run sudo patch_flycast_memory.py <original-destination>. Replace <original-destination> with the hostname that PSO wants to connect to (you can find this out by using Wireshark and looking for DNS queries). The script may take up to a minute; you can continue using Flycast while it runs, but don't start an online game until the script is done.
4. Run newserv and start an online game in PSO.

If you use this method, you'll have to run the script every time you start PSO in Flycast, but you won't have to run it again if you start another online game without restarting emulation.

If using JPv1, JPv2, or USv2, it is also necessary to remove the Hunter Licence server check, either with a disc patch or codebreaker code. Patching the disc or creating a codebreaker code is beyond the scope of this document.

PSO PC

PSO PC has its connection addresses in pso.exe. Hex edit the executable with the connection address you want to connect to. Common server addresses to search for to replace are:

• pso20.sonic.isao.net
• sg207634.sonicteam.com
• pso-mp01.sonic.isao.net
• gsproduc.ath.cx
• sylverant.net

The version of PSO PC I have has the server addresses starting at offset 0x29CB34 in pso.exe. Change those addresses to "localhost" (without quotes) if you just want to connect to a locally-running newserv instance. Alternatively, you can add an entry to the Windows hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) to redirect the connection to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) or any other IP address.

PSO GC on a real GameCube

You can make PSO connect to newserv by setting its default gateway and DNS server addresses in network settings to newserv's address. newserv's DNS server must be running on port 53 and must be accessible to the GameCube.

If you have PSO Plus or Episode III, it won't want to connect to a server on the same local network as the GameCube itself, as determined by the GameCube's IP address and subnet mask. In the old days, one way to get around this was to create a fake network adapter on the server (or use an existing real one) that has an IP address on a different subnet, tell the GameCube that the server is the default gateway (as above), and have the server reply to the DNS request with its non-local IP address. To do this with newserv, just set LocalAddress in the config file to a different interface. For example, if the GameCube is on the 192.168.0.x network and your other adapter has address 10.0.1.6, set newserv's LocalAddress to 10.0.1.6 and set PSO's DNS server and default gateway addresses to the server's 192.168.0.x address. This may not work on modern systems or on non-Windows machines - I haven't tested it in many years.

PSO GC on Dolphin

If you're using the HLE BBA type, set the BBA's DNS server address to newserv's IP address and it should work. (If newserv is on the same machine as Dolphin, you will need to use an action replay code directed at 127.0.0.1 to connect, as PSO rejects DNS queries from the same IP address.) Set PSO's network settings the same as listed below.

If you're using the TAP BBA type, you'll have to set PSO's network settings appropriately for your tap interface. Set the DNS server address in PSO's network settings to newserv's IP address.

If you're using a version of Dolphin with tapserver support, you can make it connect to a newserv instance running on the same machine via the tapserver interface. You do not need to install or run tapserver. To do this:

1. Set Dolphin's BBA type to tapserver (Config -> GameCube -> SP1).
2. Enable newserv's IP stack simulator according to the comments in config.json and start newserv.
3. In PSO's network settings, enable DHCP ("Automatically obtain an IP address"), set DNS server address to "Automatic", and leave DHCP Hostname as "Not set". Leave the proxy server settings blank.
4. Start an online game.

PSO BB

The PSO BB client has been modified and distributed in many different forms. newserv supports most, but not all, of the common distributions. Unlike other versions, it's important that the client and server have the same map files, so make sure to set up the patch directory based on the client you'll be using with newserv. (See the "Client patch directories" section for instructions on setting this up.)

The original Japanese and US versions of PSO BB should work, but you'll have to modify your hosts file or edit psobb.exe to point to your newserv instance. The original versions are packed, so this is a more involved process than simply opening the executable in a hex editor and finding/replacing some strings.

Alternatively, you can use the Tethealla client (https://archive.org/details/psobb-tethealla-client); you can find the connection addresses starting at 0x56D724 in psobb.exe. Overwrite these addresses with your server's hostname or IP address, and you should be able to connect.

Connecting external clients

If you want to accept connections from outside your local network, you'll need to set ExternalAddress to your public IP address in the configuration file, and you'll likely need to open some ports in your router's NAT configuration - specifically, all the TCP ports listed in PortConfiguration in config.json.

For GC clients, you'll have to use newserv's built-in DNS server or set up your own DNS server as well. If you want external clients to be able to use your DNS server, you'll have to forward UDP port 53 to your newserv instance. Remote players can then connect to your server by entering your DNS server's IP address in their client's network configuration.

Server feature configuration

Installing quests

newserv automatically finds quests in the subdirectories of the system/quests/ directory. To install your own quests, or to use quests you've saved using the proxy's Save Files option, just put them in one of the subdirectories there and name them appropriately. The subdirectories and their behaviors (e.g. in which game modes they should appear and for which PSO versions) is defined in the QuestCategories field in config.json.

Within the category directories, quest files should be named like q###-VERSION-LANGUAGE.EXT (although the q is ignored, and can be any letter). The fields in each filename are:

• ###: quest number (this doesn't really matter; it should just be unique across the PSO version)
• VERSION: dn = Dreamcast NTE, dp = Dreamcast 11/2000 prototype, d1 = Dreamcast v1, dc = Dreamcast v2, pcn = PC NTE, pc = PC, gcn = GameCube NTE, gc = GameCube Episodes 1 & 2, gc3 = Episode 3 (see below), xb = Xbox, bb = Blue Burst
• LANGUAGE: j = Japanese, e = English, g = German, f = French, s = Spanish
• EXT: file extension (see table below)

For .dat files, the LANGUAGE token may be omitted. If it's present, then that .dat file will only be used for that language of the quest; if omitted, then that .dat file will be used for all languages of the quest.

Some quests (mostly battle and challenge mode quests) have additional JSON metadata files that describe how the server should handle them. This includes flags that can be used to hide the quest unless a preceding quest has been cleared, or to hide the quest unless purchased as a team reward. These metadata files are generally named similarly to their .bin and .dat counterparts, except the VERSION token may also be omitted if the metadata applies to all languages of the quest on all PSO versions. See system/quests/battle/b88001.json for documentation on the exact format of the JSON file.

Some quests may also include a .pvr file, which contains an image used in the quest. These files are named similarly to their .bin and .dat counterparts.

For example, the GameCube version of Lost HEAT SWORD is in two files named q058-gc-e.bin and q058-gc.dat. newserv knows these files are quests because they're in the system/quests/ directory, it knows they're for PSO GC because the filenames contain -gc, it knows this is the English version of the quest because the .bin filename ends with -e (even though the .dat filename does not), and it puts them in the Retrieval category because the files are within the retrieval/ directory within system/quests/.

The GameCube and Xbox quest formats are very similar, but newserv treats them as different. If you want to use the same quest file for GameCube and Xbox clients, you can make one a symbolic link to the other.

There are multiple PSO quest formats out there; newserv supports all of them. It can also decode any known format to standard .bin/.dat format. Specifically:

Format	Extension	Supported	Decode action
Compressed	.bin and .dat	Yes	None (1)
Compressed Ep3	.bin or .mnm	Yes (4)	None (1)
Uncompressed	.bind and .datd	Yes	compress-prs (2)
Uncompressed Ep3	.bind or .mnmd	Yes (4)	compress-prs (2)
Source	.bin.txt and .dat	Yes	None (5)
VMS (DCv1)	.bin.vms and .dat.vms	Yes	decode-vms
VMS (DCv2)	.bin.vms and .dat.vms	Decode (3)	decode-vms (3)
GCI (decrypted)	.bin.gci and .dat.gci	Yes	decode-gci
GCI (with key)	.bin.gci and .dat.gci	Yes	decode-gci
GCI (no key)	.bin.gci and .dat.gci	Decode (3)	decode-gci (3)
GCI (Ep3 NTE)	.bin.gci or .mnm.gci	Decode (3)	decode-gci (3)
GCI (Ep3)	.bin.gci or .mnm.gci	Yes	decode-gci
DLQ	.bin.dlq and .dat.dlq	Yes	decode-dlq
DLQ (Ep3)	.bin.dlq or .mnm.dlq	Yes	decode-dlq
QST (online)	.qst	Yes	decode-qst
QST (download)	.qst	Yes	decode-qst

Notes:

1. This is the default format. You can convert these to uncompressed format by running newserv decompress-prs FILENAME.bin FILENAME.bind (and similarly for .dat -> .datd)
2. Similar to (1), to compress an uncompressed quest file: newserv compress-prs FILENAME.bind FILENAME.bin (and likewise for .datd -> .dat)
3. Use the decode action to convert these quests to .bin/.dat format before putting them into the server's quests directory. If you know the encryption seed (serial number), pass it in as a hex string with the --seed= option. If you don't know the encryption seed, newserv will find it for you, which will likely take a long time.
4. Episode 3 quests don't go in the system/quests directory. See the Episode 3 section below.
5. Quest source can be assembled into a .bin or .bind file with newserv assemble-quest-script FILENAME.txt. See system/quests/retrieval/q058-gc-e.bin.txt for an annotated example; this is the English GameCube version of Lost HEAT SWORD.

Episode 3 download quests consist only of a .bin file - there is no corresponding .dat file. Episode 3 download quest files may be named with the .mnm extension instead of .bin, since the format is the same as the standard map files (in system/ep3/). These files can be encoded in any of the formats described above, except .qst.

When newserv indexes the quests during startup, it will warn (but not fail) if any quests are corrupt or in unrecognized formats.

Quest contents are cached in memory, but if you've changed the contents of the quests directory, you can re-index the quests without restarting the server by running reload quest-index in the interactive shell. The new quests will be available immediately, but any games with quests already in progress will continue using the old versions of the quests until those quests end.

Item tables and drop modes

newserv supports server-side item generation on all game versions, except for the earliest DC prototypes (NTE and 11/2000). By default, the game behaves as it did on the original servers - on all versions except BB, item drops are controlled by the leader client in each game, and on BB, item drops are controlled by the server.

There are five different available behaviors for item drops:

• DISABLED (or NONE): No items will drop from boxes or enemies.
• CLIENT: The game leader generates items, all items are visible to all players, and any player may pick up any item. This is the default mode for all game versions, except this mode cannot be used on BB.
• SERVER_SHARED: The server generates items, all items are visible to all players, and any player may pick up any item. This is the default mode for BB.
• SERVER_PRIVATE: The server generates items, but each player may get a different item from any box or enemy. If a player isn't in the same area as an enemy at the time it's defeated, they won't get any item from it. Items dropped by players are visible to everyone.
• SERVER_DUPLICATE: The server generates items, and each player will get the same item from any box or enemy, but there is one copy of each item for each player (and each player only sees their own copy of the item). If a player isn't in the same area as an enemy at the time it's defeated, they won't get any item from it. Items dropped by players are not duplicated and are visible to everyone.

In the SERVER_PRIVATE and SERVER_DUPLICATE modes, there is no incentive to pick up items before another player, since other players cannot pick up the items you see dropped from boxes and enemies. However, if you pick up an item and drop it later, it can then be seen and picked up by any player.

The drop mode can be changed at any time during a game with the $dropmode chat command. If the mode is changed after some items have already been dropped, the existing items retain their visibility (that is, items dropped in private mode still can't be picked up by other players since they were dropped before the mode was changed). You can configure which drop modes are used by default, and which modes players are allowed to choose, in config.json. See the comments above the AllowedDropModes and DefaultDropMode keys.

In the server drop modes, the item tables used to generate common items are in the system/item-tables/ItemPT-* files. (The V2 files are used for V1 as well.) The rare item tables are in the rare-table-*.json files. Unlike the original formats, it's possible to make each enemy drop multiple different rare items at different rates, though the default tables never do this.

Cross-version play

All versions of PSO can see and interact with each other in the lobby. newserv also allows some versions to play in-game with each other:

• DC V1 players can join DC V2 games if the difficulty level isn't set to Ultimate and the creator chose to allow V1 players.
• DC V2 players can join DC V1 games.
• If AllowDCPCGames is enabled in config.json, PC and DC players can join each other's games. DC V1 players cannot join PC games with the Ultimate difficulty level.
• If AllowGCXBGames is enabled in config.json, GC and Xbox players can join each other's games.

In V1/V2 cross-version play, when any of the server drop modes are used, the server uses the drop table corresponding to the version the game was created with. (For example, if a DC V1 player created the game, rare-table-v1.json will be used, even after V2 players join.)

Episode 3 features

newserv supports many features unique to Episode 3:

• CARD battles. Not every combination of abilities has been tested yet, so if you find a feature or card ability that doesn't work like it's supposed to, please make a GitHub issue and describe the situation (the attacking card(s), defending card(s), and ability or condition that didn't work).
• Spectator teams.
• Tournaments. (But they work differently than Sega's tournaments did - see below)
• Downloading quests.
• Trading cards.
• Participating in card auctions. (The auction contents must be configured in config.json.)
• Decorations in lobbies. Currently only images are supported; the game also supports loading custom 3D models in lobbies, but newserv does not implement this (yet).

Battle records

After playing a battle, you can save the record of the battle with the $saverec command. You can then replay the battle later by using the $playrec command in a lobby - this will create a spectator team and play the recording of the battle as if it were happening in realtime. Note that there is a bug in older versions of Dolphin that seems to be frequently triggered when playing battle records, which causes the emulator to crash with the message QObject::~QObject: Timers cannot be stopped from another thread. To avoid this, use the latest version of Dolphin.

Tournaments

Tournaments work differently than they did on Sega's servers. Tournaments can be created with the create-tournament shell command, which enables players to register for them. (Use help to see all the arguments - there are many!) The start-tournament shell command starts the tournament (and prevents further registrations), but this doesn't schedule any matches. Instead, players who are ready to play their next match can all stand at the 4-player battle table near the lobby warp in the same CARD lobby, and the tournament match will start automatically.

These tournament semantics mean that there can be multiple matches in the same tournament in play simultaneously, and not all matches in a round must be complete before the next round can begin - only the matches preceding each individual match must be complete for that match to be playable.

The Meseta rewards for winning tournament matches can be configured in config.json.

Episode 3 files

Episode 3 state and game data is stored in the system/ep3 directory. The files in there are:

• card-definitions.mnr: Compressed card definition list, sent to Episode 3 clients at connect time. Card stats and abilities can be changed by editing this file.
• card-definitions.mnrd: Decompressed version of the above. If present, newserv will use this instead of the compressed version, since this is easier to edit.
• card-text.mnr: Compressed card text archive. Generally only used for debugging.
• card-text.mnrd: Decompressed card text archive; same format as TextCardE.bin. Generally only used for debugging.
• com-decks.json: COM decks used in tournaments. The default decks in this file come from logs from Sega's servers, so the file doesn't include every COM deck Sega ever made - the rest are probably lost to time.
• maps/: Online free battle and quest maps (.mnm/.bin/.mnmd/.bind files). newserv comes with all the original online and offline maps, including Story Mode quests. If you don't want the offline maps and quests to be playable online, delete the .bind files system/ep3/maps.
• maps-download/: Download maps and quests (.mnm/.bin/.mnmd/.bind files). There are two subcategories by default (download maps and Trial Edition download maps), but you can add more by editing QuestCategories in config.json. Categories that have flag 0x40 (Ep3 download) set are indexed from this directory; all others are indexed from system/quests/. Files in maps-download/ subdirectories have the same format as those in the maps/ directory, but should be named like e###-gc3-LANGUAGE.EXT (similar to how non-Episode 3 quests are named in the system/quests/ directory). If you want a map to be available for online play and for downloading, the file must exist in both maps/ and in a maps-download/ subdirectory (a symbolic link is acceptable).
• tournament-state.json: State of all active tournaments. This file is automatically written when any tournament changes state for any reason (e.g. a tournament is created/started/deleted or a match is resolved).

There is no public editor for Episode 3 maps and quests, but the format is described fairly thoroughly in src/Episode3/DataIndexes.hh (see the MapDefinition structure). You'll need to use newserv decompress-prs ... to decompress .bin or .mnm files before editing them, but you don't need to compress the files again to use them - just put the .bind or .mnmd file in the maps directory and newserv will make it available.

Like quests, Episode 3 card definitions, maps, and quests are cached in memory. If you've changed any of these files, you can run reload ep3-data in the interactive shell to make the changes take effect without restarting the server.

Memory patches, client functions, and DOL files

Everything in this section requires resource_dasm to be installed, so newserv can use the assemblers and disassemblers from its libresource_file library. If resource_dasm is not installed, newserv will still build and run, but these features will not be available.

In addition, these features are only supported for the following game versions:

• PSO GameCube Episodes 1&2 Trial Edition
• PSO GameCube Episodes 1&2 JP, USA, and EU but not Plus
• PSO GameCube Episodes 1&2 Plus JP v1.4 but not v1.5
• PSO GameCube Episode 3 Trial Edition
• PSO GameCube Episode 3 JP
• PSO GameCube Episode 3 USA (experimental; must be manually enabled in config.json)
• PSO Xbox (all versions)
• PSO BB

Note: newserv uses the shorter GameCube versioning convention, where discs labeled DOL-XXXX-0-0Y are version 1.Y. The PSO community seems to use the convention 1.0Y in some places instead, but these are the same version. For example, the version that newserv calls v1.4 is the same as v1.04, and is labeled DOL-GPOJ-0-04 on the underside of the disc.

You can put memory patches in the system/client-functions directory with filenames like PatchName.patch.s and they will appear in the Patches menu for PSO GC, XB, and BB clients that support patching. Memory patches are written in PowerPC or x86 assembly and are compiled when newserv is started. The assembly system's features are documented in the comments in system/client-functions/WriteMemory.ppc.s.

newserv comes with a set of patches for GC Episodes 1&2 based on AR codes originally made by Ralf at GC-Forever and Aleron Ives. Many of them were originally posted in this thread.

You can also put DOL files in the system/dol directory, and they will appear in the Programs menu for GC clients. Selecting a DOL file there will load the file into the GameCube's memory and run it, just like the old homebrew loaders (PSUL and PSOload) did. For this to work, ReadMemoryWord.ppc.s, WriteMemory.ppc.s, and RunDOL.ppc.s must be present in the system/client-functions directory. This has been tested on Dolphin but not on a real GameCube, so results may vary.

Like other kinds of data, functions and DOL files are cached in memory. If you've changed any of these files, you can run reload functions or reload dol-files in the interactive shell to make the changes take effect without restarting the server.

I mainly built the DOL loading functionality for documentation purposes. By now, there are many better ways to load homebrew code on an unmodified GameCube, but to my knowledge there isn't another open-source implementation of this method in existence.

Using newserv as a proxy

If you want to play online on remote servers rather than running your own server, newserv also includes a PSO proxy. Currently this works with PSO GC and may work with PC and DC; it also works with some BB clients in specific situations.

To use the proxy for PSO DC, PC, or GC, add an entry to the corresponding ProxyDestinations dictionary in config.json, then run newserv and connect to it as normal (see below). You'll see a "Proxy server" option in the main menu, and you can pick which remote server to connect to.

To use the proxy for PSO BB, set the ProxyDestination-BB entry in config.json. If this option is set, it essentially disables the game server for all PSO BB clients - all clients will be proxied to the specified destination instead. Unfortunately, because PSO BB uses a different set of handlers for the data server phase and character selection, there's no in-game way to present the player with a list of options, like there is on PSO PC and PSO GC.

When you're on PSO DC, PC, or GC and are connected to a remote server through newserv's proxy, choosing the Change Ship or Change Block action from the lobby counter will send you back to newserv's main menu instead of the remote server's ship or block select menu. You can go back to the server you were just on by choosing it from the proxy server menu again.

There are many options available when starting a proxy session. All options are off by default unless otherwise noted. The options are:

• Chat commands: enables chat commands in the proxy session (on by default).
• Chat filter: enables escape sequences in chat messages and info board (on by default).
• Player notifications: shows a message when any player joins or leaves the game or lobby you're in.
• Block pings: blocks automatic pings sent by the client, and responds to ping commands from the server automatically. This works around a bug in Sylverant's login server.
• Infinite HP: automatically heals you whenever you get hit. An attack that kills you in one hit will still kill you, however.
• Infinite TP: automatically restores your TP whenever you use any technique.
• Switch assist: attempts to unlock doors that require two players in a one-player game.
• Infinite Meseta (Episode 3 only): gives you 1,000,000 Meseta, regardless of the value sent by the remote server.
• Block events: disables holiday events sent by the remote server.
• Block patches: prevents any B2 (patch) commands from reaching the client.
• Save files: saves copies of several kinds of files when they're sent by the remote server. The files are written to the current directory (which is usually the directory containing the system/ directory). These kinds of files can be saved:
  • Online quests and download quests (saved as .bin/.dat files)
  • GBA games (saved as .gba files)
  • Patches (saved as .bin files, and disassembled into PowerPC assembly if newserv is built with patch support)
  • Player data from BB sessions (saved as .bin files, which are not the same format as .nsc files)
  • Episode 3 online quests and maps (saved as .mnmd files)
  • Episode 3 download quests (saved as .mnm files)
  • Episode 3 card definitions (saved as .mnr files)
  • Episode 3 media updates (saved as .gvm, .bml, or .bin files)

The remote server will probably try to assign you a Guild Card number that doesn't match the one you have on newserv. On PSO DC, PC and GC, the proxy server rewrites the commands in transit to make it look like the remote server assigned you the same Guild Card number as you have on newserv, but if the remote server has some external integrations (e.g. forum or Discord bots), they will use the Guild Card number that the remote server believes it has assigned to you. The number assigned by the remote server is shown to you when you first connect to the remote server, and you can retrieve it in lobbies or during games with the $li command.

Some chat commands (see below) have the same basic function on the proxy server but have different effects or conditions. In addition, there are some server shell commands that affect clients on the proxy (run help in the shell to see what they are). If there's only one proxy session open, the shell's proxy commands will affect that session. Otherwise, you'll have to specify which session to affect with the on prefix - to send a chat message in LinkedSession:17205AE4, for example, you would run on 17205AE4 chat ....

Chat commands

newserv supports a variety of commands players can use by chatting in-game. Any chat message that begins with $ is treated as a chat command. (If you actually want to send a chat message starting with $, type $$ instead.) On the DC 11/2000 prototype, @ is used instead of $ for all chat commands, since $ does not appear on the English virtual keyboard.

Some commands only work on the game server and not on the proxy server. The chat commands are:

• Information commands

  • $li: Shows basic information about the lobby or game you're in. If you're on the proxy server, shows information about your connection instead (remote Guild Card number, client ID, etc.).
  • $si (game server only): Shows basic information about the server.
  • $ping: Shows round-trip ping time from the server to you. On the proxy server, shows the ping time from you to the proxy and from the proxy to the server.
  • $matcount (game server only): Shows how many of each type of material you've used.
  • $itemnotifs <mode>: Enables item drop notification messages. If the game has private drops enabled, you will only see a notification if the dropped item is visible to you; you won't be notified of other players' drops. The modes are:
    • off: No notifications are shown.
    • rare: You are notified when a rare item drops.
    • on: You are notified when any item drops, except Meseta.
    • every: You are notified when any item drops, including Meseta.
  • $what (game server only): Shows the type, name, and stats of the nearest item on the ground.
  • $where (game server only): Shows your current floor number and coordinates. Mainly useful for debugging.

• Debugging commands

  • $debug (game server only): Enable or disable debug. You need the DEBUG permission in your user license to use this command. Enabling debug does a few things:
    • You'll see in-game messages from the server when you take certain actions, like killing an enemy in BB.
    • You'll see the rare seed value and floor variations when you join a game.
    • You'll be placed into the highest available slot in lobbies and games instead of the lowest, unless you're joining a BB solo-mode game.
    • You'll be able to join games with any PSO version, not only those for which crossplay is normally supported. Be prepared for client crashes and other client-side brokenness if you do this. Please do not submit any issues for broken behaviors in crossplay, unless the situation is explicitly supported (see the "Cross-version play" section above).
    • The rest of the commands in this section are enabled on the game server. (They are always enabled on the proxy server.)
  • $quest <number> (game server only): Load a quest by quest number. Can be used to load battle or challenge quests with only one player present.
  • $qcall <function-id>: Call a quest function on your client.
  • $qcheck <flag-num> (game server only): Show the value of a quest flag. This command can be used without debug mode enabled.
  • $qset <flag-num> or $qclear <flag-num>: Set or clear a quest flag for everyone in the game.
  • $qgread <flag-num> (game server only): Get the value of a quest counter ("global flag"). This command can be used without debug mode enabled.
  • $qgwrite <flag-num> <value> (game server only): Set the value of a quest counter ("global flag") for yourself.
  • $qsync <reg-num> <value>: Set a quest register's value for yourself only. <reg-num> should be either rXX (e.g. r60) or fXX (e.g. f60); if the latter, <value> is parsed as a floating-point value instead of as an integer.
  • $qsyncall <reg-num> <value>: Set a quest register's value for everyone in the game. <reg-num> should be either rXX (e.g. r60) or fXX (e.g. f60); if the latter, <value> is parsed as a floating-point value instead of as an integer.
  • $gc (game server only): Send your own Guild Card to yourself.
  • $sc <data>: Send a command to yourself.
  • $ss <data> (proxy server only): Send a command to the remote server.
  • $meseta <amount> (game server only; Episode 3 only): Add the given amount to your Meseta total.
  • $auction (Episode 3 only): Bring up the CARD Auction menu, regardless of how many players are in the game or if you have a VIP card.
  • $ep3battledebug (game server only; Episode 3 only): Enable or disable TCard00_Select. If enabled, the game will enter the debug menu when you start a battle.

• Personal state commands

  • $arrow <color-id>: Changes your lobby arrow color.
  • $secid <section-id>: Sets your override section ID. After running this command, any games you create will use your override section ID for rare drops instead of your character's actual section ID. To revert to your actual section id, run $secid with no name after it. On the proxy server, this will not work if the remote server controls item drops (e.g. on BB, or on Schtserv with server drops enabled). If the server does not allow cheat mode anywhere (that is, "CheatModeBehavior" is "Off" in config.json), this command does nothing.
  • $rand <seed>: Sets your override random seed (specified as a 32-bit hex value). This will make any games you create use the given seed for rare enemies. This also makes item drops deterministic in Blue Burst games hosted by newserv. On the proxy server, this command can cause desyncs with other players in the same game, since they will not see the overridden random seed. To remove the override, run $rand with no arguments. If the server does not allow cheat mode anywhere (that is, "CheatModeBehavior" is "Off" in config.json), this command does nothing.
  • $ln [name-or-type]: Sets the lobby number. Visible only to you. This command exists because some non-lobby maps can be loaded as lobbies with invalid lobby numbers. See the "GC lobby types" and "Ep3 lobby types" entries in the information menu for acceptable values here. Note that non-lobby maps do not have a lobby counter, so there's no way to exit the lobby without using either $ln again or $exit. On the game server, $ln reloads the lobby immediately; on the proxy server, it doesn't take effect until you load another lobby yourself (which means you'll like have to use $exit to escape). Run this command with no argument to return to the default lobby.
  • $swa: Enables or disables switch assist. When enabled, the server will attempt to automatically unlock two-player doors in non-quest games if you step on both switches sequentially.
  • $exit: If you're in a lobby, sends you to the main menu (which ends your proxy session, if you're in one). If you're in a game or spectator team, sends you to the lobby (but does not end your proxy session if you're in one). Does nothing if you're in a non-Episode 3 game and no quest is in progress.
  • $patch <name>: Run a patch on your client. <name> must exactly match the name of a patch on the server.

• Character data commands (game server only)

  • $savechar <slot>: Saves your current character data on the server in the specified slot (each serial number has 4 slots, numbered 1-4). These slots are separate from BB character slots; using this command does not affect BB characters.
  • $loadchar <slot> (v1 and v2 only): Loads your character data from the specified slot. The changes will be undone if you join a game - to save your changes, disconnect from the lobby.
  • $bbchar <username> <password> <slot>: Use this command when playing on a non-BB version of PSO. If the username and password are correct, this command converts your current character to BB format and saves it on the server in the given slot (1-4). Any character already in that slot is overwritten. (This command is similar to $savechar, except it overwrites a BB character slot, and can transfer characters across accounts.) Note that the character's chat data, quick menu config, and bank contents are not copied, since there is no way for the server to request those types of data.
  • $edit <stat> <value>: Modifies your character data. If you are on V3 (GameCube/Xbox), this command does nothing. If you are on V1 or V2 (DC or PC, not BB), your changes will be undone if you join a game - to save your changes, disconnect from the lobby. If cheats are allowed on the server, <stat> can be any of atp, mst, evp, hp, dfp, ata, lck, meseta, exp, level, namecolor, secid, name, npc, or tech. If cheats are not allowed, only namecolor, name, and npc can be used.

• Blue Burst player commands (game server only)

  • $bank [number]: Switches your current bank, so you can access your other character's banks (if number is 1-4) or your shared account bank (if number is 0). If number is not given, switches back to your current character's bank.
  • $save: Saves your character, system, and Guild Card data immediately. (By default, your character is saved every 60 seconds while online, and your account and Guild Card data are saved whenever they change.)

• Game state commands (game server only)

  • $maxlevel <level>: Sets the maximum level for players to join the current game. (This only applies when joining; if a player joins and then levels up past this level during the game, they are not kicked out, but won't be able to rejoin if they leave.)
  • $minlevel <level>: Sets the minimum level for players to join the current game.
  • $password <password>: Sets the game's join password. To unlock the game, run $password with nothing after it.
  • $dropmode [mode]: Changes the way item drops behave in the current game. mode can be none, client, shared, private, or duplicate. If mode is not given, tells you the current drop mode without changing it. See the "Item tables and drop modes" section for more information.
  • $persist: Enable or disable persistence for the current game. When persistence is on, the game will not be deleted when the last player leaves. The state of enemies and objects on the map will be reset when the last player leaves, but dropped items will not be deleted. If the game is empty for too long (15 minutes by default), it is then deleted.

• Episode 3 commands (game server only)

  • $spec: Toggles the allow spectators flag for Episode 3 games. If any players are spectating when this flag is disabled, they will be sent back to the lobby.
  • $inftime: Toggles infinite-time mode. Must be used before starting a battle. If infinite-time mode is enabled, the overall and per-phase time limits will be disabled regardless of the values chosen during battle setup. After completing a battle, infinite-time mode is reset to the server's default value (which can be set in Episode3BehaviorFlags in config.json).
  • $dicerange [d:L-H] [1:L-H] [a1:L-H] [d1:L-H]: Sets override dice ranges for the next battle. The min and max dice values from the rules setup menu always apply to the ATK dice, but you can specify a different range for the DEF dice with d:2-4 (for example). The 1: override applies to the 1-player team in a 2v1 game (so you would set the 2-player team's desired dice range in the rules menu). You can also specify the 1-player team's ATK and DEF ranges separately with the a1: and d1: overrides. Note that these ranges will only be used if the chosen map or quest does not override them.
  • $stat <what>: Shows a statistic about your player or team in the current battle. <what> can be duration, fcs-destroyed, cards-destroyed, damage-given, damage-taken, opp-cards-destroyed, own-cards-destroyed, move-distance, cards-set, fcs-set, attack-actions-set, techs-set, assists-set, defenses-self, defenses-ally, cards-drawn, max-attack-damage, max-combo, attacks-given, attacks-taken, sc-damage, damage-defended, or rank.
  • $surrender: Causes your team to immediately lose the current battle.
  • $saverec <name>: Saves the recording of the last battle.
  • $playrec <name>: Plays a battle recording. This command creates a spectator team and replays the specified battle log within it. There is a bug in Dolphin that makes use of this command unstable in emulation (see the "Battle records" section above).

• Cheat mode commands

  • $cheat (game server only): Enables or disables cheat mode for the current game. All other cheat mode commands do nothing if cheat mode is disabled. By default, cheat mode is off in new games but can be enabled; there is an option in config.json that allows you to disable cheat mode entirely, or set it to on by default in new games. Cheat mode is always enabled on the proxy server, unless cheat mode is disabled on the entire server.
  • $infhp / $inftp: Enables or disables infinite HP or TP mode. Applies to only you. In infinite HP mode, one-hit KO attacks will still kill you. On V1 and V2, infinite HP also automatically cures status ailments.
  • $warpme <floor-id> (or $warp <floor-id>): Warps yourself to the given floor.
  • $warpall <floor-id>: Warps everyone in the game to the given floor. You must be the leader to use this command, unless you're on the proxy server.
  • $next: Warps yourself to the next floor.
  • $item <desc> (or $i <desc>): Create an item. desc may be a description of the item (e.g. "Hell Saber +5 0/10/25/0/10") or a string of hex data specifying the item code. Item codes are 16 hex bytes; at least 2 bytes must be specified, and all unspecified bytes are zeroes. If you are on the proxy server, you must not be using Blue Burst for this command to work. On the game server, this command works for all versions.
  • $unset <index> (game server only): In an Episode 3 battle, removes one of your set cards from the field. <index> is the index of the set card as it appears on your screen - 1 is the card next to your SC's icon, 2 is the card to the right of 1, etc. This does not cause a Hunters-side SC to lose HP, as they normally do when their items are destroyed.
  • $dropmode [mode] (proxy server): Changes the way item drops behave in the current game, if you are not on BB. Unlike the game server version of this command, using this on the proxy server requires cheats to be enabled. This works by intercepting the drop requests sent to and from the leader. (So, if you are the leader and not using server drop mode on the remote server, it affects the entire game; otherwise, it affects only items generated by your actions.) mode can be none (no drops), default (normal drops), or proxy (use newserv's drop tables instead of the remote server's). If mode is not given, tells you the current drop mode without changing it.

• Configuration commands

  • $event <event>: Sets the current holiday event in the current lobby. Holiday events are documented in the "Using $event" item in the information menu. If you're on the proxy server, this applies to all lobbies and games you join, but only you will see the new event - other players will not.
  • $allevent <event> (game server only): Sets the current holiday event in all lobbies.
  • $song <song-id> (Episode 3 only): Plays a specific song in the current lobby.

• Administration commands (game server only)

  • $ann <message>: Sends an announcement message. The message text is sent to all players in all games and lobbies.
  • $ax <message>: Sends a message to the server's terminal. This cannot be used to run server shell commands; it only prints text to stderr.
  • $silence <identifier>: Silences a player (remove their ability to chat) or unsilences a player. The identifier may be the player's name or Guild Card number.
  • $kick <identifier>: Disconnects a player. The identifier may be the player's name or Guild Card number.
  • $ban <identifier>: Bans a player. The identifier may be the player's name or Guild Card number.

Non-server features

newserv has many CLI options, which can be used to access functionality other than the game and proxy server. Run newserv help to see a full list of the options and how to use each one.

The data formats that newserv can convert to/from are:

Format	Encode/compress action	Decode/extract action
PRS compression	compress-prs	decompress-prs
PR2/PRC compression	compress-pr2	decompress-pr2
BC0 compression	compress-bc0	decompress-bc0
Raw encrypted data	encrypt-data	decrypt-data
Episode 3 command mask	encrypt-trivial-data	decrypt-trivial-data
Challenge Mode rank text	encrypt-challenge-data	decrypt-challenge-data
PSO DC quest file (.vms)	None	decode-vms
PSO GC quest file (.gci)	None	decode-gci
Download quest file (.dlq)	None	decode-dlq
Server quest file (.qst)	encode-qst	decode-qst
PSO PC save file	encrypt-pc-save	decrypt-pc-save
PSO GC save file (.gci)	encrypt-gci-save	decrypt-gci-save
PSO GC snapshot file	None	decode-gci-snapshot
Quest script (.bin)	assemble-quest-script	disassemble-quest-script
Quest map (.dat)	None	disassemble-quest-map
AFS archive	None	extract-afs
BML archive	None	extract-bml
GSL archive	None	extract-gsl
GVM texture	encode-gvm	None
Text archive	encode-text-archive	decode-text-archive
Unicode text set	encode-unicode-text-set	decode-unicode-text-set
Word Select data set	None	decode-word-select-set
Set data table	None	disassemble-set-data-table
Rare item table (AFS/GSL/JSON)	convert-rare-item-set	convert-rare-item-set

There are several actions that don't fit well into the table above, which let you do other things:

• Compute the decompressed size of compressed PRS data without decompressing it (prs-size)
• Find the likely round1 or round2 seed for a corrupt save file (salvage-gci)
• Run a brute-force search for a decryption seed (find-decryption-seed)
• Format Episode 3 game data in a human-readable manner (show-ep3-maps, show-ep3-cards, generate-ep3-cards-html)
• Format Blue Burst battle parameter files in a human-readable manner (show-battle-params)
• Search for rare enemy seeds that result in rare enemies on console versions (find-rare-enemy-seeds)
• Convert item data to a human-readable description, or vice versa (describe-item)
• Connect to another PSO server and pretend to be a client (cat-client)
• Generate or describe DC serial numbers (generate-dc-serial-number, inspect-dc-serial-number)