Some of you may be aware that Matt Swift (a.k.a. Zynetic) has started his own PSO server at Ragol.org. While having more ways to play PSO would normally be a good thing, Matt has publicly admitted on multiple occasions that he is stealing content from both Sylverant and SCHTServ. I have attempted to compile the evidence and respond to it, so that everybody will know what Matt has been doing. You can find the information here.

Both BlueCrab and I, as well as Schthack and Kayak, have worked hard supporting PSO for many years, and we do not appreciate our work being treated in this way. We are making this information public to spread awareness of what is happening, and we encourage you to share the page with anyone you think should know about it.

Thank you.

PSO Palace will be celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, and as it turns out, I've done quite a few things for PSO in that time. In fact, I've worked on so many quests now — both Sega's and my own — that it's hard to keep track of all the features available on my ship. I've posted so many update messages across different forums over the years that it's hard for new players to know what sets Sylverant apart from other PSO servers. That changes today.

I've just added an About Altimira section to the site that summarises all of the features my ship offers for V2 and V3 players. You no longer need to scour decades' worth of forum posts to find information; it's finally available all in one place. :) Thank you to all of the players who have enjoyed the content I've created over the last two decades, and thank you to BlueCrab for giving PSO Palace a home since 2011. Here's to another 20 years of PSO!

The Rain and Bugfix Patches are now available for Xbox. As on GameCube, the Rain patch improves the rain effect and adds rain to Mountain Area. The Bugfix Patch only fixes a few bugs at present, but it may receive updates with additional fixes in the future. You can get both patches in the Xbox Downloads section of the site.

The Item Loss Prevention Patch is now available for Xbox. As the name suggests, this patch prevents you from losing your unequipped items and Meseta when the game crashes in online mode. You can get the patch in the Xbox Downloads section of the site.

Please note that this patch carries greater risk than most patches, since it influences your characters and items, so it's advisable to back up your save data before using it. The Xbox patch performed properly during testing and appears to behave the same as the GameCube patch, but it's always possible that Xbox is different from GC in some way we haven't anticipated. If you discover any problems, please report them on the forum or the Sylverant Discord.

The Full Word Select and Gibarta Patches are now available for Xbox. The former enables the original Word Select menu from PSOv2, and the latter restores the original Gibarta casting speed from PSOv2. In addition, the Shop Patch has been updated to version 1.1. The update brings new weapon specialties to the Tekker for the Redria and Yellowboze Section IDs. As usual, you can get the patches in the Xbox Downloads section of the site.

The Quest Music, Disc Music, Ending Music, and Event Music Patches are now available for Xbox. As with the original GameCube versions of these patches, they change the in-game music in various circumstances. In addition, the Connection Patch is now available for GameCube. This patch will let you connect directly to Sylverant if your ISP no longer allows DNS redirection. As usual, you can get all the patches in the Xbox Downloads and GameCube Downloads sections of the site.

I've updated the Xbox Keyboard Patch to version 1.1. The new version includes a separate patch for Japanese players that allows you to access the IME when your Xbox language is set to Japanese.

Three more Xbox patches are now available: you can get the Keyboard Patch, Reticle Patch, and Atari Patch in the Xbox Downloads section of the site.

I've added two more Xbox patches today: the Shop Patch and the Offline Map Patch are now available for PSOX. You can get them in the Xbox Downloads section of the site.

I've added a new Xbox Downloads section to the site. The first download for PSOX is a fix for the faulty collision data in VR Temple, so that you can play Episode II Challenge mode (and other quests that use the broken VR Temple Beta map) without problems.

This has been the longest delay between news posts by far, so I'd better have something good to report, right? I guess that's a matter of perspective. The good news is I've just released not one, but two new quests! Shattered Reality: Alpha and Shattered Reality: Beta are now available. The bad news is that they're VR Temple and VR Spaceship quests, so you might have a reason to play Episode II's filler areas now. Yay? =P

We've had a lot of anniversaries lately, so why not celebrate one more? Frantic Fauna turns ten this year, and now it's finally available on GameCube! Thanks to BlueCrab adding the required server feature, the trio of frantic event quests is now complete on both DC and GC. =)

I've updated the Triad -Maximum Attack- series with some fixes and features from GC. You can see the full list here.

Ten years ago today, PSO Palace joined the Sylverant family. Thank you to BlueCrab for giving us a home, and thank you to the players for being a part of our community over the last decade! Here's to the next ten years of PSO!

Sylverant now supports the PSO PC Network Trial Edition, so I've created a new BitTorrent file that includes both the original trial and the NTE. If you've ever been curious about this little piece of PSO's history, now you can experience it for yourself! =P

The Keyboard Patch is now available for PSO GC. This patch remaps the default Japanese keyboard layout to a standard US QWERTY layout. You can get the patch on the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here.

Garon's Shop 2.0 is out! I've rewritten the quest from scratch to add new features and adjust the progression compared to the old system. For more information, see the forum thread here. DC and PC are at last much closer to feature parity with the GC shop quest!

The Shield Fix Patch is now available for PSO PC. This patch allows shields to reach their true maximum DFP values. You can get the patch on the PC Downloads page, and you can find the forum topic here. This patch is part of the major update coming to PSOv2 next week, so stay tuned for that!

The Chat Patch has been updated to version 1.1. The update adds the ability to skip over NPC dialogue by holding the B button. Not only does this let you skip tiresome dialogue very quickly, but it also spares your A button from extra wear and tear. Get the update on the GC Downloads page, and enjoy!

Today is a special day: after nearly three years' worth of work, the Bugfix Patch is now available (again?!). This patch currently addresses 36 different bugs in the game ranging from aesthetic tweaks to significant gameplay problems. You can get the patch from the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here. This patch is far more complex than all of the others, so although it's undergone extensive testing, it's possible that it might cause some problems that I've missed. If you find anything wrong, please let me know on the forum, the lobby, or Discord. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you installed the faulty patch from two days ago, you'll need to roll back your ISO before you apply the updated patch. Sorry for the inconvenience!

The Decoction Patch is now available. This patch allows you to reset your consumed materials by using a Decoction, which you can buy from Paganini for one Photon Drop on Altimira. Unlike previous material reset methods, there are no side effects, and you get to keep your HP and TP Materials, too. You can get the patch from the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here.

The Shop Patch has been updated to version 1.1 to make Antidote and Antiparalysis a bit easier to get when you're above level 100. In addition, the patch is now available for Japanese 1.04 discs. Of course, you can snag the update from the GC Downloads page.

The Chat, Full Word Select, Ice, Item Loss Prevention, Movement, and Disc/Ending/Event/Quest Music Patches have been updated to support Japanese 1.04 discs. Naturally, you can get the patches from the GC Downloads page if you have that particular release of PSO GC.

This post marks a major milestone for me and the site: the PSOv2 Enhancement Pack was released ten years ago today. Thank you to all the players who have used it over the years! It makes all my work on this stuff worthwhile knowing that people are still enjoying the results a decade later.

Although it isn't ready in time for the anniversary, the PSOv3 Enhancement Pack has been under development for over two years now and is progressing nicely. Here's hoping it will be just as successful when it's finished!

The Movement Patch is now available. This patch improves weapon animations by allowing you to step backwards and improves combat by allowing you to walk when you're close to enemies, instead of having the joystick get disabled. You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

The Shop Patch is now available. This patch improves the Tool Shop and the Tekker by allowing you to always buy all healing items without having to reload the shop and by reducing the number of times you have to tek a weapon to get the correct result. You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

The Rain Patch is now available. This patch improves the rain effect in Forest 2 and Gal Gryphon and adds rain to Mountain Area to make it less visually boring. In addition, the Mag Alert and Widescreen patches have been updated. The Mag Alert Patch will no longer go off in the lobby, and Seabed water effects are fixed with the Widescreen Patch. You can get everything in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

The Palette Patch has received another update. This time, the patch is available in two versions: version 1.2 is an update to the previous releases that fixes splitscreen multiplayer, while version 2.0 also adds the ability to save the extra palettes to your memory card. As with the Common Bank Patch, version 2.0 uses temporary slot 3 to store the extra palettes, so you can only transfer 2 characters from other memory cards when you play splitscreen, instead of 3. Make sure temporary slot 3 is empty before you apply patch version 2.0! You can get the update in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

The Common Bank Patch is now available. This patch gives you an extra bank that you can share between all four characters on your memory card, so you no longer need to use multi mode to transfer items between characters on the same memory card. Note that this patch comes at the cost of temporary slot 3, so you can only transfer 2 characters from other memory cards when you play splitscreen, instead of 3. Make sure temporary slot 3 is empty before you apply this patch! You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

A specialty patch is out today: the Progressive Patch allows the PAL release of PSO GC to display in progressive mode on the Wii. NTSC discs already have progressive mode, so they are unaffected by the patch. The patch doesn't improve the image quality in Dolphin, but it does allow you to skip the 60 Hz prompt every time you start the game. You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here.

I've updated the Palette Patch to version 1.1. The update fixes a small bug with Photon Blast targetting. Photon Blasts normally have their own palette with its own targetting rules, and mapping PB icons to regular palettes causes them to use regular targetting rules, including displaying reticles that shouldn't be there. The update corrects the problem, and you can get it in the GC Downloads section of the site. You can find the forum thread here.

The Mag Alert Patch is now available. This patch plays the Mag feeding sound effect when your Mag becomes hungry to remind you to check the Mag menu. In addition, the Draw Distance Patch, Radar Map Patch, and Widescreen patch have been updated to support Japanese 1.03 discs. This is the edition of PSO GC that's branded as version "1.1" on the disc and the title screen. You can get the patches from the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here. Enjoy!

Today marks the release of the most sweeping patch yet: the Palette Patch is now available. This patch allows you to map up to 24 different actions to dedicated buttons by giving you four different Action Palettes, instead of only one. The Reticle Patch is also available, which gives you Dreamcast- or Xbox-style targetting reticles if you don't play PSO GC with a GameCube controller. You can get the patches from the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here. Enjoy!

If you thought the Atari Patch was epic, you'll be ecstatic at today's news: the Save Icon Patch is now available. =P This patch removes the annoying warning text underneath the Now Saving icon for Western PSO GC discs. In addition, all patches except the Draw Distance Patch, Radar Map Patch, and Widescreen Patch have been updated to support Japanese 1.03 discs. This is the edition of PSO GC that's branded as version "1.1" on the disc and the title screen. You can grab the patches on the GC Downloads page, and you can find the forum post here. Enjoy!

For a nice change of pace, two new Dreamcast patches are now available! The first patch displays GameCube player names in white, so you can easily determine who's playing PSO GC, and the second patch allows you to play the game in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen. At long last the DC Downloads page has gotten an update. ;) You can also find the forum thread for both patches here. Enjoy!

Three new patches are now available. The Radar Map Patch improves the in-game mapping system, the Rare Alert Patch notifies you when rare items drop, and the Widescreen patch corrects the game's FOV so you can play in 16:10, 16:9, or 21:9 without stretching the 3D geometry. You can get all three patches in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here. Enjoy!

I've finished another patch that I'm sure will be thrilling news for everybody: the Atari Patch is now available. ;) This patch restores the Atari logo above the hospital on Pioneer 2 for people with US and EU copies of PSO GC. You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum post here. Enjoy this revolutionary patch! n.n

I'm pleased to announce two new patches for PSO GC today. The first is the Chat Patch, which gives you the ability to pause the chat log's automatic scrolling by holding L+R, so you can actually read the log when people are talking. As an added bonus, the patch also allows you to use the ⁄cc command to chat in colour. The second is the Event Music Patch, which restores the special music on Pioneer 2 during online events. You can get both patches in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum thread here.

I've updated the Draw Distance Patch to version 1.1. The update increases the draw distance of item boxes (and blood) a bit further to compensate for the giant rooms in Episode II, and it also increases the draw distance of item crates to make them easier to find, as well as a few other improvements. You can get the update in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum thread here.

The Ice Patch is now available for PSO GC. This patch combines the old patch for Blizzard weapons with a new patch to improve the casting speed and freezing rate of Gibarta. This patch allows you to cast Gibarta at the same speed as Gizonde, which in turn makes Gibarta much more useful than before. As usual, you can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum thread here. This patch supersedes the Blizzard Patch, so you can install it on top of the old patch. It also fixes a bug with the Blizzard Patch, so please update if you're using the old patch. Enjoy!

The Offline Map Patch is now available for PSO GC. This patch lets you fight the same enemy waves in offline Episode I that you get in online mode, so you can finally be rid of the boring spawns in offline Forest and Cave. Episode II is not affected, as the offline Episode II spawns are actually different from the online spawns, rather than simply being reduced versions of the same enemy waves. You can get the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the forum thread here. Enjoy!

The Draw Distance Patch is now available for PSO GC, and you can get it in the GC Downloads section of the site. As you might imagine, this patch improves your ability to see objects from far away by raising their clipping thresholds. This patch is more subjective than usual, as there are scores of objects to choose from when deciding which ones to change, and the new clipping thresholds are subjective as well. If you find some critical object that I didn't boost or an existing object that I boosted too much (?!), you can report any problems in the forum thread here. With any luck I won't need to make any updates. ;)

I'm pleased to announce the release of the Item Loss Prevention Patch for PSO GC. As the name suggests, this patch prevents you from losing your unequipped items and Meseta when your game crashes in online mode. As such, you no longer have to worry about keeping backups of your important items, because the game will no longer delete them in the event of a crash. Huzzah! You can grab the patch in the GC Downloads section of the site, and you can find the discussion topic for the patch here. Huge thanks go out to Ralf for his hard work on this, as it's taken us over two months of tinkering and testing to finish this patch. If you find any problems, please report them on the forum.

If anybody is experienced with SH4 assembly and wants to try porting this patch to the Dreamcast, please contact me, as it's very likely that it would be possible to do this on DC as well, assuming somebody wants to dig through the game's code.

I've just released a slew of patches for PSO GC, which you can find in the new GC Downloads section of the site. You can also discuss the patches in the new GameCube section of the development forum. All GC patches require you to use GCRebuilder to modify your ISO. If you don't know how to use GCRebuilder, I've written a GCRebuilder tutorial with screenshots to help you out. Huge thanks go out to Ralf for all his hard work on patching PSO GC!

We're back! After some downtime due to an unexpected server move, everything on Sylverant is back to normal again. If you use the DNS redirect method to connect, you'll need to update your DNS 1 setting to 138.197.20.130 to reach the new server. If you have any questions, you can ask them here. Sorry for the inconvenience!

I've posted a detailed review of the Phantasy Star Online: Network Trial Edition for the Dreamcast on the forum. If you've ever wanted to know more about the NTE but can't manage to find a copy for yourself, you can at least read about it here.

Today marks the fifth anniversary of PSO Palace joining the Sylverant family, so I would like to take this moment to celebrate the fact that we're still going strong, even though Schthack's server is now gone. Here's to another five years of keeping PSO alive. =)

I've updated the Triad -Maximum Attack- quest series with a bunch of small fixes, so you can download the new TMA3 from the server (after you delete the old version from your memory card/Backup folder) to get the update. The main news is that TMA3 is now also available online, so you can finally play it with other people, too. Enjoy!

Mark your calendars, folks, as today's update is particularly unusual. I've just released multiple quests for... Ver.1? =P Yes, Soul of a Blacksmith, The Retired Hunter, Garon's Scheme, and Hero & Daughter are now available as Download Quests for Ver.1. I found a bunch of small things that I wanted to tweak in Hero & Daughter while I was porting it, so I've updated the Ver.2 and PC editions of the quest, too. Yes, I know there isn't a huge demand for Ver.1 content, but I figured since it was possible to port the quests, I might as well do so to make our quest list as complete as possible. ;) Enjoy!

After several months of work, I have just released a slew of quest updates for more than a dozen different quests. Rather than make a massive post on the main page about it, I will instead direct you to read the massive forum post about the update here. ;) Enjoy!

Today's announcement marks an exciting development in the world of PSO for the Dreamcast. I have just released the first fast-loading PSO Ver.2 CDIs ever that are free from the freezing problems that have plagued all earlier releases of the game. =D I have updated the PSO DC Pack in the Downloads section of the site to version 2.0 to reflect the change. As before, I am releasing both a normal disc and a disc with the Enhancement Pack. While I expect each of you will only be interested in using one of the included discs, I would like to ask you to download and seed the entire pack so that other people will be able to obtain their disc of choice. (The original USv1 CDI is also included again in the new disc pack.) This release pretty much makes every previous PSO Ver.2 CD-R copy obsolete, so it's up to us to ensure that everyone who wants a proper fast-loading copy of the game is able to get one. For more information about this release, you can visit the forum topic about it here. Keep Dreamcasting!

I've updated the PSO PC, PSO PC Music Pack, and PSO DC Pack torrents to use new trackers, as the old ones stopped working. Since I had to update the PC torrent anyway, I took this opportunity to update the package a bit. Version 3 of the torrent now includes a pso.exe and online.exe that will connect to Sylverant, since you must use the Sylverant patch server to register your serial number and access key with the game. I've also updated the README with information on how to register for an account on sylverant.net so that you can get a serial number and access key. The included pso.exe is now also pre-patched with the Vista/7 "typing patch" to let you enter messages in English without having to deal with Japanese input, as I imagine most people trying to download and install PSO these days will be trying to do so on a version of Windows newer than XP. You can of course still get the other versions of pso.exe in the PC Downloads section of the site if you're using an older version of Windows or want to be able to type in languages other than English. I have also updated the online README located in the Guides section of the site.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has seeded the previous two versions of my PC torrents, and I hope that the third one will be just as successful.

I have also updated the PSO DC Pack to use 7-Zip compression, which makes the new torrent almost 300 MiB smaller than the old one. As a result of the compression change, you will need to download the new torrent to continue seeding. I only updated the trackers for the PSO PC Music Pack torrent, so you can continue to seed the original zip file after you download the new .torrent file.

Today's update announces the completion of my trio of event quests, as Acrid Aquifer is now available! This new event quest will fill in the rest of the calender year by giving us something to do when the other event quests aren't available, so we will now have a rotating set of quests to cover the entire year. As always, you can check out the forum topic on the quest here. Enjoy!

As I hinted a few days ago, I've updated the PSO PC Graphical Fix Pack with a new patch to fix the floor in Ultimate Cave 1. You can download the new pack in the PC Downloads section of the site, and you can see the updated screenshot page here. The forum topic is also still available. Enjoy!

I've written a guide on how you can improve PSO PC's graphics by applying special effects with the driver for your graphics card, which you can find on this page. The guide will walk you through the process for nVidia graphics cards, but the steps should be relatively similar for ATI/AMD GPUs. You can also read the forum topic about the guide here. There should also be another bug fix for PSO PC's graphics coming in the next few days... ;)

I've released a new patch to disable the word filter in PSO PC, mainly because the new method of disabling the game's censorship doesn't require you to patch your pso.exe file. You don't need the new patch if you've already patched pso.exe, but if you want a way to turn off the word filter without patching pso.exe, this will let you do it. As always, you can get the patch in the PC Downloads section of the site. It's definitely a minor update, but I thought it was worth making, anyway.

Two updates in less than a week? Yes, it's unusual. =P This update is to let everyone know that Battle rules 1, 2, and 3 are now fully compatible with cross-platform play, so Dreamcast and PC users can now safely duel each other in those rules. You can read the forum topic about the update here. Happy dueling!

Today's update is for the boot disc for the Dreamcast version of the game. BlueCrab has just released version 2.0 of his loader, which fixes the problem with Battle mode rules instantly running out of time. It also includes optional BGM patches to let you hear the correct music in non-Battle quests that use the Spaceship and Palace stages (namely, Prospective Horizons). A new CDI is available in the Dreamcast downloads section of the site. Now would be a good time to try dueling, if you've never dabbled in Battle mode before. ;) A forum topic for the update is located here.

It's time for the first update of the new year. I've updated the PC Challenge stages to use the new darkness effect from the Darkness Patch, so it is now possible to see yourself and some of what's around you in the dark rooms (the way you can on DC), instead of being stuck in total blackness. As usual, there is a forum topic about the update, which is located here.

Yes, it's finally time. Halloween has come early this year to celebrate the release of a new quest: Halloween Horror is now available for the event! Also remember that you can get the Halloween Patch for PSO PC to apply new music to Pioneer 2, if you didn't do it last year. You can read the forum topic on the new quest here, and you can get the Halloween Patch from the PC Downloads section of the site. Have fun!

Hmm... how long has it been since there were two updates in one month? Scroll down to find the answer! ;D

Anyway, I've updated the quest "Resurgent Darkness" with a special difficulty for Ultimate mode, and I've also converted it for use on Ver.1, since it was a practical conversion to make. Perhaps this will tide people over until Halloween. ;)

Well, this update has been a long time coming. I've just released the Darkness Patch for PSO PC, which makes dark rooms in freeplay and the offline quests look more like they do on the Dreamcast version by putting a pool of light around your character, instead of the total blackness that PSO PC usually has. As usual, you can grab the patch in the PC Downloads section of the site, and you can read the forum topic (which includes a demonstration picture of the new darkness effect) here. I hope this patch proves useful.

In other news, there will be a new event quest this year for Halloween. The quest is essentially done, so I thought I would let anyone who actually reads this site know that there will be something to look forward to in October. ;)

I have finished a beta version of the new server-side drop chart, which is now available for public comment. Please read this forum topic for more information.

The PSO Palace server now has an explicit set of rules that all players must follow. Please read the rules in this forum topic. The complementary topic for the global Sylverant system rules is located in this topic in the main Sylverant forum.

I'm pleased to announce that I have finished my new auto-connect PSO DC discs for the Sylverant server. I have created both a regular PSOv2 disc, as well as one that includes the Enhancement Pack, and I have also made the first (to my knowledge) auto-connect PSOv1 disc as a bonus. All three discs can be downloaded in a single Torrent on the Downloads page. Each disc is contained inside a separate archive with its own README file, so you can decide which discs to download, if you don't want all of them. I would encourage you to download all of the discs and help seed them, so the Torrent stays healthy. For more information about this release, please see this forum topic.

As an added bonus, I have also created a patcher to add the Sparkle Patch to the two new PSOv2 disc images. Simply patch the DiscJuggler CDI before you burn it, and you will have sparkles instead of the standard ring effects for Shifta, Deband, Jellen, and Zalure. You can get the patcher in the Dreamcast Downloads section of the site. I hope the Dreamcast community enjoys these discs and patches. ;)

After an excessive amount of tinkering, a new Download Quest is available! "Garon's Scheme" can now be downloaded by selecting "Download" from the main menu after connecting to the server. This was the last JPBB quest that needed translating and converting, so thanks go to Cranberry for her help. You can read the forum topic about the quest here. Have fun!

Since it's December again, the Christmas quest is back! It's been updated a little this year, so you can read the forum topic about it here. Merry Christmas!

The PSO PC Halloween Patch has been released, which allows the game to play unique music during the Halloween event, instead of sharing the music from the Valentine's Day event. The pack contains the new Halloween music from PSO GC/Xbox/BB, as well as a patcher to alter the game's executable to be able to play the new music. Be sure to read the README file, so you know how to apply the patch correctly! As usual, the patch is available in the PC Downloads section of the site. You can read the forum topic about the patch here. Yes, this is a rather unusual update, but I for one was always kind of disappointed that Sega used the same music for two events, and it's finally been fixed just in time for October. ;)

The translation of the message for Japanese players has been completed! Thanks go out to nana and mimi for their work! The message is located here.

Famitsu -Maximum Attack- v2 has been updated to unlock Ultimate mode for the Dreamcast. If you're using BlueCrab's loader, you can finally join PC players in Ultimate! =D

BlueCrab has released version 1.1 of the loader disc, which fixes the problems from version 1.0. As such, it is now possible to connect the Dreamcast without using CodeBreaker codes, if you don't want to save codes to your VMU. As before, the loader also has the Ultimate Map Fix, so once FAMITSU-MAXIMUM ATTACK- is updated, you will be able to play it on the Dreamcast in Ultimate using the loader. BlueCrab uploaded a self-boot CDI of the loader on the Sylverant downloads page, and I also have one on my Dreamcast downloads page. Sorry for the delay, but at least it seems to be working now.

Sadly, I must be the bearer of bad news. A serious flaw has been discovered in the loader disc, which causes problems similar to those caused by the Utopia boot disc. You can't target enemies with Rafoie, you can't cast Shifta and Deband on teammates, and other problems. Unfortunately, I must now advise everyone not to download the loader disc until a solution can be devised. For now, CodeBreaker codes seem to be the only way to go online. =(

As you may have heard, there's been a lot of secret work being done recently, and the results of that work are now ready. As of today, it is again possible for all Dreamcast versions of Phantasy Star Online to go online again.

After a lot of work, codes to disable the Hunter's License check for JPv1, JPv2, and USv2 have been created, which enables those games to go online again. For people who do not wish to use CodeBreaker codes, BlueCrab has also created a loader disc that can be used to automatically patch the game to connect to Sylverant and disable the HL check, if necessary.

Furthermore, the loader disc can also apply the Ultimate Map Fix to JPv2, USv2, and EUv2, which will enable those games to play FAMITSU-MAXIMUM ATTACK- in Ultimate mode, as well as any future quests using the maps that have been fixed. If you want to use the loader, simply download it here and burn it to a CD-R using the standard method for burning Dreamcast games.

Thanks go out to Lee for providing decrypted executables to allow these patches to be created, BlueCrab for disassembling the game to figure out how to apply them, and Wiccaan for creating the original Map Fix Trainer more than a year ago. For more information and the CodeBreaker codes, see this page. You can also view the forum topic about the update here.

I've added Peccatum Sin's Russian translation of PSO PC to the PC Downloads section of the site. If you happen to know peope who want to play the game in Russian, you can direct them to download his patch, which replaces the English game text with Russian. There are two files, one which translates everything, and another which leaves the names of items in English, since many of PSO's items have names that are difficult to translate. Thanks to Sin for helping expand PSO's audience to people from other countries. =)

Famitsu -Maximum Attack- v2 has been uploaded to enable the quest in Ultimate for PC, as well as fix many bugs and add some new features. (For example, you now get rewarded if you kill every enemy.) Ultimate will be enabled for DC as soon as the fix can be ported. Remember to get the new pso.exe before trying to play the quest in Ultimate.

Also, Triad -Maximum Attack- has been updated to also give extra points if you kill every enemy, so you can download the updated Triad -Maximum Attack- 3 from the shipgate if you're interested in that. Yay! =P

Today's news is rather special, because a new bug fix for the PSO PC client has just been released. A new pso.exe file is available that fixes the map 6 bug in Ultimate mode, which previously made the quest FAMITSU-MAXIMUM ATTACK- unplayable in Ultimate mode. The bug also made it rather pointless to convert or develop other quests which used those maps, since the quests would be limited to Normal, Hard, and Very Hard modes. The new pso.exe corrects this problem, so once people have had a chance to get the update, Ultimate mode in FAMITSU-MAXIMUM ATTACK- will be unlocked. The fact that this works on PSO PC means that it should also be possible to make a patch for the Dreamcast some time in the future, I hope. You can get the updated pso.exe in the PC Downloads section of the site. All of the exectuables have been updated, so you can choose the one that will work best on your system. The update should also be available from the Sylverant patch server in the coming days. You can also view the forum topic about the update here.

If you haven't stopped by the server recently, there's still a few weeks left of the summer event, which is giving everyone the chance to play Frantic Fauna again while we celebrate Sonic's 20th birthday. It's not too late to get out there and save Ragol! ;)

The past month has been one of mostly bug fixes. Both Hero & Daughter and Triad -Maximum Attack- 3 have been updated to fix a few bugs, so the new versions are available for download from the shipgate. The Offline Quest Pack has also been updated to address a rather minor but potentially annoying bug I found while working on another quest recently, so the update for that is available in the PC Downloads section of the site. A new Download Quest should hopefully be on its way, as well...

It's Easter time, and what do you know, there's a new quest! Frantic Fauna is now available, so get out there and save Ragol from destruction! ;) You can read more about the quest in this topic. Enjoy!

*sigh* Despite my best efforts, I thought of another bug to fix with the Offline Quest Pack this morning, which has now been corrected. If you by chance downloaded it already, please get the updated Offline Quest Pack in the PC Downloads section of the site, or by clicking here. Sorry about that. =(

The Offline Quest Pack has been released, which finally makes NPC death no longer result in failure in the offline quests. As a special bonus, Dr. Montague can now convert Ver.2 monster parts, the new cutscenes from Episode I & II have been ported to Ver.2 for the first time, and many bugs have been fixed as well. You can download it in the PC Downloads section of the site, and you can read the forum topic about the patch here.

A new chapter in the history of PSO Palace begins today. I have officially partnered with BlueCrab of the Sylverant PSO Server project. PSO Palace now has its own ship, Altimira, on the Sylverant shipgate. To find out more, please read this forum topic. If you're a regular vistor to this site, I hope you'll consider dropping by our new ship. =)

Although this update was delayed until December 26 due to the server being offline, it's finally here. A series of quests entitled Triad -Maximum Attack- have been uploaded. The first two are available as online quests. The third will be available for download from the Offline Quest ship shortly, I hope. These quests are based on the Maximum Attack 4th Stage quests. For more information, read this forum topic. Enjoy!

I've recently discovered that the links for both PSO DC with the Enhancement Pack and the PSO Music Pack have expired. Rather than continue trying to find places to host these files, I am instead transferring them to Torrent-based distribution as with my other large files. I apologize if anyone was unable to download them during the time I was unaware of the broken links. Links to the Torrents can be found in the Downloads section of the site. Please help seed these new additions to the PSO Ver.2 Torrent collection!

I've just completed a new quest, Prospective Horizons. For a change of pace, this one takes place in Spaceship and Palace. Finally they can be played outside of Battle mode. ;) These areas don't work perfectly, so make sure you check out the forum topic to know what to expect. Enjoy!

I'm pleased to announce that Famitsu -Maximum Attack- v2 is now playable in Ultimate mode for PC users. At long last we can play this quest in every difficulty setting. =) Note that the Ultimate Map Fix is required to play this quest, and the tool to do it can be downloaded in the PC downloads section of this site. You can also view the forum topic about the quest here. Happy killing! ;)

If you're looking for even earlier news, head over to the News Archive.