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Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

vale.rocks

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Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#71

Post by Lammy »

> and in 2000, [Dreamcast USA, Planetweb] Web Browser 2.0 released with better JavaScript support and support for Macromedia Flash. It also added support for uploading and downloading Dreamcast save games, downloading and playing MP3s, and included a full copy of the puzzle game Sega Swirl.

There was a time in my life where this was the only web browser I had access to at a certain physical location, and I used it constantly along with the E-mail and IRC components.

It was cool that the whole package of WWW+Mail+IRC was small enough (~10MiB in its final version) that it could come on other discs without being a space burden. I had a 9/99 Dreamcast that came with the 1.0 Planetweb originally, and it was great to get a fresh version on the Official Dreamcast Magazine disc every few months.

Article also fails to mention that a ton of games came with the same browser built-in, like there would be a main menu item to access the game's official website that would pop open the bundled Planetweb and dial using the globally saved connection settings. Gotta get your Y2K New Years Sonic Adventure DLC! https://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_Adventure_Downloadable_Eve...

I specifically 'member lusting after the Power Mac G4 and G4 Cube in the Apple online store via Dreamcast browser in 2000 lol

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#72

Post by pseudosavant »

Kind of surprised that the current Chromium-based Edge gets no attention other than being mentioned. It is basically the same as the desktop Edge. Easily the most capable browser a console has ever had.

It has support for things like the gamepad API, wasm, etc. You can do things like run emulators via RetroArch web using your gamepad properly.

It's video support includes MP4/MKV with H264+AAC/AC3/MP3. I've used it to stream local movie files using just a static HTTP server and my video player app.

https://web.libretro.com/ https://github.com/pseudosavant/player.html

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#73

Post by MYEUHD »

uberman wrote: post #50

I am frustrated that my PS5 lacks a browser now. It seems crazy that I have a computer today that does not have a browser when there are computers that are just browsers. We seem to have taken a step back here.

The PS5 does have a browser, used for the "User Guide" which can be opened from the settings.

If you change the PS5's DNS server in network settings, you can make the user guide open Google or Duckduckgo, from which you can browse to anywhere you want.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#74

Post by drooopy »

Lammy wrote: post #71

> and in 2000, [Dreamcast USA, Planetweb] Web Browser 2.0 released with better JavaScript support and support for Macromedia Flash. It also added support for uploading and downloading Dreamcast save games, downloading and playing MP3s, and included a full copy of the puzzle game Sega Swirl. There was a time in my life where this was the only web browser I had access to at a certain physical location, and I used it co…

Same! My PC broke down and I couldn't afford to repair it for several months. Yet I didn't miss it much as I had a Dreamcast with a keyboard and mouse. That web browser became one of my most used apps of all time. Good times!

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#75

Post by ammar2 »

Rohansi wrote: post #63
7777332215 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are used to exploit known vulns to get arbitrary read write, calls. For cheating. Both freebsd kernel exploits and browser exploits.

Weird to see this is still a thing on the latest console generation. Xbox runs software under HyperV which should make exploitation difficult

The PS5 also runs apps (games/browser) under a hypervisor. There was a hypervisor escape though coupled with webkit as an entrypoint:

* https://ps5dev.github.io/ps5-wiki/hypervisor

* https://github.com/PS5Dev/Byepervisor

* https://github.com/PS5Dev/PS5-UMTX-Jailbreak/blob/main/READM...

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#76

Post by jwitthuhn »

uberman wrote: post #50

I am frustrated that my PS5 lacks a browser now. It seems crazy that I have a computer today that does not have a browser when there are computers that are just browsers. We seem to have taken a step back here.

Same for switch 1/2. it even has a browser built-in so you can log in to wifi captive portals but you can't access it through any normal means.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#77

Post by alhadrad »

Uncle_Brumpus wrote: post #58
alhadrad wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to understand the pedigree of those images. Someone had to go through an awful LOT of trouble to save them to a floppy... This leaves a lot of open questions. Scanners at the time were technological torture apparatus.

This is only tangentially related to early high-quality materials, but since I'm already strolling down memory lane: My dad used to work as an after-hours maintenance tech at a graphic imaging company. For several years my mom worked days and my dad worked nights. Occasionally, my brother and I would get to go to work with either parent to give the other a break from watching us every day. Going to work with dad was…

Excellent bit of oral history, thanks!

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#78

Post by Klonoar »

lxgr wrote: post #3

The browser on the Wii was amazing. I didn't use it all that often, but I was a big Opera fan back in the day, and it was amazing to see how well their engine scaled to all kinds of systems. As far as I remember, there were even some games that supported the Wiimote natively? I don't remember if this was via Flash or Javascript, but there seems to be a library for the latter: https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/wii-js I u…

A few games did use Wii-JS - one of my most favorite projects to have worked on over the years, lol

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#79

Post by KeplerBoy »

mrguyorama wrote: post #68
KeplerBoy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought the NDS version back in the day and let me tell you it was not worth the 40€ of my pocket money.

I ended up getting that "Not really a flashcart" Datel DS flashcart, and I loaded it up with DSOrganize, a homebrew "OS" https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/DSOrganize It had a semi functional web browser included, without the RAM expansion cart! It somehow managed to browse most simple web pages on the inbuilt RAM from a hobbyist! It also had an IRC client, and that was my introduction to IRC And Internet Radio! You could…

Now Datel is a name I haven't heard in a while. Reminds me of those action replay devices which modified the console's memory to cheat. Ahh the nostalgia.

Re: Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

#80

Post by tech234a »

lxgr wrote: post #3

The browser on the Wii was amazing. I didn't use it all that often, but I was a big Opera fan back in the day, and it was amazing to see how well their engine scaled to all kinds of systems. As far as I remember, there were even some games that supported the Wiimote natively? I don't remember if this was via Flash or Javascript, but there seems to be a library for the latter: https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/wii-js I u…

Some docs: https://web.archive.org/web/20070603082704/http://dev.opera....
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