Rune Jade is brought back online thanks to Dreamcast Live

 

Goodness, that’s five for five with Dreamcast Live this year. Give me some room to breathe in between articles here.

Rune Jade has now been brought back online thanks to Dreamcast Live. This obscure Japan-exclusive online RPG got its internet multiplayer features restored by Sh- wait, wait. Nope. It was just flyinghead who got the new servers on this game up and running by himself this time. Anyway, the game is finally about to fulfill your online multiplayer dungeon crawling itch once again since its servers were shutdown 25 years ago.

Chances are many of you might not be familiar with Rune Jade. You’d be surprised that this game beat Phantasy Star Online to market by a couple of months, making this the first MMORPG on Dreamcast instead of PSO, but its online servers didn’t last as long as PSO’s did. You can find out more right after the break.

SEGA Retrospective: From Wonder Boy to Monster World to Adventure Island and beyond

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Over the years, video game franchises have come in many styles. Platforming, fighting, puzzle, shooting, the list is never ending. But one thing many franchises have in common is that they have to start somewhere, setting up the foundation for future titles to follow up and improve on. However, on occasion, something happens down the line that causes the franchise to become twisted, causing things to become complicated. Copyright issues might make the prospect of new titles impossible so spiritual successors might be necessary (For example Bayonetta being the successor to Devil May Cry), or the franchise suffers from an identity crisis when localized like with Puyo Puyo, or games having inconsistent releases cause confusion like the infamous Final Fantasy I to VI problem.

By far one of the most curious cases is with a franchise called Wonder Boy (Aka Monster World).