[Tutorial] How to play on Black-seraph.com (formerly coldbird.net)

[lumune]

⚠ [IMPORTANT!] ⚠
The Coldbird.net IP is now known as Black-seraph.com
If you try to use Coldbird.net as an IP it will no longer work!

Quote:History of coldbird and his server

The open source project was firstly initiated by coldbird with the name "aemu", this was way back in 2012. "aemu" was created to try to emulate the Adhoc functions of a real PSP to be played online at long distances (aka by using IPs).

Then, coldbird with the help of the Prometheus Team (the ones who now provide the 24/7 server, BIG thanks to them) decided it would be a good idea to provide a server that stayed online 24/7 for hosting to their PRO CFW for PSP. Later we would find out that it would also work by using emulators as well, since they can connect to the same server and due to the similarity between a real PSP, JPCSP and PPSSPP emulators (thank you, captain obvious).

Between 2012 and 2013, Igor Calabria and later Kyhel, took most of the "aemu" project code and edited it, this edit was later called AdhocServer.exe.
Unfortunately, improvements to the AdhocServer came to a halt, until contributors on Github started to work on it again (Henrik Rydgård, AdamN, sum2012, Bigpet, [Unknown], TheDax, lioncash, etc, to name a few).

The now famous and revamped AdhocServer can be found inside the latest PPSSPP orphis builds here and goes by the name "built-in PRO Adhoc Server".

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First of all

To be able to play online, you're going to need to enable the emulator's WLAN. Open the emulator and click on "Settings", then go to the "Networking" tab on the left. After that, tick the WLAN button like shown in the image below, that's it.



⚠ IMPORTANT ⚠

⚫ Enabling DMZ on your Router is REQUIRED to play on Black-seraph.com
WARNING: LEAVE DMZ DISABLED AT ALL TIMES FOR SECURITY REASONS. AFTER DONE PLAYING ON BLACK-SERAPH.COM DISABLE IT AGAIN.

⚫ DO NOT ENABLE THE BUILT-IN PRO AD HOC SERVER CHECKBOX. LEAVE IT DISABLED LIKE THE IMAGE ABOVE.

⚫ Custom builds for Gundam vs Gundam games online ONLY: (GVGNP WILL ONLY WORK ONLINE WITH THESE BUILDS)
https://forums.ppsspp.org/showthread.php?tid=12357

⚫ If you've got an AT&T modem see post #2 by nightmesh for an alternative method.

⚫ You don't need to disable your Firewall.
Just add an exception to PPSSPP emulator when asked by the Windows Firewall Popup the first time you attempt to play PPSSPP online.
Check both checkboxes and click "Allow access" like the image below.
   

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Final Notes

Since Black-seraph.com's server is International, expect some games which require very high sync (low ping) to be laggy if you're playing with someone far away.
Example: Trying to play Gundam vs Gundam Next Plus, Metal Slug XX, Tekken 6, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy and so on... from America to Asia will be next to impossible due to the huge latency lag. Resulting in the game actually slowing down to try and keep it synchronized for both players. Unplayable.

Games that don't require low ping are fine though.
Example: Monster Hunter/God Eater/Phantasy Star/Lord of Arcana/Toukiden games (and any other on a similar engine), Final Fantasy Type-0, BlazBlue games, any Turn-based game (Worms/Valkyria Chronicles/Final Fantasy Tactics, etc), Gundam Assault Survive (and any other on a similar engine, like Macross Triangle Frontier), Another Century's Episode Portable, Burnout games, Wipeout games, Initial D Street Stage, etc.
These are the games I've tested and worked fine even with high ping with players from other continents.


For a list of working games online on PPSSPP emulator, see this thread provided by GuenosNoLife.

Have fun


(Post edited by Abbanon on 2/2/2019 to include Coldbird's change to Black-seraph.com)

[nightmesh]

If you have an at&t modem like me you wont see a DMZ option in firewall settings. You will how ever see IP passthrough and if you set it to default server and use the ip address your modem has set for your computer it works just like DMZ.

[lumune]

(01-03-2015 01:49 AM)nightmesh Wrote:  If you have an at&t modem like me you wont see a DMZ option in firewall settings. You will how ever see IP passthrough and if you set it to default server and use the ip address your modem has set for your computer it works just like DMZ.

Thank you nightmesh, it was really helpful.
I didn't know about this trick on AT&T modems.

[nightmesh]

Also if you have a firewall on your pc try turning it off if you can't connect to someone's game on coldbird. I suggest only turning off the firewall and not disabling your antivirus program all together. You should only do this when your trying to play on coldbird.

[MunchMonkii]

This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. I didn't know it was so easy to use the cold bird server.

The chat room for matchmaking can be found here:
webchat.freenode.net/

Be sure to use the channel: #procommunity

[lumune]

(01-03-2015 11:06 PM)MunchMonkii Wrote:  This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. I didn't know it was so easy to use the cold bird server.

The chat room for matchmaking can be found here:
webchat.freenode.net/

Be sure to use the channel: #procommunity

[lumune]

Tutorial updated with the latest merge to the orphis builds.

[rohirim]

Is it really works? Can anyone confirm for sure, because I tested few times connecting to Prometheus server and couldn't matching with others. I mean, I successfully enter the lobby on the games but found no one there (and my IP seems recognized on server though).

[lumune]

(01-06-2015 08:20 AM)rohirim Wrote:  Is it really works? Can anyone confirm for sure, because I tested few times connecting to Prometheus server and couldn't matching with others. I mean, I successfully enter the lobby on the games but found no one there (and my IP seems recognized on server though).

Check your firewall as nightmesh said. Even if you don't have DMZ enabled, you'll still be able to see other players in game but won't be able to play.

I would suggest you try playing Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD online, since there's always someone playing this game on coldbird.net.
Tekken 6 is fine too, stay in the Battle Lobby and you should be able to see other players hosting their games if there are any on coldbird.net, just keep an eye on the server status page (http://pro.coldbird.net) to see what other people are hosting.

[lumune]

Edited out.

[rohirim]

That's strange. I'm sure I already follow all your instructions. Even I put ppsspp on my antivirus whitelist and still got the same result. I wonder if my location affecting the connection.

I'll send you the video link, looks like I can't put link here due to my posts count.

[Tylerdarden]

This is the very best thing that ever happend to PPSSPP, no installs no programs and works cross platform, tell everybody to use this. Very useful for IOS and android users.
:::::Remember to open ppsspp.ini as text file and replace local.adress with coldbird.net since Ppsspp on andriod and IOS only allows you to type numbers::::::

Thanks alot man!

[lumune]

(01-08-2015 08:38 AM)rohirim Wrote:  That's strange. I'm sure I already follow all your instructions. Even I put ppsspp on my antivirus whitelist and still got the same result. I wonder if my location affecting the connection.

I'll send you the video link, looks like I can't put link here due to my posts count.

First thing i've noticed in your video, you've enabled/ticked the built-in PRO Adhoc Server. When playing on coldbird.net IP, the built-in PRO Adhoc Server must be disabled/unticked or else it will conflict with the one coldbird.net is using.
It has nothing to do with your anti-virus, except if it has a built-in Firewall, then you do need to disable it or create an exception for PPSSPP on it. The same applies for Windows Firewall, you can either disable it or the first time you go online on PPSSPP, a Windows Firewall will pop up like this:



just tick both Private and Public boxes, like on the image above and click Allow and you're good to go. If you still cannot find other people then it must be your router blocking your ports.
If you cannot enable DMZ, there's nothing else you can do i'm afraid.

Also, i'd suggest you to try during peak hours (20+ players) on MHP3rdHD since sometimes people don't like creating on Gathering Hall 1, so have a quick look in other GH's to see if you can find them.

Good luck.

[rohirim]

Yeah, I mean my AV has its own firewall and taking over Windows firewall entirely, and I add PPSSPP on its exceptional list.
Still no luck. I either check or unchecked the built-in PRO Adhoc Server and still not matching with other players.
And also, maybe you hardly watched it because of my poor quality video but player count on the server really go up soon after quick refresh (its 5 to 6) which meant that I successfully connected and I also tried to host the game no one played (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep), and it really connected.

Well, maybe I'll stick with Evolve for awhile, at least until I find the solution.

Thanks for the replies anyway. Cheers.

[FinalBlast]

Hmm, does the built version matter? Up until now I've used only a certain built with everyone I play,
otherwise we either couldn't see each other or even connect for the matter.