XLink Kai

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Revision as of 07:30, 9 April 2022 by CrunchBite (talk | contribs)
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XLink Kai is a free System-Link/LAN tunneling application for consoles that allows you to play with other users on the Internet as if you were on the same Local Area Network (LAN). Any System-Link/LAN enabled game on Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Playstation Portable, PS Vita, GameCube, Wii, Wii U or Nintendo Switch can be played online through the service.

Creating an Account

Your XTag (similar to the Xbox Live Gamertag) is your username while using the XLink services and is your way of telling the world who you are. To get yourself registered, visit the XLink Kai signup page.

Download and Install XLink Kai

Instructions for download and installation are available for several major operating systems:

Supported Games

Across all 13 consoles over 1100 games are supported. For a complete list please see XLink Kai's compatibility list.

Using XLink Kai

The XLink Kai online service is broken up into consoles, categories (such as "First Person Shooters" or "Racing"), and individual game arenas. You must be in the same game arena as another person for them to show up in your System-Link/LAN match list on your console. You can also create private passworded arenas to prevent random people from joining in by clicking the pencil icon in the Web UI.

Console Specifics

Some consoles have specific restrictions, require additional hardware, or even modification in order to be reach their full potential.

Xbox

> Official Xbox Setup Guide <

When playing original Xbox titles on XLink Kai your PC and Xbox console must be wired to your network. You cannot use WiFi unless your xbox is connected directly to your PC. Read the guide for more info!

Xbox 360

> Official Xbox 360 Setup Guide <

All Xbox 360 games have a 30 millisecond ping limit between the player and the host. A ping patch is available for JTAG and RGH modified systems, see the guide for how to enable it. Unmodified "stock" consoles can be the host of a match but if a client is over 30ms away then that client will need the ping patches installed. Original xbox titles played via backwards-compatibility are not subject to this ping limit when played on an Xbox 360.

When playing original Xbox 360 titles on XLink Kai your PC and Xbox 360 console must be wired to your network. You cannot use WiFi unless your Xbox 360 is connected directly to your PC and the Xbox 360 Wireless adapter is not supported for system-link play! Read the guide for more info!

Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S

The XLink Kai team does not have a guide available for Xbox One/Series X/S yet. The general process is to set manually set the IP address of the console using the XLink Kai IP Address Calculator based on the console's MAC address. When this special IP address is used the console will not be able to connect to Xbox Live, so be sure to revert back to your previous configuration to restore connectivity.

When playing Original Xbox or Xbox 360 games via backwards compatibility the same restrictions apply as exist when playing on those consoles. Namely the console must be wired, and xbox 360 games have a 30ms ping limit between player and host. The XLink Kai team has a guide for original Xbox play via backwards compatibility which also applies to Xbox 360 games.

PlayStation 2/3/4/5

Official guides exist for:

For PlayStation 5 please follow the PS4 guide as it is roughly the same process.

PlayStation Portable

Playing PSP on XLink Kai can get a bit complex, but multiple methods are available.

XLink Handheld Assistant (XLHA)

> Official PSP XLHA Setup Guide <

Play using XLHA is a new method that works on modern operating systems (Windows 7 and up), macOS 10.11+ as well as many Linux distributions. XLHA requires that your PSP is running Custom Firmware (CFW) and cannot be used with unmodified PSP consoles. XLHA supports most WiFi cards and compatibility lists are maintained by the XLink Kai Team on the XLink Kai Wiki as well as by Codedwrench, the creator of XLink Handheld Assistant

To make finding a supported WiFi card easier ChimericSystems has started carrying a Ralink 3070 card which is one of the cards known to work perfectly with XLHA.

Legacy PSP XLink Mode

On Windows XP/Vista/7 systems and only those systems very specific WiFi cards with "PSP XLink Mode" in their drivers can be used to play PSP over XLink Kai without requiring modification to the console. This method requires the user to manually connect to the PSP's AdHoc WiFi network which can be incredibly cumbersome and difficult with certain games.

Tethered USB

CWUSB allows PSP handhelds running custom firmware to connect directly to a computer running XLink Kai via USB cable. This method requires a PRX plugin to be installed on the PSP and the companion CWUSB application to be run on the PC along with XLink Kai. This method is the cheapest to set up as it does not require a dedicated WiFi card but it is the most error prone and does not have 100% compatibility.

PlayStation Vita

Much like the PSP; PS Vita can be played on XLink Kai using a dedicated WiFi card and XLink Handheld Assistant (XLHA) although custom firmware on the PS Vita is not required. Game support is near 100% and in general works great.

Nintendo Gamecube

> Official GameCube Setup Guide <

Playing GameCube titles on XLink Kai is a straight forward affair, just follow the guide!

Nintendo Wii

The XLink Kai team does not have a guide available for Wii yet, and only one game is supported; Mario Kart Wii, and it requires a patch!

The general process is to set manually set the IP address of the console using the XLink Kai IP Address Calculator based on the console's MAC address then start the game.

Nintendo Wii U

The XLink Kai team does not have a guide available for Wii U yet.

The general process is to set manually set the IP address of the console using the XLink Kai IP Address Calculator based on the console's MAC address then start the game.

Nintendo Switch

> Official Nintendo Switch Setup Guide <

When playing Nintendo Switch on XLink Kai there are two main types of games; games with LAN support, and games that only support Local Wireless. Playing games with LAN support works on both stock unmodified consoles as well as consoles running custom firmware. Playing games that only have Local Wireless support requires custom firmware and a homebrew system module known as ldn_mitm in order to play. Please see the guide on the XLink Kai wiki for more information.

Game Specific Patches

Some games do not work perfectly on XLink Kai, or even normally on LAN, so they require patches.

There are a handful of games that have been patched:

Emulator Support

XLink Kai play is supported on several emulators including Dolphin (GameCube), JPCSP (PSP), Xemu (Xbox), and CXBX (Xbox).

The XLink Kai team has guides available for:

Yuzu (Switch), Ryujinx (Switch) and RPCS3 (PS3) are also known to work with workarounds but are not yet supported directly by an XLink Kai release.

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