MAME/DOOM on the WebTV Plus

Welcome to the MAME/DOOM experience on the WebTV Plus! On this page, I'll guide you through customizing your WebTV Plus unit. Initially, our goal was to simply get MAME up and running, along with a basic startup mechanism. However, as the project evolved, so did its scope. With the addition of more features, the need for a user-friendly interface became apparent. Thanks to a lot of hard work, special tools, and invaluable assistance from close friends, we've finally achieved something remarkable.

Our last progress update was on 4/24/2021, marking the culmination of years of hard work since the project's inception on 10/29/2014.

While all the initial goals have been met, I'm not ready to declare this build finished. Who knows what other exciting features we might discover for the WebTV Plus in the future? Update: All new custom build for the Old WebTV plus and Derby! everthing has been redone, to many updates to list! Check out the video below. Last Updated 7-23-2023

This hack should be compatible with any OLD Plus and DERBY Plus models equipped with a hard drive, but it won't work on the newer Plus models with a Flash Disk (Check here for HackTV build on newer Plus and BPS).

HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE A DERBY? To determine if your unit is a Old Plus or a DERBY, inspect the top vents on your unit, on the right side you should be able to see a hard drive. If you don't you have a NEW Plus, this hack will not work. If you see a hard drive its either a OLD Plus or DERBY Plus. To determine if your unit is a Derby while the power is off point the keyboard at your WebTV and hit the options button and then enter in the numbers 411 the lights on your unit should flash, now turn on your WebTV. You should see a WebTV Tech Info screen and at the bottum of that screen you should see Modem info, if it says something about a SoftModem then it's a Derby if it don't then it's the Old Plus (Note: depending on your current build you might not see anything about a modem at all). Best method is if you know you have a hard drive and your going to install this hack then your going to have to take apart your WebTV anyway so look on the motherboard you should see the word DERBY. Worst case is you install the old plus build on your box and it doesn't work then you know you have a Derby, just reinstall the build but use the Dreby one this time ;-)

The list below shows all WebTV models that this will and will not work on. Please note that this list is not complete it may be missing some models. If you have a WebTV that is not listed here please E-Mail Me and let me know!

Brand Model Type Modem RAM ROM Storage CPU speed CPU chip Install Hack
Sony INT-W100 Classic V.34 2 MB (2 MiB) 2 MB (2 MiB) 2 MB 112 MHz R4640 No
Philips MAT-960 Classic V.34 2 MB 2 MB 2 MB 112 MHz R4640 No
Sony INT-WJ200 Classic (Japan) V.90 8 MB 4 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 No
Sony INT-W150 New Classic V.90 8 MB 2 MB 2 MB 150 MHz RM5230 No
Philips MAT-965 New Classic V.90 8 MB 2 MB 2 MB 150 MHz RM5230 No
RCA RW-2100 New Classic V.90 8 MB 2 MB 2 MB 150 MHz RM5230 No
RCA RM-2100 New Classic V.90 8 MB 2 MB 2 MB 150 MHz RM5230 No
Sony INT-W200 Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
Sony INT-W200 CND Derby Plus V.90 soft modem 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 167 MHz RM5230 YES
Philips MAT-972 Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
Samsung SIS-100 Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
Mitsubishi WB-2000 (RW- ?) Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
La-Z-Boy Leather Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
La-Z-Boy Fabric Plus V.90 8 MB 2 MB 1.1 GB 150 MHz R4640 YES
Sony INT-WJ300 Plus (Japan) V.90 soft modem 16 MB 4 MB 1.1 GB 167 MHz RM5230 No
RCA RW-2110 New Plus V.90 soft modem 16 MB 8 MB Flash Disk 167 MHz RM5230 No
Sony INT-W250 New Plus V.90 soft modem 16 MB 8 MB Flash Disk 167 MHz RM5230 No
Philips MAT-976 New Plus V.90 soft modem 16 MB 8 MB Flash Disk 167 MHz RM5230 No
Echostar Dishplayer 7100 DISH tuner V.90 soft modem 16 MB 4 MB 8.6 GB 167 MHz RM5230 SEE HERE
Echostar Dishplayer 7200 DISH tuner V.90 soft modem 16 MB 4 MB 17.6 GB 167 MHz RM5230 SEE HERE
RCA UltimateTV DirecTV tuner V.90 soft modem 32 MB 4 MB 40 GB 167 MHz RM5230 No
RCA RM-4100 MSNTV2 V.90 / Ethernet 128 MB none 64 MB 733 MHz Celeron No
RCA RM-4100 (2) MSNTV2 V.90 / Ethernet 256 MB none 64 MB 733 MHz Celeron No

Notes: It is unclear if any other manufacturers made a Derby unit other than Sony. It's also unclear what units came with the La-Z-Boy 'e-cliner' (likely sony) and unknown if it's Old Plus or Derby Plus. lol who actually has/had one of these??


Needed Files

OLD PLUS
Download - Custom_OLD-PLUS_WTV_Build_7352_MAME-DOOM-YDKJ-ExtraBuild.img Last Updated 7-23-2023

PLUS DERBY
Download - Custom_DERBY_WTV_Build_7.2.5.3_MAME-DOOM-YDKJ-ExtraBuild.img Last Updated 5-20-2024

Download WinHex:
WinHex 19.6 Full Version

Download 7zip form:
7zip

Troubleshooting

How to create a backup of your WebTV Plus hard drive and how to install the custom build.

Newest Custom Build Preview and how to use a SD card to replace the old WebTV HDD

Early Progress Video's 1 and 2 from the start of the project



The back story for those interested goes like this. Back in 98 when a group of guys known as WebTV Explores discovered a WebTV service known as Test-drive and on the server found that one could download games such as Doom and YDKJ. It was also rumored that other games existed that could be downloaded as well so a few of them tried to enter in different names of games in the download code to see if anything took, games like Duke Nukem, Quake, etc. but nothing seemed to work. One of the members tried Mame but it was thought at the time that nothing worked. As time went on that member blew the power supply in his box and never returned to the WebTV service again. Fast forward to 2014 out of no where I receive an e-mail from an old friend who stated that he dug his old WebTV box out from the closet and repaired the power supply so he could mess around with WebTV again, hooked it up and noticed he still had an old internal build on the unit from the test drive days so he hooked up his WebTV hard drive to a PC and realized he had something called MAME. Could it be?? All this time and he never realized that MAME on WebTV was real?? After a little rework of the Doom start up command MAME starts up. I was sent the exact hard drive image and loaded it up on my WebTV and the rest is history.

I remember Webtv was upset at the time when we released Doom and YDKJ to the public but can you imagine there reaction if we actually knew we had MAME and released that? MAME it's self wouldn't have been a big deal but having MAME complete with the roms built in released to the public might have upset them more since the roms them selves I believe is illegal.

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