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.
- Get MAME working on WebTV Plus and Derby Plus- 100% complete
- Get Doom working - 100% - Finally - it only took 7 years :-)
- Make all original WebTV midi's available for listening - 100% complete (Karaoke player only avail for Old Plus not Derby.)
- Design custom layouts and pages - 100%
Below, you'll find progress videos showcasing the evolution of the project. These videos offer a glimpse into what this custom build can accomplish. As of now, the project is complete, and I'll provide an instructional video on setting up this system on your WebTV, along with download links.
Goals for the custom final build are:
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
- WARNING - Please make sure you unplug your WebTV every time you remove or plug your hard drive back in. This is important! I have popped a few fuses on my plus units by forgetting to do this. You can repair it but it's a pain in the ass repairing those mini fuses on the board!
- MAME - Once you start MAME you will stay in MAME, meaning everytime you trun on your box MAME will start up. If you want to get back to the HackTV Home Page you need to unplug your WebTV for 30 sec then plug it back in and when you power back on you should be back at HackTV Home. Or you can use power off code 8673094 witch will exit out of the MAME build and restore the HackTV build. Update: New exit button added to MAME, shutsdown MAME properly and restores HackTV build. If you don't exit with the button the above still applies.
- I DON'T HAVE A IDE CONNECTION ON MY PC! - If you have a spare SATA drive sitting around you can use that. You'll need to get a IDE to SATA connector, then you can ZERO out the drive with WinHex. Goto Tools - Open Disk, select your WebTV drive. Then goto Edit - Select All - Edit again - Fill Block. Fill with Hex values 00 (Those are ZERO's) and click on OK. Once thats done just use WinHex to write the img to the drive (same as install video) and your done. Please note this may not work with all drives. You can also use a SD card, see video below.
- New info regarding hard drive locking. If your using a hdd other than the original wtv hdd that supports locking then anything from 2.6-2.9 Daily Debug will lock that drive. Anything 2.5 Daily Debug and below is safe. If your using sd card with adapter your safe. Also from testing it looks as though they removed that locking shit on production builds. So you should be good on 2.9 and below if using a production build. No other testing has been done so weekly, genesis, export builds i have no idea. The custom HackTV img is 100% safe to use on anything!
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.
