Web Browsers on Video Game Consoles

The browser on the Wii was amazing. I didn't use it all that often, but I was a big Opera fan back in the day, and it was amazing to see how well their engine scaled to all kinds of systems.

As far as I remember, there were even some games that supported the Wiimote natively? I don't remember if this was via Flash or Javascript, but there seems to be a library for the latter: https://github.com/ryanmcgrath/wii-js

I unfortunately never got to use the Nintendo DS version (the DS being WEP-only was a dealbreaker for me).

I was chatting to the author and it turned out that it’s not common knowledge that Dreamkey supported the Dreamcast light gun. You used the d-pad on the back to scroll, then shot links to navigate. I think this interaction method deserves a resurrection!

Surprised to see no mention of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game.com a terrible portable handheld that offered a 14.4 kbit/s modem cartridge.

Through this article, I guess I am one of today's lucky 10k to learn about anchor links to text like https://vale.rocks/posts/game-console-browsers#:~:text=SurfE...

As mentioned with other comment, web browsers on console were often a popular and easy way to jailbreak your console and install custom firmwares, etc. The 3DS one was bonkers, and I think you could directly download games from Nintendo servers without verification?

I am frustrated that my PS5 lacks a browser now. It seems crazy that I have a computer today that does not have a browser when there are computers that are just browsers. We seem to have taken a step back here.

I was amazed recently by how locked down the hidden PlayStation 5 browser is.

You can’t access it as an app through the dashboard, but it appears if you click a URL from a message. So people were sending themselves “google[.]com”, clicking, and enjoying web access.

But it seems Sony have even clamped down on that. I sent a message to myself recently, the link wasn’t clickable, and I got a message to say my PlayStation Network account had received a warning and could be suspended if I did it again!

Sega Channel had a web browser, but it never got released. Page rendering was done on another computer, and converted to image data so the Genesis could view it.

The Game Boy Color/GBA also had a web browser in the form of the Mobile Trainer GB, although it didn't allow inputting arbitrary URLs (although one can modify the DNS, it wasn't documented) and its limited subset of HTML might stretch the definition of "web browser" a little.

I used to use my Dreamcast to browse the web. I had bought the keyboard and mouse peripherals to play Quake 3, and they worked with the browser. Back then I would use a variety of free dial up internet providers. Once the free trial ran out I would have to find another. This was in addition to the Internet that my parents were paying for.

My first experience with porn was the Dreamcast browser.

There was also the various attempts at TV web browsers back in the CRT era and also that some modern smart TVs ship an outdated Chromium build that doesn't work right.

I remember poking around at the Wii U browser. Nintendo had examples of fetching the current state of buttons, analog sticks, and the touch screen to monitor for input.

While cool on paper, there wasn't a preventDefault() solution. So you could make a simple game where a sprite could move around and respond to "A," but if you press B, the browser would try to go Back a page. As the article mentions, the shoulder buttons activated a Gyro-based scroll mode (which wasn't great). "B" would go Back a page, Y would close/open the "curtain" on the TV, X would open the URL bar (thus showing the software keyboard and taking over all inputs), and Start/Select also did something, although I've since forgotten what.

So, although all button inputs were present, almost all of them also did something on the browser level, so nothing exciting ever came of it.

I remember a couple of people making websites specifically for these apps. Wasn't super common, but there were definitely a few Nintendo forums and communities that were built with the 3DS browser's viewport and design in mind.

And while there's nothing official, there are ways to use the built in Switch browser like a normal browser through homebrew as well. I think one setup even allows functionality the default browser doesn't support, like normal HTML video tags.

I skimmed but did not see any references to browser-based jailbreaks simplifying pwning several consoles.

Browsers on consoles and resellable game media... Those were the days ...

The Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (64DD) had the Randnet Browser.

If they brought up CDI and Pippin, then why leave out Commodore CDTV and CD32?

I thought the switch had a browser for a little bit. Am I mistaken?

This was a fantastic article!

I'm actually frustrated we lost web browser access on gaming consoles, especially in the era of people calling for technical support to their internet providers for "it's too slow" and we can't run a proper speedtest to the world from the console to figure out if it's the gaming provider or the Internet connection...

Throw some of us in support a bone, will ya?

I am surprised how deeply rooted Macromedia flash was.

For a console browser to chug Flash is impressive.

I remember the Wii U browser’s MP4 playback being surprisingly helpful. Running the `http-server` npm package, I was able to get video from my laptop to the TV in a pinch.

Adding in Handbrake, it wasn’t that bad of a setup!

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