Warp Pipe (Software Developer)

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The Warp Pipe tunneling application icon.

For other uses, see warp pipe (disambiguation).

Warp Pipe was originated on the IGN boards by Chad Paulson (gbcentral) in the summer of 2003 as a way to play Mario Kart: Double Dash!! online when it was revealed that it wouldn't feature an online mode but instead it would feature a LAN mode. Soon after, Warp Pipe obtained a website, and in October of 2003 the forums were created where Warp Pipe continues to thrive. Warp Pipe is a Nintendo GameCube tunneling software program created by Warp Pipe Technologies that enables GameCube games with LAN modes (Kirby Air Ride, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and 1080° Avalanche) to be played online via a personal computer running the software, similar to XLink Kai. Newer versions of the software are no longer being made, but older versions are still available for use.

Warp Pipe Technologies was founded by Chad Paulson, who has worked for Victory Records, and served as Director of New Media Technology at Warner Bros. Records. Mr. Paulson's previous experience resides in both the traditional and digital music industries as well as social P2P-based software applications. Upon being satisfied with their work with the GameCube tunneling software, Warp Pipe Technologies began working on a video game suite called demasked, which would, according to WPT, allow for players of games to feel like they are in contact with each other. Initially believed to be something of a DS online network, Nintendo apparently did not pull through as Chad had expected. Instead, they moved onto Ahhh-Choo!, which will contain at least some of demasked's features. The game was originally planned for play in Macromedia Flash, within a web browser. After many delays of the game's release, Chad has now presented the possibility that Ahhh-Choo! could eventually be available for downloaded through Xbox Live Arcade. The Ahhh-Choo! project has not officially been cancelled, though many believe both demasked and Ahhh-Choo! to be vaporware. In March 2007, Chad and Tushar released a website called Wiiminder. Currently, Chad and Tushar are working on an unknown XNA game (not Ahhh-Choo!) that they will be showing off at E3 2007 and have hopes to release it onto Xbox Live Arcade by the end of 2007. There are also other unknown products in the works.

1 GameCube Tunneling Software Developers
2 Current Employees of Warp Pipe Technologies, LLC
3 Demasked
4 Wiiminder
5 Community
6 External links

[edit] GameCube Tunneling Software Developers

First Name	Warp Pipe Fourms Screen Name	Title
Chad Paulson	Chad	Founder / Project Manager
Nathan Ford	Zimans	Lead Daemon Developer
Tushar Singh	oo7	Windows GUI / Server Developer
Peter Osborne	pwo	Linux / Mac GUI Developer
Jordan Vogt-Roberts	Shigeru Miyamoto	Producer

[edit] Current Employees of Warp Pipe Technologies, LLC

Chad Paulson
Tushar Singh

[edit] Demasked

Logo for the proposed Demasked software

During the later half of 2004, Chad Paulson announced a new project entitled "Demasked" but kept silent on the subject of the program, and it's utilities. Warp Pipe Technologies met with Nintendo during E3 2005, and discussed the use of demasked to power the online component of their games for the Nintendo DS, and future systems. Nintendo decided to go with a Friend Code system partnered with GameSpy.

Demasked was an online gaming network that was based on technology much like virtualization software. This would have allowed big publishers, such as EA, Nintendo, etc... to run game servers in a clustered environment and each game server would scale dynamically. Therefore maximizing stability, saving energy, and never having to retire the usage of an online game.

From when demasked was announced, up until E3 2005, Warp Pipe Technologies produced a number of internet publicity stunts to help promote and spark interest into their new project. Most of these originated on the official Warp Pipe message boards, and consisted of images, audio files, movie files, and a website.

It is now generally accepted that this product was no more than vaporware, and was implemented to build hype for the Warp Pipe community and increase advertisement profits for Chad Paulson. However, his team profile on crowdSPRING reads "In 2003, Chad founded a software project (Warp Pipe), with the goal to enable Nintendo GameCube games to be played across the internet. Chad won't admit this, but Warp Pipe met with Nintendo representatives during E3 2005 and that meeting likely helped shape Nintendo's online strategy for the Wii."

[edit] Wiiminder

Wiiminder is a site that works in conjunction with the Wii Internet Channel to provide quick tabs for easy surfing, a list of customizable favorites, auto-opening web pages (similar to an RSS feed), and quick search/bookmark options. Since the Internet Channel does not have the ability to customize the favorites listing (all bookmarked sites are listed in order of bookmarking), Wiiminder sets out to make Wii internet surfing easier.

Wiiminder Logo by Jon Wilcox

The tools provided in Wiiminder are;

Tabs
Built-in search for images, video, blogs, news
Navigation toolbar
"Go to top" button - helpful for long web pages
Bookmarks
Once a site is loaded into the cache, it will appear on the list of bookmarked sites.
This list can be manipulated in a simple drag/drop fashion, or can simply be selected at any time by use of the A button.
Each site listed can also be prompted to automatically load whenever Wiiminder is logged on to.
Auto hiding menus

[edit] Community

The community still thrives on the Warp Pipe forums. Some members used the tunneling software in the past, though many do not use it now or have never used it at all.^{[citation needed]} A large majority of forum members were attracted to Warp Pipe during the demasked viral-marketing campaign that has now subsided, leaving the message boards as a place for normal conversation of various topics mostly related to video gaming.

As of March 26th, the Warp Pipe forums have been taken offline after various issues surrounding the websites hosting solution. The Warp Pipe main page now reads:

'Warp Pipe is Moving. Check back soon. Same address, different server.'

it now reads

'Index of / Name Last modified Size Description----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'

Whether or not this indicates a possible preparation for increasing traffic due to a future project release has yet to be determined. It is reasonable to assume that the Warp Pipe project and its online message board has been disbanded, as the website has now been down for two months as of May 25, 2008.