You actually didn't need the internet to play Xband. All you needed was a phone line. You signed up for service, and could play against local competition for no extra cost or pay a flat rate each month to take on Nationwide competitiors. The only time you really experienced lag was when there was a phone call coming in to one of the players' houses at the time they were playing in a game.

I have a few in-game videos uploaded to YouTube in case anyone wants to see what it looked like in action:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Xband411

I used it for the Genesis, I don't remember the username I used. The only game I remember playing online with it is MK3.Devil-Itachi

Did you play Nationwide on it at all? Better yet, is there any chance you still have yours?

Racing game could have been Super Mario Kart, Tetris rip-off might have been Kriby's Avalanche. Here's a list of the games that were playable on each system's modem:

Genesis:

Madden NFL 95, Madden NFL 96, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat 3, NBA Jam, NBA Live 95, NBA Live 96, NHL '95, NHL '96, Primal Rage, Super Street Fighter II, WeaponLord

SNES:

Did anyone here happen to use the Xband modem for the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis back in 1994 - 1997? I'm trying my best to find former members of this service, and GameSpot seemed like a great place to start. If so, what games did you play and what was your user name?

For those of you who don't know Xband, just search for "Xband" on Wikipedia or "xband smk" on YouTube. It was like Xbox Live, but back in the 90's.