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Games Entertainment

Homebrew Development for the Dreamcast VMU 69

Posted by emmett from the seeeegaaaa dept.
slim writes "This site has the first tools I've seen for homebrew development on the Sega Dreamcast VMU -- file specs, firmware specs, an assembler, a disassembler and an emulator, as well as source code for a Tetris clone. The VMU is the Dreamcast's memory-card-come-mini-gameboy gadget."
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Homebrew Development for the Dreamcast VMU More

Homebrew Development for the Dreamcast VMU

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  • I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of technical know-how when it comes to hardware systems. Would this allow you to create a Dreamcast-compatible system?

    -----------

    "You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."

  • I dont have a DC, but I'm curious.
    What's the go-between? Some custom cable work?
  • This is gonna make the dreamcast the number one game system for weenies and geeks, cause they can write their own games for the VMU and take them along and play against eachother. Who knows, maybe someone will even write a PIM for the unit, and execs will start carrying sega VMU's with them to the office!
    =======
    There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

  • Re:how do you connect to a PC? (Score:3)

    by slim ( 1652 ) <john.hartnup@net> on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @07:53AM (#1379759) Homepage
    The go-between between a VMU and a Dreamcast is the joypad cable (the VMU slots into the joypad). The go-between between a PC and a DC is... the Internet, via the bundled modem.
    --
  • There's no doubt that someone is gonna put Linux into one eventually. I'm still waitin on Linux for my Timex watch.
  • Finally, after all these years someone has created a competitor for the C64. Maybe It can also drive my Lego Mindstorms :-)
  • I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of technical know-how when it comes to hardware systems. Would this allow you to create a Dreamcast-compatible system?

    Erm, all it allows you to do is to write software for the memory card. The Dreamcast memory card has a little processor on board, an LCD screen and a some buttons, so you can run mini-applications on it.

    I suppose the specs these guys have worked out would help you clone the VMU if you wanted to.
    --

  • But if History.... (Score:5)

    by Juggle ( 9908 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @08:09AM (#1379768) Homepage

    But if history is any indicator just being able to hack a console dosen't mean people will. Look at the Playstation. Sure there are loads of people putting mod chips in and copying games but there are also serious hacker possibilities there too.

    A quick search through the web will turn up a bunch of places with libraries and tools for writing your own PSX games. Yet all I've seen from that is a few weak tetris clones, a half-finished vertical scrolling shooter (I.E. Galaxan) and a bunch of worthless demos that do little more than brag that they managed to compile something for the Playstation.

    So just because the tools are out there dosen't mean the geeks will embrace. I'm still waiting for the first console to be open enough to truly attract the hacks. Personally I'm hoping the PSXII will be well enough documented quickly enough that we get independant creations going quick.

  • Other Dreamcast development (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @08:10AM (#1379769)
    http://www.booyaka.com/
  • Yup, but the only tool on there is Dream Animator, which ain't a "proper" development tool, unless you also count Macromedia Director as a proper development tool. The docs are pretty good though.
    --
  • Is someone to create a little MP3 list maker. (No, not a player, I do NOT mean a player.)

    Just work a little "magic" to get the Dreamcast to read MP3 tracks from a CD-R disc. Then, using the VMU, transfer the list to it, and you can go run over to a friend's place and compare lists.

    hmmm, OK this is actually sounding pretty pathetic. Forget I said anything.
  • There's been a *lot* of stuff around for a while, but today was the first time I saw a proper VMU emulator, so I submitted it. If you saw it earlier, maybe you should have told /. ?
    --

  • Re:But if History.... (Score:3)

    by slim ( 1652 ) <john.hartnup@net> on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @08:30AM (#1379774) Homepage
    The trouble is, writing a console game nowadays is an enormous task. With the PS2 coming along, games companies are having to double and treble the size of a team, just to create the more detailed models, etc.

    On the other side of the coin, the average Gameboy title takes 6 person-months to complete. That's well within the resources of a hobbyist. Look for Gameboy hacks instead of PS hacks, and you'll find a whole load of interesting stuff. The Dreamcast VMU is less complex than a Gameboy: projects will by necessity be small, and therefore plentiful.
    --
  • Personally I'm hoping the PSXII will be well enough documented quickly enough that we get independant creations going quick.

    I think you're forgetting what a challenge it is to make games today. Most major game budgets run in the millions, and can have 20-30 people working on them for over a year. I just can't see any one person making a game of that calibre. This is why you see cheezy tetris clones.

    As for the PSII, well, I've heard reports of major companies saying that programming for it is gonna be a bitch, so to any hobbists out there wanting to hack away on it and provide something useful, all I have to say is "good luck".
  • // lower point of entry

    DC hacking may have a few dissimilarities from PSX hacking.

    DC has a slightly lower "technology" point of entry.

    DC's API makes a greater attempt to be similar to desktop gfx development, than PSX (given in PSX debut time-frame, there are fewer desktops besides niche SGI to be x-platform with).

    DC has more x-platform (from desktop to DC) titles.

    Early attempts can be unauthorized hack ports from desktop. hax0rs who already did the work on desktop version can leverage the R&D (mostly submission of random hex value :) ) and try their luck on DC version.

    After critical mass of DC hack of desktop port, the hacking community can grow and turn DC native.

    // OpenGL support

    Would like to see greater and wider OGL support on DC.

    DC's internal architecture is relatively suited to function-to-function match of low level (non-HW TnL) OGL.



    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer

  • Hebrew Development for the Dreamcast VMU? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    So are the documents in yiddish or something?

    Does the VMU/Dreamcast plug have some sort of sheath?

    NOTE: I don't mean anything at all by this. It's just a play on words.
  • Given the flexible pixel pipe of PS2 and Dolphin, I actually see greater potential for "demo hack" on such platforms, than future of PC hacks.

    PC HW is pushing to the point of most PC demos now run the mill of overlaying (emulate accumulation buffer) translucent tri: particle, continual overlay until overbright.

    PC HW is encouraging that direction.

    PS2 and Dolphin pipeline architecture OTOH has much greater potential for "demo creation" ... back to in old days when "demo making" is about creative visual display, not overlaying more translucent tris.


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer
  • Looks like another step toward blurring the lines between dedicated game platforms and home computers. That, and the fact that pricing is now about the same for each. Sounds cool though.

  • OT

    Resp to several posts of it takes too many people, game-making not for the masses, hobbyist anymore.

    At the same time, open source and broadband collaborative code development have also gained a lot more experience in the past few years.

    Hobbyist/game dev enthusiast now has at their disposal greater range of libraries to get started with (required to do less from scratch).

    If it truly does take 20 to 30 people for 3 to 4 years, then why not start a web/net hacking open source project and get enough coding man power?


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer

  • Re:But if History.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Unfortunately this will not be the case. If the amount of $$ that companies have been throwing into the Playstation II development is taken into consideration, the average homebrew programmer will have a hard time trying to develop for the Playstation II.

    Especially considering the chips that are used in the Playstation II are entirely custom, unlike the PSX which featured a very standard Mips R3000 for the core processor. Sony will probably be very reluctant to release specs and I'm sure they'll have a strict NDA with developers. Allowing homebrew development probably runs counter to the Sony's ideology. Remember, they probably have a customized dvd format for the PSX2, and you can be sure that they have custom burners and stuff that cost major $$.

    It was revolutionary when Sony introduced the Net Yarouze, and allowed dedicated people with moderate amounts of cash to burn to devise games for the PSX. (~$700)

    However, how many famous games were developed from one Net Yarouze? I can recall only one, Devil Dice. (Which is an awesome game, by the way.)

    With such a track record, it is highly probable that Sony will deem an open developer kit will not yield an economic return. And in speculation, there could be a link between the Net Yarouze and the introduction of emulators for the PSX. Emulation of a system can only arise if there is nearly a perfect understanding of how the underlying hardware works in detail. It is possible that the Net Yarouze, which came with documentation, compilers, and even a couple libraries for the Playstation, provided just enough information on psx file formats, and hardware memory addresses that led to the rise of Bleem and Connectix's playstation emu.

    Personally, I think Nintendo's series of Gameboy devices to be more suited for homebrew. Gameboys have traditional used embedded processors like the Z80 and the new upcoming GB will use an Arm chip, and development for these chipsets aren't really tough, especially considering the age and experience that many hackers have had with these chips.
  • Booyaka has a registration-only message board for discussing VMU development. I hate having to register to read message boards, but it's worth it in this case.

  • I am constantly amazed... (Score:5)

    by A4Joy ( 54907 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @09:21AM (#1379789)
    ...at the work these people do to figure out the internals of the console. Determining what the registers in a custom graphics/sound/CD-ROM VLSI chip cannot be all that easy. It's not like this information is up on the Sony/Nintendo/Sega web site--they won't tell you that bit 0 of register 5 in chip U2 is the VBI flag, let alone how it's mapped on the address bus. These guys disassemble code, look at hardware, probe--hell, I don't even know how half of it gets figured out--but they do, and they deserve some props.

    Hardware hacking has always been, for me, one of the most exciting aspects of computers, and has been an integral part since day one. Stuff like this blows me away.
  • Its not the coding that is the primary problem (as I see it). There already exists Genesis, Jet3D, Crystal Space and other Open Source engines which in most respects are not far off from even the best of commercial engines being released now. There's also now Quake1 open source, which is based upon much older technology, but a "proven" basis for even a modern game, like Half-Life. The real problem with these types of efforts is that, as far as I've seen, nobody is quite sure how "Open Source" relates to the more traditionally artistic (note: I'm not saying coding is/can't be artistic, so no flame wars please :) ) pieces of a polished game, such as modelling, texture creation, music creation, sound effects, etc.
  • OT
    answer to content quantity

    photobased rendering
    digitization technology

    :)

    if you can't draw it or model it, you can digitize it (and automate the process while you are at it)


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer

  • Speaking of cheesy Tetris clones... (Score:4)

    by Mr Z ( 6791 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @09:25AM (#1379792) Homepage Journal

    I just finished my own cheesy Tetris clone for the Intellivision [primenet.com]! I guess I've made my rite of passage.

    BTW, if anyone's interested, I have an Intellivision-compatible Software Development Kit [primenet.com] as well. :-)

    --Joe
    --


  • 1.Corewars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    2.Beowulf cluster of these little guys
    3.Palm sized version of George Orwell's 1984
    4.

    -n0b0dy
  • I know this belongs on booyaka itself more than here, but...

    In the next week or two a registration will no longer be need to view the message boards, only to post.

    Loren Peace
  • From the Slashdot blurb:

    The VMU is the Dreamcast's memory-card-come-mini-gameboy gadget.

    Disregarding the error in representing "Game Boy" as two capitalized words, the word "come" isn't used here. The word "cum" (stop giggling) is used to connect two nouns.

    Strangely enough, Webster's [m-w.com] doesn't even display that "other" meaning when you search for "cum".
  • Yes it will. That was posted to Slahdot some time ago that either linux or *BSD was ported to it. I don't remember which.
  • The still-alive-and-kicking-ass 2D genre is not as easily digitized. While Pulstar, Sokyugurentai, Septerra Core and others show that you can achieve magical results with pre-rendered 3D graphics in a 2D engine, some are not. I'd like to see someone try to 3D model or digitize an average KoF background and characters, or the graphics for Metal Slug 2/X.
    And you're only talking about graphics. Sound effects and music are digital, yes, but it still takes a good amount of skill to produce audio that doesn't sound like someone making mouth noises into a cheap microphone. Or to produce a soundtrack that can get the heart pumping, then break it in two.
  • >Strangely enough, Webster's doesn't even display
    >that "other" meaning when you search for "cum".

    That's because come is a Latin word. It means "with".
  • Suppose we could get enough PSX2 documentation to start writing open source games, porting Linux and other such apparently cool ideas. Sony wouldn't be able to recoup the huge cost of developing their hardware, because the same documentation and tools that would enable the cuddly fun stuff would also let less altruistic souls create games that would be serious big budget competitors to Sony licensed games. Hence opening the PSX2 too early would kill the goose that lays the golden egg by denying Sony the income they need from games sales. I'd love to be wrong on this.
  • Can't really say too much due to contractual obligations, but any multiprocessor system without proper debugging support on all processors can be a nightmare when a team of people code for it.

    Sorry can't be more specific :)

  • Not to take credit from the early-adopter console hardware hackers as many do amazing things with so little to work from, but more information than you realize is often from the console manufacturer, just in a round-about way.

    Usually it goes something like...hacker-x knows game-programmer-y, who works at an NDAed registered developer of console-Z. game-programmer-y shares more information with hacker-x than he should, by law.

    As anctedotal evidence, I know for a fact that Sony released its documentation for the PSX in Adobe PDF format to its developers, and that copies of these PDFs were distributed far wider than the law allows. (PS. No, I don't have copies, and can't send you any. And yes, this is for the full PSX documentation, not just the Yaroze documentation, which were also PDF based).

  • Re:how do you connect to a PC? (Score:3)

    by rappybaby ( 53126 ) on Wednesday January 12, 2000 @01:50PM (#1379811) Homepage
    There are 3rd party memory cards that are capable of being hooked up to a computer. One can hook this up to his computer and download games or whatever and then hook up the memory card to his VMU and copy them over.
  • Unless I very mistaken it's only the Dreamcast not the VMU's that will run BSD and even then it only runs on the SH4 in general and not the Dreamcast in specific, yet.

    Loren Peace
  • But when can I have a decent set of tools for the Palm?
    Definatly more of them around, and the gcc toolchain out now:
    Doesn't build for me (gcc 2.95)
    Has little documentation (or at least very hard to find)
    If we can get tools for this little gizmo, why do the tools for the palm blow so badly?
  • "I'm about to with!"? That doesn't sound right... I think the guy before you meant the other "other" meaning.
  • Resp to several posts of it takes too many people, game-making not for the masses, hobbyist anymore.

    One of the recurring debates on one of our internal mailing lists (at *mutter* games house) is how essential the technology is to the game-play. The fancier the tech, the more resources you need to develop for it though.

    I wonder how many games projects fizzle out because they're attempting to produce Quake 4.9 with half a dozen people on weekends, instead of looking into something like an RPG with a real background. (I've worked on a pre-alpha version of an adventure style game with scanned pencil sketches and stick figures for graphics, and had it quite playable before we started putting in real, filmed graphics.)

    My opinion on this is that the tech gives you more choices for the game-play, but you don't need to use all of it, to have a fun game. Maybe a dev kit for a small device like this will get a lot more use, just because there will be far less work involved in trying out a game idea.

    Then again, I've been known to have the reflection of the dawn light stop me from playing NetHack on a vt220 so I guess that shows my minimum spec for having fun. :-)

  • A "Custer's Revenge" clone for the N64.
  • Dammit! Yiddish is half-german/half-hebrew!

    *disgruntled*

    ---
  • ...if only console creators actually gave us the low-level hardware specs at all...we generally don't get the whole picture, certainly not enough to write an emulator - having to rely on the supplied libraries instead.

    I say rely, I mean rely on reverse engineering the libraries to the point where your game runs acceptably well using the knowledge gleaned from doing so!

  • Part of the problem is that when people come up with Tetris clones, they get whinged at -- somehow they're supposed to develop sprawling RPGs, FPSs or action-adventure games.

    My favourite Playstation game is Super Puzzle Fighter: basically a very polished Puyo-puyo clone, with slightly different rules.

    That's a project that a small hobbyist group might have a general stab at, and get a good prototype going in a couple of months.

    Of course, coding a game like that is the easy bit. Inventing the play mechanics, balancing the various characters, drawing those gorgeous, gorgeous graphics, writing that catchy music: that's the tricky bit.
    --
  • // devil's advocate

    I shall put up flame retardant and play more devil's advocate.

    You are all a group of talented future developers and coders with a lot more potential and ability than me, and I would hate to see so many discouraged so soon.

    I really hope you do not *wait* until you get hired into that *mythical* big game company until you start making those great little projects.

    Thus I would like to offer the following information.

    // OS art

    hope this helps:

    http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/license.asp

    Not quite OS. (Though you can educate the webmaster on it. :) )

    There are also free/community sites like these for audio and music too. (And let's not forget the "open" .mp3 community.)

    // other techniques

    All the techniques I mentioned, *free* art to prototype, photobased rendering, and digitization, and all content generation tools that even I am using to develop my 3D game engine project, and I work at a company (though I am currently lone wolf also coding the project entirely by myself).

    The point is these techniques do and can work, at least for 1 person.

    // "Clerks" "Blairwitch Project"

    What a lot of you are saying is that it takes a lot of people/dough to make a game.

    What you are really saying is it takes alot of people/dough to make Riven/Final Fantasy/(Duke Nukem? :) )

    It's like saying the only movies are Phantom Menace and Waterworld.

    You can code and develop the game equivalent of "Clerks" and "Blair Witch Project".

    To be realistic, the odds of the game equivalent of "Clerks" isn't that high. It'd probably be more likely become more the equivalent of local cable broadcast short you ask your friends to watch ... but heh it is still a movie.

    Don't wait to get into the *big* game company before making your game. You don't need to. (Though the game companies for financial reasons would try to tell you you need them to make a game/any game.)

    Besides, if that is your goal anyway, having even tried to make a handful of little (though not Final Fantasy's) games give you a better chance of joining such companies anyway.

    I am very active with a small "Indie" Game Development group that I devote a lot of time helping, giving coding (and non-coding) help and imput. And many people in this group are no more staffed than your description, and they are making (and not all PC!) games.

    You are all talented. You have a lot of potential. It would be great to see what you all pull together.

    Hey there, future co-workers. :)

    // wierd parallel to those *chick* articles posts

    I witness a wierd parallel of "defeatism" here as I see in those "why aren't there more women in coding/tech" articles post.

    First, I want to let you know know I empathize with both groups.

    For the small (lone) guy really wanting to make a game, it is true that box office/financially/content-wise it is hard to *compete* against the big-guys.

    For the woman wanting "to get in", I know it can be harsh to have to be 10 times better to be evaluated at 10 times worse.

    See, I have been at *both* places at the same time!

    I have always wanted to make games.

    Back then, everybody also believed that it takes a lot of people to paint background paintings for King Quest-like (or even Wing Commander-like) games.

    I worked for one of those *big* companies being told the best hope I have is to be widget tool coder for these monolith content projects.

    I didn't give up hope.

    I have my day job coding. I keep making my (admittedly amateur) side technology and 3D game projects on the side any time I have.

    I didn't do it thinking I have a chance in h*ll competing against big art teams.

    I did it because I love coding and I love games.

    And that's what all of you can do too.

    Same with the women.

    Sure it's tough, and anyone (including me :) )telling you it's not it's not saying the whole truth.

    So don't do it to *survive* the guys/environment.

    Do to for the love. For the love of math. For the love of code. (For the love of game if you are coding games.)

    When you do it for the love, it would stop to *matter* whether it competes against Final Fantasy or Soul Caliber. You would be making something to run on your DC, or you future PS2, or your future Dolphin (I admit that's truly a tougher one ... but I content (offline perhaps? :) ) that you can still hack DC and even future PS2 on home budgets).

    I want to encourage hackers on all platforms, PC, but also DC, and also PSX, and also PS2.

    The point is not to make a hit game, make a lot of dough, retire.

    The point is to explore the joy that is game making.

    // flame retardent

    Here is all the above offense for now. I am willing to put up with a little karma loss to hopefully at least convince one future DC/PSX/PS2 hacker or one future geek girl to stay fighting for the love.

    Good luck.

    You are welcome to email me privately for specific advice and help on *how* to do a low-no budget home-made project.


    Corrinne Yu
    3D Game Engine Programmer

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