Amateurs Pushing the Dreamcast's Boundaries 236
Wraggster writes "The Sega Dreamcast console, which died an early commercial death, has recently seen some amazing new projects mainly aimed at emulation. Recently, a coder named Bluecrab released a port of the Saturn emulator called Yabause for the Dreamcast. Also, GPF (Troy Davis) has ported the excellent Visual Boy Advance (Game Boy Advance Emulator) to the Dreamcast. Finally, yesterday it was announced that Nincest (Nintendo 64 Emulator), an early N64 emulator that played demos only, has also been ported to the Dreamcast. All the projects are somewhat slow, but the achievement of the work is not to be discounted. Who says the Dreamcast is dead?"
whos to say? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:whos to say? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:whos to say? (Score:2)
great idea, I'll do that right now NO CARRIER
Re:whos to say? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:whos to say? (Score:2)
=(
e.
Re:whos to say? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a wonderful system, shame they're so fragile. At least they're only $20 at the local used games store. But with a death rate like this, they'll be rare and expensive before long. So you better buy some back up units while you can.
Re:whos to say? (Score:2)
Re:whos to say? (Score:2)
Neither Soul Calibur nor Soul Calibur 2 were Naomi games. Soul Calibur was a System 12 [klov.com] game, whereas Soul Calibur 2 ran on System 246 [system16.com]. System 12 [system16.com] was similar hardware to the or
Re:whos to say? (Score:2)
As for a Saturn being easily attainable... I guess on Ebay. Of course, some things are ridiculous... like Panzer Dragoon Saga selling for $210 or the one listed Buy It Now for $525. I'm still kick
NetBSD project (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess it's just the "I can do this" aspect that draws me to it. Just having the ability to tinker with things makes them more interesting.
Re:NetBSD project (Score:5, Funny)
Re:NetBSD project (Score:1)
Mostly because BSD has a hard time keeping up with new hardware, perhaps because it is such a frickin' pain to upgrade, but there lies its strength. It is mostly frozen, so we rarely get nasty exploit surprises.
But BSD still sucks =)
Re:NetBSD project (Score:5, Interesting)
To top it all off, DC-Linux on SourceForge is even deader than BSD.
So, if I'm just a noob to all this, how does one recommend that I get started? I already have a boot-capable Dreamcast and the Ethernet adapter, so I should be pretty much covered. I imagine that the keyboard and mouse would be easy enough to track down.
Re:NetBSD project (Score:2)
The latest version of ISObuster handles DiscJuggler. There's also a CDI to NRG format for switching from DJ to Nero.
Some things never change... (Score:3, Informative)
1. The Bally Astrocade [computercloset.org] console of 1978 was the first to explore the concept commercially, as one of it's "game" carts was the BASIC programming language and cassette interface.
2. Later in 1978 Magnavox (the producer of the first ever home console called Odyssey) introduced the successor Odyssey^2 [gamesanimal.com]. Marketed head-to-head with the Atari 2600 as a
What have I been saying?! (Score:2, Funny)
Named Bluecrab? (Score:5, Funny)
More emulation on Dreamcast (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.zophar.net/consoles/dreamcast.html [zophar.net]
Re:More emulation on Dreamcast (Score:5, Informative)
>>http://www.zophar.net/consoles/dream
Or you could just goto DCEmulation.com [dcemulation.com] the mother of all Dreamcast Homebrew Software.
Re:More emulation on Dreamcast (Score:2)
Cool system for $15 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Cool system for $15 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Cool system for $15 (Score:2)
who cares if the graphics aren't as good as Now-gen consoles...there's some great games. not to mention cds full of SNES games and such
Burnable games.. (Score:3, Informative)
GroupShares Inc. [groupshares.com]
Re:Burnable games.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Burnable games.. (Score:3, Informative)
Mine is still hooked up to a VGA monitor, and Ikaruga gets a spin almost every day, but I still suck at it.
Had the console been properly marketed in North America, Sega would probably still be cranking out consoles today. It's the asian piracy market that killed it outright. Is it Taiwan that doesn't honor internation copyright ? Anyways, out there you can just buy pirated copies from the corner store or video rental place. Piracy is a BUSINESS over there, wit
Emulation (Score:5, Interesting)
The console too good for Sega to kill is BACK... (Score:2)
I thought someone was trolling/kidding about the Treamcast [success-hk.com] but apparently it does exist. [netfirms.com] No, that's not a typo...that's what the HK wizards who built it call it.
There is precious little info in the reviews I linked to. The dcemu.co.uk review mentioned an empty modem slot...will a DC modem fit the slot? How about the Broadband adapter? What about usage of all my DC goodies with this machine...some of the stuff I like to play requires not one, but two VMUs to m
Re:Emulation (Score:2)
Re:Emulation (Score:2)
Who says the Dreamcast is dead? (Score:2, Funny)
Isn't this illegal? (Score:5, Interesting)
Certainly this was the case with the Gameboy, although I've noticed a lot of games seem to carry a brand. Even if the Dreamcast is effectively dead, wouldn't there be some concern about any workaround for such a device?
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:2)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:2)
The nintendo-scrolling down thing was just something that they could do for extra effect - they've got the bitmap from the cart there, and it's trivial for them to move it around the screen. So, once the logo's fully centred on the screen, that's when the pattern-matching takes place, and if there's no match, the code in the cart is deemed to be some sort of "non-approved code" and it isn't executed.
So, if there's no
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:2)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Isn't this illegal? (Score:1)
Dreamcast is dying (Score:1)
That said, it is nice to hear of someone finding something useful to do with those Dreamcasts.
Re:Dreamcast is dying (Score:2)
Emulating the Emulated (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Emulating the Emulated (Score:1)
Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:1)
I was under the impression that the machine itself was physically unable to read normal CDs, except for something like the first 30MB or so. I thought real game disks used a special high-density format.
If so, are all these home-brews severely limited in capacity, or was a hack found?
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:4, Informative)
A Dreamcast disk requires a bit of special burning (two tracks, the first with at least 4 seconds of data, and other requirements) but the whole disk is accessible.
The reason CD reading was allowed was so that third parties could create unoffical products such as Action Replay, or so artists could have their music CDs have Dreamcast extras (a few CDs in Asia I believe actually did this, but I haven't heard of one in the west). Sega didn't expect the GD-ROM format to be read, but a way was found to read the GD-ROMs (by ripping them from the Dreamcast connected to a PC). The games were then cracked to work on a CD-ROM, and piracy followed. Homebrew developers then created thier own code.
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:2)
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:2)
Yes, you have to transfer the whole 1GB disc over a 112KBPS serial port. Then you have to manually go through the process of removing more than 1/4 of all that data, to shrink it down to CD-size, hopefully removing nothing too important.
It's a wonder there were as many pirated copies of Dreamcast games as there were (and there weren't all that many).
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:2)
Boot CD? (Score:2)
More interesting is the fact that some of these 'new' images were games in development that never quite made it out. A fine example would be 'Half-Life'. Who released this? Probably some disgruntled programmer.
It's a shame too because besides the long (and often) load times, it's a GREAT port!
Re:Boot CD? (Score:2)
The long load times, the low framerate and the tendency to crash. Often.
I have it. I'm not sure how it did so well with reviewers.
Re:Boot CD? (Score:2)
Look, I was just impressed that it was done at all - UT is a FAR more playable port though.
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:1)
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:2)
This is because they are not merely copied. The people who create these CD images rip the content from the original high-capacity GD-ROMs (I guess they use either a DC devkit, or a hacked Dreamcast).
Having got the data, they often need to put some effort in to fit the game on a CD-ROM. A common strategy is to recompress video to a lower quality.
Re:Dreamcast CD-reading question (Score:2)
Unfortunately, the DC will not read CD-RW, so buy a spindle of the cheapest, crappiest CD-Rs you can find while learning how to build s
Valuable Learning Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
Granted, somebody like me, who is employed full-time, and has very little time as it is, won't be spending too much time on it (I still have my Dreamcast, complete with broadband adaptor, keyboard and serial cable). But, for somebody who has some free time and wants to learn about the Dreamcast, there's a lot of knowledge that can be gained, and applied to other systems.
Never hurts to have it on the resume - as a matter of fact, I got my job interview at Sega in part due to the demos that I did on the Commodore 64 back in the early 1990's.
-- Joe
NINCEST 64: Get sis or get out. (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope only one thing, the porter, GPF?, puts the source back out again... I learned from other's source, and I hope others can learn from mine.
- marius
NINCEST 64: Get sis or get out.
Re:NINCEST 64: Get sis or get out. (Score:2, Interesting)
The more emulators I port, the more I learn so eventually I can write my own homebrew games.
As geeky as it may sound, I was the first person in the world to get a Neo Geo CD emulator working on the dreamcast, a GBA emulator and now a N64 emulator running on the beloved Dreamcast.
But all of the credit goes to the hardwork of the original authors of the emulators I have ported. Plus all of the help of other on the Dreamcast emulator
Not totally useless (Score:2, Interesting)
You can get a Dreamcast used pretty cheaply now and those of us who like to tinker will happily use this stuff.
DC Emulator on PC (Score:5, Informative)
Chankast [dcemu.co.uk] is that piece of software, and it's a joy to see running
However, with DCs available at as low as 15GBP, it's silly not to pick it up. As a games writer, it's my favourite console I've owned, for the high quantity of top-notch games that were released in its short life. In fact, if you haven't explored the DC's back catalogue - I'd thoroughly recommend it. It's one of modern gaming's best kept secrets.
broadband (ethernet) adapter (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:broadband (ethernet) adapter (Score:2)
I suspect someone at NCSX must have dropped the ball and didn't get their proxy order put in with the Japanese company before the cut-off date.
Re:broadband (ethernet) adapter (Score:2)
Fast forward a few years to 2002-2003 during my dark (unemployed) period, and I ebayed them all, even the one I used for my own DC. The lowest I got was 75$, the highest 150$ - and I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of all of them!
(The 150$ sale was for the ones that had the version 3 (I think it was 3) of the DC browser - whichever
Who says the Dreamcast is dead? (Score:2, Funny)
Who says the Dreamcast is dead?
Netcraft [netcraft.com] confirms it, Dreamcast is dying.
Well, somebody had to say it. ;-)
How does this work? (Score:1)
Re:How does this work? (Score:1)
Re:How does this work? (Score:1)
Re:How does this work? (Score:2)
Re:PC with TV output (Score:2)
Re:Accuracy is worth it (Score:2, Insightful)
and umm...i don't think factoring the PC in is fair, as if you play it on an emulator on your -PC-, then you already have one! and as nearly all of PCs sold to consumers right now have CD burners already on them, that may not be so good either to factor in...even so, if you don't have a burner you always say
The hardware vendor says so. (Score:2, Insightful)
If there isn't new hardware being produced, the architecture is 'dead' for all intents and purposes. I could write code to make the 8085 in my TRS-80 Model 100 emulate an 8088 and run MS-DOS on it. An enthusiast could get an old PDP-11 to emulate an Apple II.
It's cool, it's great hacking material, but it's a 'dead end' project. Nothing wrong at all with cool dead-end projects (Anybody need an Intersil 6100 chip? 12 bit static CMOS microcontrollers that run the PDP-8 in
Re:The hardware vendor says so. (Score:2)
Well, thats not really publishing, just porting (Score:4, Informative)
Me and my cohorts at S+F Software [zophar.net] are getting a game published via the Goat Store [goatstore.com], if they can get the pressing details worked out. It's a addictive four player puzzle game called Inhabitants [goatstore.com], also available on Lik-Sang [lik-sang.com]
The nice thing about the DC is that it is quite easy to code for using open tools. The KallistOS [slashdot.org] library gives you easy access to the hardware. It even has a openGL library that does a decent job for simple 3d stuff, and a badass object oriented 2d library.
Dreamcast = Apple Newton (Score:2, Insightful)
I miss the Dreamcast... (Score:2, Funny)
Dreamcast as a physical trojan (Score:4, Interesting)
DC Phone Home [blackhat.com] (ppt, rtsp only).
Great. /graf0z.
I'm all for indie game dev (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm all for indie game dev (Score:2)
" I'm a pretentious fuckhead, too! "
You're a man of many talents, that's for sure.
A slow emulator is... (Score:3, Interesting)
Then I looked into what is actually available. Sure, lots of emulators-- some of which are missing sound, and virtually ALL of which run at some fraction (1/3, 1/2, 2/3, whatever) of the speed of the "real" console.
Thanks, but no thanks. You don't have to be a purist (heck, if I was a purist, I'd be lugging around an actual SNES around in my backpack, and an LCD display to plug it into) to be MAJORLY put off by a non-full-speed emulator, or-- just as much-- an emulator without sound.
Can you imagine playing Final Fantasy 6, or Chrono Trigger, at 2/3 speed, with no sound?
I wouldn't want to. Not in a billion years.
To me, slow emulators have ONE use and ONE use only: Capturing screenshots of games.
(Incidentally, all of my comments apply solely to game console emulators. There are, obviously, uses for slow COMPUTER emulators-- although there comes a point where they become too slow for anything except development/debugging use (e.g. Bochs, which is so incredibly slow as to be a joke).)
Re:A slow emulator is... (Score:2, Interesting)
uh... (Score:2)
Part of it is about learning or spreading information. Part of it is also about playing games for free. If you don't accept that, you're being naive.
Re:uh... (Score:2)
Openlynks (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Openlynks (Score:2)
Still a long ways to go (Score:2)
Heh. (Score:2)
"Who says the Dreamcast is dead?"
Appearantly you.
It's a shame... (Score:2)
If the DC's processor was just a bit faster, we'd have had the PERFECT platform for an ultra-cheap SVCD/MPEG-4/Ogm/XCD player, long before the first commercial "Divx" certified players.
Re:Here's A Real Brain Twister... (Score:4, Interesting)
These days, Dreamcast freaks are more likely to be emulator users rather than Sega fanboys. All it takes is a CD-ROM burner, a Dreamcast of the appropriate vintage, and you've got hundreds of games on a handful of disks.
The answer is obvious. It's hard to beat Amiga freaks for pathetic-ness. Unless you're a BeOS freak, anyhow.
Re:Here's A Real Brain Twister... (Score:2, Insightful)
They may be dead commercially, but not dead for hobbyists.
Re:Here's A Real Brain Twister... (Score:2)
Re:Here's A Real Brain Twister... (Score:2)
Re:I'm sorry... (Score:1)
Re:I'm sorry... (Score:1)
Re:I'm sorry... (Score:1)
Re:Lame (Score:2)
So clueless! What fool does not heed the word of the middle manager supervising an anonymous game programmer? Seriously, 'my boss said it was dead, so it was' has to be the most insane thing I have heard today.
Re:Lame (Score:2)
It looks like his boss wasn't wrong. Sega has a long history of fucking over the people who adopt their game systems. After the Genesis, Sega seemed to treat every other system that they developed as a way to raise money for the "next generation" system that in turn would be brought to market to raise money for the next "next generation" system.
32X, SegaCD, Saturn, Dreamcast. All decent systems that never
Re:Lame (Score:2)
Re:Lame (Score:2)
So go ahead and show me another way I can play Capcom's excellent Power Stone, or Soul Calibur.
Re:See, it's like this... (Score:3, Informative)
dcemulation.com [dcemulation.com]
dcemu uk [dcemu.co.uk]
ConsoleVision [consolevision.com]
Boob [boob.co.uk]
Re:I love you Sega. (Score:2)