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."
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.
...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.
Slashdot Mirror
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.
--- Juggle juggle@hitesman.com
...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.