Slashdot Mirror
X Box To Be Dreamcast-Compatible - Updated
palo0019 writes "These are tough times for Sega fans, with rampant rumors of buyouts, sellouts, and every other scenario under the sun. The latest one actually makes sense, Microsoft needs a hot developer, and Sega needs a machine to call home. Gamers.com is reporting that the Xbox will be compatible with Dreamcast games. They are also reporting that that Sega is developing "a" Virta Fighter game, that may or may not be the new Virtua Fighter X. " Interesting rumor - I tried calling both Microsoft and Sega and got a firm "No Comment" from people. Update: 01/26 12:20 PM by H :Microsoft has apparently denied the rumor once more.
but youre forgeting one import aspect of all this.. the dreamcast uses wince to develop games, and if you really wanna squeeze all the performance out of the dreamcast, you could develop on Sega's OS.. Microsoft was crucial in the development of the dreamcast.. read up on your gaming history before making a comment
I think everyone here is missing the point. It's not a case of 'emulating' a DC -- both platforms run Windows CE. All Sega have to do is recomplie the source to produce x86 binaries & then burn the new execuatables onto a DVD (so no nead for special GB-Rom readers). Simple really.
Anyway, if it is Dreamcast news you are looking for, this is the wrong place. You should most likely be reading IGN's Dreamcast section. It has new Shenmue II trailers, listings of new games, and much more.
Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
The pirates use modified Dreamcasts to spool the data to a hard drive--in effect, using the DC as an external GD drive. You won't be able to fully read a GD for some time, if ever.
Being able to create pseudo-GDs is more a case of luck and lax format specs--since almost no developer has used the high-density ring in the center of a GD. The rips aren't nearly the quality of PSX burns either--a friend tried DoA2(locks up repeatedly after about 15min) and Capcom Vs. SNK(loses music periodically), with less-than-stellar results.
--
Which is a pretty funny claim anyhow- seen the POVbench scores for the PS2? (I was impressed they could even _compile_ POV to run on the 'emotion engine'). You have to continually remember that Microsoft may be and probably is lying outright to you. It's like continually remembering that spammers lie as you continue to be slammed by their claims day after day after day. Just because MS has claimed for the Nth time that 'XBox will be more powerful than anything in the world!' doesn't mean it's not a midrange PC with nice NVidia graphics acceleration and midrange CPU and HD.
There's the proof.
Yep, the proof that emulation is definitely a possibility.
Look, people, what's not said in these weasel word press releases is as or even more important than what is said. Being publicly held companies, making false statements can get them in serious hot water. So if they don't deny something (such as emulation), it's probably because they can't.
Sega didn't deny halting Dreamcast production, they talked about their commitment to the platform. Microsoft didn't deny the emulation plans. I'd bet a C-note that Dreamcast will be emulated on X-Box, it fits the facts (Sega losing money, X-Box needing games when it first comes out, and these carefully worded denials.)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Plus there are the issues of making sure that the X-Box's DVD drive could read the Dreamcast's GD-Roms.
Not at all. Y'see, if this is the plan, then instead of (or as well as) GD-ROMs, Dreamcast developers would make XBox DVDs. That adds scads of room for an emulator program, no disk switching needed.
Sega has only recently decided to discontinue the Dreamcast hardware thus I don't think they would have been considering this X-Box angle previously, though it is possible.
My bet is that the discontinuation of the Dreamcast is *because* Microsoft was willing to do a Dreamcast emulator, not that these are separate decisions. Sega found that building the Dreamcast was making them dive into the red, but they were getting money from developers. They don't want to abandon the platform completely, because those developers (and their money) go away and never, ever come back. But make an emulator, give Microsoft a cut, and suddenly they've got all profits, no new losses. Meanwhile Microsoft gets more games and a pop culture icon associated with their platform (Sonic and the gang.) It makes too much sense not to be true.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
I tried calling both Microsoft and Sega and got a firm "No Comment" from people.
Are you sure that wasn't the answering machine you got a "no comment" from, at 2AM?(11PM in Redmond, and suffice it to say pretty damn late wherever in the country Sega USA is located)
When the Dreamcast market collapses and you can pick them up for 20 UKP at CEX, and the good folk over at NetBSD get their port ready for primetime, this will be a great source of cheap, powerful hardware. I won't say the B word, but you know that you can build a parallel supercomputer in your shed...
You should soon be able to skip the PSX part and use nGine or DreamSNES directly on the, errr, emulated Dreamcast.
(are there really 5000 games for the PSX and SNES? That many?)
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
And not even Microsoft would be stupid enough to have two verification keys, one of which wasn't used normally, but was used if the first one failed, so it could be replaced by an attacker to get their code accepted without stopping code signed with the first key running. Well actually, Microsoft were that stupid, but I think even they won't be stupid enough to do it twice.
See e.g. here or here.
--
rant
I too was suprised by this. Maybe just maybe the slashdot editors do really still read the site.... miracles never cease.
--- I do not moderate.
Don't you love how they tossed that little marketing tidbit in there?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
As for the different graphics subsystem on the DC, it would be trivial to bung a translation layer between the two systems. In fact the hardest part of the DC to emulate would be its curious bumpmapping format, although the Dx8-style pixel shaders on Xbox could do a lot to help this out. The shadow volumes supported by DC could also be translated into equivalent stencil-buffer operations too.
Just my two-penneth - as an engine coder on a DC game who's now working on an Xbox title I've got some idea what I'm talking about ;)
GodboltBlog
But that royalty can be renegotiated as part of the deal, so that both parties come out in front. As long as there's something in it for both sides (and there is) deals can be done.
I still think this rumour is probably false, but by no means impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
The Dreamcast compatibility was apparently hinted at by an 'anonymous source'. Microsoft and Sega spokespersons deny everything.
It's just some half-baked rumour - there's loads going around relating in some way to the Xbox. Like Halo for Windows and Mac apparently being cancelled (this rumour was described as 'a load of bollocks' by a Bungie spokesman...)
So, take everything you read with a pinch (or two) of salt...
Ford Prefect
Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
You could if your CD-ROM's fucking firmware could deal with the big physical fucking gap in the middle of the physical fucking disc. The HD area of a GD is a fucking ISO9660 filesystem with a boot block. The spiral is longer and thinner, but it's still motherfucking pits and lands punched out of a motherfucking piece of foil so that you can have just like every other fucking normal cd, only instead of 6115200 of the fuckers on the spiral you have about 9182208.
Are you forgetting that a cdrom drive is just a fucking piece of hardware that shoots a laser onto a disc and sees if it reflects or not? The density of the spiral on a GD is not much higher than on an 80 minute cd. I would venture to say that most commercial CDROM drives have laser diodes with focus fine enough not to spill over the edges of the spiral. It's a matter of math and it's in the SOFTWARE INSIDE THE FUCKING CDROM DRIVE NOT IN THE ELECTRONICS.
How in the fuck did you get the comment bonus without a fucking brain?
~GoRK
The high density area of GD-ROM is really nothing more than a cd with a thinner and therefore longer spiral. A normal DVD-ROM mechanism or a good CD-ROM mechanism with firmware to handle the bizzare physical format of the disc can read a GD-ROM. It's not about the hardware. Use standard hardware. Use special firmware!
/. editors after so many years not yet realized probably around 95% of console game news that originates as rumors is total bullshit?
As far as promoting the sale of games for a competing system, do you really think that M$ wouldn't get a kickback on SEGA's royalties if they made their system compatible.
All that aside, I really wish that slashdot would stop it with the game bunk that they've been pushing out recently. Honestly, have
For a real bit of console news, try that the first 3rd party developed (license-free, reverse-engineered) program that uses the Sega Dreamcast's ethernet adaptor was released yesterday. It is an app that allows you to upload and execute compiled elf binaries using TCP/IP. Shouldn't be too much longer before we can see some homebrew games or other software (like Operating Systems) that take advantage of this.
~GoRK
What is it with the rumors? So many different ones about Sega, lets see:
1. Nintendo is buying Sega
2. Sega is stopping production of the Dreamcast
3. Sega is developing for the PS2
4. The X-Box will support GD-ROM games from the DC
What next?
I also love the rumors about the iPaq handheld.
1. A 64 Meg version will be released any day now. It will be the H3635, H3640, H3660, or the H3670.
2. An iPaq with built in wireless (Wireless what?)
3. An iPaq running at 412mHz and 64MB Ram.
Even better are all the Linux ones involving MS
1. IE is being ported to Linux
2. Office is being ported to Linux
3. MS is making their own Linux
Why do I even bother to read any "news" sites anymore. All it is now is a big social rumor circle, with some saying this is true, others denying it, all while the actual companies sit back and laugh.
You don't have to own maracas to play the game though. This seems to be a common misconception. Works perfectly fine with the standard controller, although it's not as fun that way.
As other have said, this has been done before but it still made me laugh to think of initially... imagine this Quake session:
[User accidentally fires rocket too close for four hundredth time]
[Up pops PaperClip!]
PaperClip: I see you are trying to rocket jump. Would you like more help on rocket jumping?
[Rail from other gamer obscured by PaperClip comes through PaperClip, killing user]
Gamer: Damn you @^!#&@!$#*& PaperClip! I just can't aim!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Remember, Sega makes a loss on every Dreamcast console they sell. Where they plan to get that money back is from game licenses. For every Dreamcast game sold, some of the money goes into Sega's pockets. Microsoft being who they are, it's very likely that you'd need to pay a similar fee to get your game to boot on the X-box, despite it being the same game that can run on a PC.
If the X-box could play Dreamcast games, then the continuing sale of those games would take money from Microsoft and put it into Sega's pockets. I don't think Micosoft will do that.
"The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
This seems unlikely. The Dreamcast uses its own proprietary gigabyte CD standard for games, which AFAIK requires dedicated hardware. X-Box uses DVDs, and a specially made DVD-ROM which could read GB-CD would raise the price of the X-box, as well as promiting the sale of games for a competing system.
"The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
I guess that would mean that the XBox runs linux by emulation.
In separate news, Microsoft announced suits against upwards of 35 programmers and several hardware manufacturers for using the term "X" or "X-windows." Ballmer stated "We don't want consumers to be confused in the marketplace. X is a very strong branding image and is a registered trademark owned by Microsoft (76041367 and 76041368). These other individuals and companies are introducing confusion into the marketplace."
Microsoft's above trademarks cover the use of the X trademark in conjuction with games, operating systems that can run games, chat and message services involving gaming situations, e-mail, text-editing, and OS utilities supporting gaming.
Insiders at Microsoft hinted that Microsoft is willing to drop the suit against companies distributing UNIX and LINUX products if they remove all games and ability to play games on their product or cease the use of the X trademark in conjuction with above products.
Not surprising at all. The 'specs' for the Xbox have been constantly changing, and I'll happily admit I haven't been keeping track of them; Those numbers were pulled from one of the original Xbox announcements way back when. Even with a 733 and some buff video card, it doesn't hold enough power to emulate the DC. The SH4 main CPU in the DC runs at 200MHz (check for yourself, I *DO* know that number is accurate) which gives you 4-to-1 opcode ratio, not enuff (yes, yes, opcodes!=MHz!=MIPS, but it gives a nice number for arguement here) That still doesn't include the cpu emulation for sound. The Nvidia is a real 3d card, while the powerVR is more of a 2d tile accelerator with Zbuffer and perspective correction; far to different to allow the Nvidia to 'wrap' the powerVR instructions to take load off of the CPU. While I have no doubt that your numbers are based on a current spec sheet of the Xbox, I do have doubt whether or not those specs will make it into the production models. While I would actually love to see this rumour come true, I do have to point out the feasability issues.
:)
Toodles D. Asshole
Toodles D. Clown
Xbox is based on Intel hardware. Something like a Celeron 400 CPU and Nvidia geforce video. Dreamcast uses a SH4 and ARM7, respectively. Completely different set of hardware. Even if they were able to read the disc properly (not bloody likely, read above posts, I'll not repeat) they won't be able to do anything with it. They can't do any kind of software emulation; the cpu is not powerful enough for low level full speed emulation of both the ARM and SH4 (the sound interface isn't a DAC you can just ship PCM data to like sound cards; its it completely separate system, with its own RAM that contain binary executable code as well as data. The ARM would have to be emulated as well). The Nvidia works completely different than PowerVR chip in the Dreamcast; again, more emulation done by this one poor Intel CPU.
Sega is looking into selling the chips for use in other components; this is a granted. However, it is very late in the Xbox development cycle to add this major feature to the Xbox. Not to mention OMG the heat this thing would produce. This gives no mention of the hardware needed (How do I play Phantasy Star online w/o a modem? How would I use my Seaman microphone or Samba de Amigo maracas?) This is a pipe dream.
Just cause a rumour is posted on some other website on the Internet doesn't make it any less a rumour, Slashdot. I personally am really curious who at Andover is getting paid off for all of the anti-Sega BS thats been coming down from here in the past week. (Remember the 'Sega dropping the DC' from two days ago?)
Toodles
Toodles D. Clown
I'm surprised that nobody knew this. This compatibility is absolutely not possible. Dreamcast games are not written for WindowsCE (except for some early ones) but for the close-to-the-metal SegaOS (guess why!). That means serveral things:
A) Lots of SH4 ASM
B) No Win32
C) Direct coding to the PowerVR, no DirectX used.
The whole situation is made more complicated by the fact that the PVR chipset has to have code written specially for it. That means that although DirectX does work with it, it works suboptimally. That also means that most games ditch D3D and use their own routines to access the graphics card. Hence, these games would not work on an XBox.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
It isn't /. that is hammering Sega. Every news source I subscribe to that covers games, consoles, or electronics is on the same bandwagon.
/. is only here to give you a link to news other sites have posted, maybe a little more eyeballs for something that would be otherwise obscure, and more importantly to give you one place to look for geek-news. Oh, and a place to sound off about it.
So quit picking on them.
Failure is not an option.
Failure is not an option.
It comes bundled with Windows.
VFX, why not just call it Virtua Fighter 4? (note that Konami's Metal Gear Solid 2 for Xbox is named MGSX and Silent Hill 2 for Xbox is SHX)
The Xbox controller looks amazingly similar to the Dreamcast's.
Sega has announced a PC addon card that enables Dreamcast game playing (probably easy to integrate in the Xbox).
Yu Suzuki mentioned he wanted to release Shenmue 2 before the Xbox came out. How does the release of a new console affect the release of his game?
There has long been rumblings out of MS employees of a startling and huge announcement re: Xbox at TGS.
Gamers.com reports Bill Gates mentioning a bit of missing technology in the Xbox.
Gamers.com also reports that Famitsu mentions a huge developer going Xbox at the TGS (previously assumed to be Square...)
Sega has admitted to having talks with Microsoft earlier last year.
Of course, Microsoft provided a version of WindowsCE for the DC console..
http://www.s4biturbo.com/
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Nicotine free Amish .sig.
but according to the article the dreamcast won't actualle be emulated...they should put the chip inside. Which makes the denial from Microsoft interesting: they're basically saying that the only graphics hardware will be nVidia. What they're not saying is that the Xbox won't have Dreamcast compatibility. So maybe emulation is the way the're gonna go.
check here
Of course, it doesn't really count as fact checking to call up the PR firms and get the standard "no comment".
But I'm not being critical... it's certainly a good rumor.
-rt-
-rt-
** Evil Canadians are taking over the world. Learn about the conspiracy
It just keeps happening, I get my hopes up becuase the headline reads: "X Box To Be Dreamcast-Compatible" .... uhm.. Why was it not "X Box *MIGHT* Be Dreamcast-Compatible" ???!?!? It seems like this is happening more often.
Misleading headlines. If both companies DENIED this report, (and it doesn't take much reading into the actual artice to find this out)
WHY REPORT WITH SUCH AN IRONCLAD HEADLINE?!
*whew*
I almost lost it.
IANAJ - But that's just plain bad Journalism.
....move along....nothing to see here....
Yes, dedicated hardware is needed and is supposed to be provided for.
Remember, this is Microsoft, where Bill Gates discussing market dumping in magazine interviews. When they priced WinCE below cost, he explained that they didn't make money on DOS 1.0, but by becoming the standard, they did well later.
The XBox will be sold at a loss. MS needs to be in the console/IA market, and needs software for their system. MS doesn't need the cash, but they need the presence in this market.
If people hack the X-box, Linux users will by up the suckers to setup Linux boxes. While these boxes cost MS money, and generate no sales revenue, it is another X-box sold. MS needs to have a big chunk of the marketshare, and if they can get another 5%-10% of the market this way, they will.
When you are a game developer, the bigger MS's X-box seems, the more likely you are to develop for it. Expect the X-box to be hacked either within 48 hours of shipping, or before shipping with MS getting some presales to Linux hackers.
Alex
dreamcast games dont accually run off of ce, they also only use it for function such as the web browser. because of this there is no compatibility through ce, unless they wanted to make a crappy emu, but it is MS, so you never know.
A blog about stuff.
** Note: Slashdot is actually a sham, a haven for immature "Linux users" (Windows-using wannabes) who provide flamebait for each other and pageviews for Malda. But Hemos shouldn't tell that the MS or Sega.
Damn, this is some good crack!
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
It was called the Pentium III because at the time Intel wasn't shipping a Celeron at over 400MHz. If you look at the specifications posted on the web(I'd suggest staring at xbox.ign.com) and look at the specs on the processor, you'll discover that it looks very much like a Celeron (ie, same cache size)
Doh!
The story isnt that the XBox is going to emulate the Dreamcast but that Microsoft will include the $30 Dreamcast-all-in-one chip that Sega have created for use in set-top boxes and that 'Dreamcast on a PCI card' we have heard about.
Think about how the PS2 plays PS1 games, they have a PS1 chip in the PS2. The PS2 does not emulate the PS1. The same _could_ be done for the DC and XBox combo...
While it seems a little far fetched at the moment its certanly not impossible.
Another thing...Did anyone remember the first XBox footage we saw that had that few seconds of a game that looked remarkably like Sonic Adventure? Perhaps they were trying to tell us something?
Although the gamers.com article raises some eyebrows, both companies have already denied the allegations. FWIW: Xbox-Dreamcast Rumors Denied
a slashdot editor checking ... facts
... must lie down ...
head light
question: is control controlled by its need to control?
answer: yes
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
The Nvidia hardware should easily do everything the PowerVR 2DC 3D chipset can do and more. The DVD should be able to read the Sega format GDROM with a firmware update. Considering all this, I would have to agree that it shouldn't take much to do this with a little bit of hardware or even emulation if they chose. The hardest part of emulation is figuring out what the other person did so you can recreate it properly. If they are working together (if) then it shouldn't be to difficult to do.
http://stomped.com/shared/nsystem/comments/13850_1 _page_1.php
DailyRadar has recieved official denials of this whole thing, but their server is actin' funky right now...
Since Bleem is developing a Psx emulator, like they did for the PC, for the dreamcast, This would actualy alow you run and old psx game.
Furthermore You can use the old nintendo emulator for the psx as a game.
so
Xbox 5 games
Dreamcast 50 games
Psx 5000 games
Nintendo 5000 games
mmmh?
Anything that makes it more likely that we'll get Shenmue 2 is a good thing...
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If nothing else, emulators could just be tweaked for the version of linux that will inevitably be ported to the X-box.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Lets read between the lines quickly:
"Sega games would look great on Xbox, but it's absolutely untrue that Xbox will contain Dreamcast hardware," Microsoft's spokesperson told Daily Radar.
What if they are not porting the chipset, but rather the games?
Please terminate paranioa() at favourite recursion level
Well, Sega's plan from the start has been to 'evolve' the dreamcast platform to Set-top boxes. DVD players. Plans for such integration can be read about as far back as Feb 1999 in MVC, a trade paper.
Sega, to make such a thing feasible has worked to create what's termed "Dreamcast on a chip" (DCoaC).
And Sega has always been tied to MS in one way or another, even including rumors of a buyout earlier this year. A buyout would have given MS much needed JPN created software and a strong lineup for JPN. But it was rumored MS didn't want to pla ball since Sega was pushing for DC compatability in the XBox.
http://boards.gaming-age.com/message.asp?topic=879 5611&replies=33
:)
" Well.. believe it, as it is true
At least according to people that we know (who will remain nameless), that work directly with the Xbox, inside MS.
DC2, here we come!
--Jim"
Jim happens to be the Senior Editor of Gaming-Age.
Despite MS and Sega's denial, It's true.
Funny, that MS denies it since they also denied the XBox initially
What is far more likely is that future games from Sega will be dual-platform games. That is, the same CD-ROM/DVD-ROM will come with both the Dreamcast version and the X-Box version. Also, yes, I know that current Dreamcast games come on GD-ROMS which can't be read in a PC CD-ROM drive. However, the Dreamcast can also boot ordinary CD-ROM's.
Sega had previously announced plans to use the dual-boot strategy for releasing Windows/Dreamcast games.
Cryptnotic
My other first post is car post.
One of the things that has hurt the dreamcast is that it's games are actually fairly easy to pirate with a standard CD burner. So you can create Dreamcast CDs with standard CD hardware, so I'd imagine that working out how to read them is quite within the relm of possibility.
Of course, this is simply hypothesis, but on the other hand, the evil warez-romz-cdz-mongers have to make their dreamcast-cd dumpz somehow, and given how common they are, it can't be THAT hard...
You know, this would actually be VERY nice...
Ever since the dreamcast's release, it's games have been extremely impressive. Not just graphically, (Yes they're pretty) but as far as gameplay and innovation. Sega has been churning out some very top notch pieces of software for their system, many of which have sadly gone unnoticed, or not been enough to save the dreamcast. Samba de amigo is reputedly awsome, if you can get past the $200 pricetag for the game (you have to buy 2 maraccas at $70 apiece to get the full experience) Grandia 2 and Skies of arcadia are getting incredible reviews as far as RPGs go. Guilty gear X and Marvel vs Capcom 2 are probably the two prettiest fighting games I've seen in a long time, in terms of graphics.
etc, and so on.
The problem with the dreamcast has definatly not been a lack of quality gams. So the idea that these games might survive and endure beyond the dreamcast's now dismal-looking lifespan should make quite a few people happy. If nothing else, it beats waiting around the extra couple of years for Dreamcast emulators to become usable...
There are about 200 games out for the Dreamcast, many of which rank as 5 star titles... Soul Calibur, Shenmue, etc...
Josh Sisk
(if it were true?) Personally, I don't like the way the console industry is going. They are trying to make a computer only for games that you use with your tv. There has always been a good destinction between console games and computer games. The direction consoles are going is going to kill "the console game". Maybe if Sega and Microsoft teamed up, they could keep Microsoft from killing what we all love. Why am I going to buy the X-Box when I have a computer that does the same thing? If the X-Box uses Windows, we can expect to see the same games on our computers later on. Of course, what I just said may make no sense, cause I have been ignoring the X-Box the best I can.
ender-iii
Oh well, it seems MSFT seems to be in a constant state of denial, whether it`s good news or bad. But please do notice that you just referred to a ZDNet page (read: MSFT sponsored).
Seriously, for a minute one would say that DC support for X-Box is a win for both X-Box, and Sega. The only reason why announcements like this are being denied is either bad timing (for some strategic marketting reason), or the fact that it`s simply not true. So I`m pretty sceptical about those rumours. Then, ofcourse, on the other hand, phasing out hardware while keeping software going is a rather peculiar strategy as well.. too bad that one comes from the SEGA side.
At least I`m glad CmdrTaco didn`t call them. First he would have tried SEGA:
CmdrTaco: Hello
Sega: Yes ?
CmdrTaco: Ok. (click)
being so excited with the new found evidence, he`d prepare for the one thing he would never ever do in his whole life.. Taking a deep breath, he went:
CmdrTaco: Hi
Gates: No..
CmdrTaco: No ?.. Uh oh, must be a joke you made... hey everybody and their brother just submitted that not only your DNS is not working properly, but that you are planning a worldwide conspiracy with SEGA.. got some juicy nuggets on that?
Gates: ??... and
CmdrTaco: CmdrTaco. You know me, we`ve allready met in court the other day.
Gates: Ah yes, you run that anti-MSFT website.
CmdrTaco: I know. Isn`t it cool..
Gates: (click)
CmdrTaco: How rude..
With great power comes great electricity bills.
... Dreamcast uses Hitcahci's SuperH 4 CPU. I couldn't find its specifications, but it is widely known that it's 128-bit. That's right, 4 times as much as Intel's IA32 (which is used inside the X-Box). Against such a thing, even big-endian/little-endian controversies stand still.
Now, the Dreamcast is only a year and a half old, and it had very successful hardware for its time. It seems extremely unlikely for me that a PC can emulate such a relatively modern console as this one.
It seems more likely to me (though unprobable), that Microsoft will support Dreamcast's APIs. However, again, optimization for SH4 must be very different from the optimization for Pentiums.
By the way, check out these sites
Skin Cancer Humor
Hitler Humor
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
1. Dreamcast games work, but, the user must successfully cut the disk into a square first.
2. One of the features included will be the ever popular "gamers assistant" who will pop up in mid game, (usually when you are rolling along quite fine) and ask "May I be of assistance?" The assistant will be quite useless if you happen to get stuck in a game, producing only clickable buttons that take you even further into obscurity.
3. Every game sold for the X-Box will actually contain only a 6 meg coded instruction for downloading the actual game. The rest of the disk will be filled with advertisements on how great Microsoft really is.
4. Hitting all buttons but one brings up a special screen, where you can view all the developers names in better 3D than any game available. It will be called an "Easter Egg"
5. Attempting to save the game will spawn going through 19 different cycles of power on, power off, reload the software, obtain a firmware upgrade, install it, and try the file parameter again.
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
Couldn't it be possible that you could add the necessary hardware in as an add on? A PC Card perhaps? All the denials seem to suggest there will be no dreamcast hardware in the XBox, but nobody has denied being able to play Dreamcast GD-ROMs on the XBox, have they?
Both companies released press releases today stating that it was NOT TRUE.
--
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
There's the proof. Sorry. I'd like to see it too.
--
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
A vampire is careful not to suck the blood of a dead person. Microsoft should be, too.
ljbalkjh lkj salas lkjl.
'nuff said.
Why should I care if the X-Box plays those crappy Dreamcast games. Now if it played ATARI games ...
"Interesting rumour" Heh heh... easily confused by the alternate spelling.
Blue skies... Barthie burgers... girls.
Interesting rumour - I tried calling both Microsoft and Sega and got a firm "No Comment" from people.
wow... i think that's the most journalistic thing i've seen on this site in months. congrats!
--saint----
I have to agree with part of this comment. For the X-Box system to be able to run Dreamcast games the Dreamcast's hardware would need to be 'emulated' at some level. Either the Dreamcast's hardware would be integrated into a small IC or set of ICs, similar to the Apple II emulating MegaII chip in the Apple IIgs, or in software provided either in rom, unlikely, or on a DVD, i.e. boot with the DVD to load the Dreamcast emulator then insert the game's GD-Rom. Plus there are the issues of making sure that the X-Box's DVD drive could read the Dreamcast's GD-Roms.
Although any of this is technically possible, I don't feel that it's probable. Sega has only recently decided to discontinue the Dreamcast hardware thus I don't think they would have been considering this X-Box angle previously, though it is possible. At this late in the game it really doesn't seem realistic that MS would take on the task of integrating another machine. They are, I'm sure, busy enough testing the X-Box to ensure it's own native functionality.
However, it's always possible that at some point after the X-Box's release a Dreamcast emulator may be available. Maybe.
My two cents,
Kataklyzm
Just watch out... if this is true, we'll soon have a new innovative SONIC blue screen of death from Microsoft whenever a game crashes!
¦ ©® ±
MS Tech: Hello, Microsoft technical support.
Hemos: Is Sega going to be making games for the X Box?
MS Tech: Can you hold for one moment. (muzak)
Hello, Microsoft technical support.
Hemos: Is Sega going to be making games for the X Box?
MS Tech: (pages flipping) Have you tried rebooting?
Hemos: Is that a yes or a no?
MS Tech: That sounds like a driver problem. You may have to reinstall Windows.
Hemos: (Hangs up, types "no comment").
Sega Rep: Hello?
Hemos: Are you guys going to be making games for the X Box?
Sega Rep: We make great many games, super good Sonic running bush pig, you buy at store.
Hemos: Yeah, great, but are you going to be making games for the X Box?
Sega Rep: YOU BUY AT STORE! (click)
Hemos: (types "no comment")
Ok, mod me down, I had my fun.
In other words, Sega, don't liscense the technology: think strategic partnership.
In other big M: if they don't want a partnership, do them a favor and buy them out.
Given a reasonably level playing field, who would win a fight between a bear and a shark?
The Dreamcast is the only console I've ever seen running a MS OS and it is the most stable system I've ever used.
Given a reasonably level playing field, who would win a fight between a bear and a shark?
If SEGA is indeed making a dreamcast on a chip, then incorporation into the Xbox would be entirely possible.
-Dreamcast on a chip would mean just that. The chip would include everything including the VR2. Remember, SEGA is targeting the chip at set TV top boxes. That means it would have to be cheap. Secondly, for those of you who may say that the Dreamcast simply has too much hardware to use consider the following:
-Power VR2 is a budget chip. It is no longer
the latest chip in the VR family. Price is not
an issue for it.
-Sound is cheap. Go to CompUSA and price cards.
Sound technology is cheap.
-Programming is not an issue. The DC chip IS the DC hardware. The chip need only to be able to access RAM and the DVDROM.
-As pointed out, a change in firmware would probably let the DVDROM drive read GDROMS. Consider the fact that several groups of people already have GDROM readers and have been able to pirate dozens of DC games as a result.
-Both SEGA and Microsoft can afford to lose a
little money on the chip. Sega can sell it at cost to Microsoft. Sega will still rake in cash in licensing fees. If that strategy works for sony and the ps2, it can work for sega. Microsoft doesn't even need to make money on the chip. They can lose money on it and still win. Microsoft intends to go after Sony with the Xbox. That much is clear. Having two consoles in one would really help that effort. This wouldn't be the first time that Microsoft has gone into a market embracing competing technology only to smash it later. java, d3d, etc.
I'm only replying to say thanks - I should listen to my Operation Mindcrime CD again. I'd forgotten what a top album that is.
I didn't pay for my operating system either
All that needs to be done is to verify the digital signature of the boot image... Check out the Intel Boot Integrity Services.
i cant believe that the evil empire is still gonna go through with its plan to conquer the world by buying everything that they can get their grubby little hands on. its bad enought that they bought BUNGI when they were werking on HALO and i cant belive that they would actually try to compete with the rest of the already established consule gaming market. I really hope that this fails and gates goes crying to mommy
So what is the one thing that Microsoft doesn't have in its court? A Firm videogame legacy.
Sony did this once, but I don't think that is possible anymore. The only way sony pulled that one off, was the really poor management at nintendo/sega. Now more than ever the videogame biz is really cut-throat. You need a leg up nowadays.
By the way, I'm really looking forward to using X-bocices as cheap terminals.
-- P226
I was at the SegaNet launch event, coinciding with the MTV Video Music Awards, to give you an idea of how long ago this was. I was talking to a developer who told me this with a wink and two nudges, or was that two winks. Anyway, this is great, and probably not that much of a stretch from the recently proposed scheme, but it doesn't go far enough. Sony killed the Dreamcast, plain and simple. Video game sales were down in a year when one of the best and most imaginative consoles (the dreamcast) was released. Why? Because Sony strategically leaked bogus news stories to not only keep the public interested, but also to keep themselves ahead in public perception. Remember the story about ps2's not being exported from Japan? How about the rumors about the modem and hard drive, Sony's "see your five dollars and raise you a hundred" bet that turned out to be "unsubstantiated". Sony has been playing the press against dreamcast, and it won. If anything killed the dreamcast, it was timing, and believing that the N64 was a milestone that needed to be passed. It wasn't the lack of a crappy DVD, it certainly isn't the lack of great software. Timing. And Sony needs to be punished. I'm no Microsoft fan. I've sort of come to accept my fate as a Mac user / console gamer necessarily. I should hate M$, but they certainly know how to buy companies. Sega is a great name brand, and they can produce a great product. Becoming an exclusive X-Box developer, at least for consoles, would be a brilliant move, and would effectively lock the PS2 into their own developing stable. When all the consoles are evenly balanced, that is the PS2, the GameCube, the X-Box, and (god-willing) the Indrema, it won't be the third-party games that will sell the systems. It will be the 'second-party' games, the exclusives, and if Sega wants to identify itself as a strong software developer, it needs to be more exclusive. It certainly hasn't hurt Square.