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X Windows On Dreamcast

Posted by timothy on from the bazillions-of-games dept.

Stealth Dave writes: "Remember all the hullabalu back when someone first put Linux on the Dreamcast? At the time you could only get a text console and no source was available. Well, I saw over at DC Emulation that the folks over at m17n.org have screenshots of the Dreamcast running X Windows, X-Mame and PrBoom (a Linux Doom port)! They even have an ftp site with a Dreamcast distribution. What will you do with your $99 Linuxcast?" So now the Dreamcast can run GNU/Linux and BSD, and may get Inferno and Plan 9. Phew -- all for $119 at K-mart.

3 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Nice thing about this. by cybrthng · · Score: 4
    The nice thing about the Dreamcast, Keyboard, Mouse, Ethernet combination is the ability to use the small DC to work as a pc device with all your AV equipment. Being able to SMB or NFS mount your MP3 server and play mp3's in your living room without a power hungry pc eating up shelf space is nice.

    You can also load up a bunch of your programs you run and hack some of your filesystem to saves over NFS or SMB so you can write you own games, run what is ported or just tinker around. I'm i'm in my computer room i can set my xdisplay to my pc and change the music playing in my living room.

    You can also hack up your own infared receiver to the controller port so you can use a remote to watch VCD's, play MP3's or navigate a simple gui.

    I'm currently working on Gamex (gamex.sourceforge.com) to boot X86, PS2, PPC, DC games via linux only utilizing the CDROM and floppy (or memory card on consoles) to load games. Making one consistent OS for all platforms based on linus.

    For the DC i'm setting up a channel guide as well that snarfs your my.yahoo.com and will update what is coming on tv as well as a small description.

    If java could be ported over, maybe one of the open source versions this would be a killer java platform as well.

    Another interesting project i'm working on is porting the PalmOS emulator to the dc and enabling the DC to NFS mount my drive with a bunch of palm apps that could be ran and viewed from the tv.

    The DC is one of the most impressive 99.00 pieces of hardware you or anyone can get there hands on! Buy one today!

    More interesting DC hacks are people yanking the dc out of the shell and installing it in minivans to play games, mp3's and stuff like that. I'll be setting up a website shortly with links to cash for the most intriguing DC hacks around. Info will be posted on gamex.sourceforge.com as i get time to do so. (working out of town currently)

  2. lessee several uses I can think of.... by Chanc_Gorkon · · Score: 4
    Lesse....

    Cheap X-terminal (with broadband adapter, keyboard and mouse).

    Linux Booting games....(just modify the startup scripts to load the game).

    PERFECT Xmame machine

    Cheap webserver (with no logging...no wait you can nfs mount a /var directory for that even!)

    Custom disk with MP3's on it too to use XMMS to play MP3(or you can just use the Dreamcast MP3 player.)

    My point is this is a cool machine and it only costs 100 bucks, and you most likely already have a TV to plug it in for the display. What else could you ask for?? I am waiting for when they do this to the PS/2! :)

    --

    Gorkman

  3. Who da thought? by opnotic · · Score: 4

    Wow... the Dreamcast can run games ?!?!? -- Lets hurry up and port some so we can play em ;)

    --
    Opnotic's Opus