Java On Dreamcast Forges On

Anonymous Coward writes: "Yup, much to my disbelief, it looks like Planetweb are still determined to try and profit off of the dc with their new DC browser version 3.0. According to the site, 'Users will now be able to access the multimedia features on Web sites using Java and play games written in that language..." I'v given up all hope on the DC, but maby a few of you out there...." Since these are officially EOL (even if not completely out of stores), you might be able to pick up your next web-browsing toy at a yard sale.

Comments

All Hope is not lost

[Solidblu]

My hope for the Sega Dreamcast isn't lost because no matter what I can atleast make it a cheap little webserver. Although everytime I update it I have to burn a new cd but its a small price to pay for a compact webserver that you can play really nice games on.

The real web appliance

[BigumD]

Here's a real great idea for the "net appliance" that was supposingly going to replace home PC's years back. The thing can run Linux, browse the web, run on an ethernet network, play MP3's, oh and by the way, it's a pretty decent gaming machine.

Throw that together with the fact that it's about 80 bucks brand new and tell me what you really have to complain about...?

Lotsa stuff on Dreamcast

[Ashleigh]

ok, maybe not Java related, but is about the dreamcast not being so dead as lots of you might think.

There already is linux running on the DC, with MAME, running Doom even (imagine that! an emulated game on a physical machine!) checkout this site for lots of information and useful stuff.

Long live the dreamcast!!!

odd that this comes up...

[jjshoe]

I just spent last night compiling X 3.3.6 for my DC, the only problems i had burning bootable cd's was not being patient and thinking my burner had reset itself and forcing it open with 'eject'

i plan to setup nfs so i can mount up user space, no more reburning cd after cd, i did manage to make my cd read cd-rw's, email me if you would like to know

i plan on giving licq and xchat a shot on cross compiling, but this could be nasty... unless licq has a gtk plugin? which i think it does now... i dont want to spend umpteen hours cross compiling qt...

i will send binaries with all dependencies included to the respective sites if i get any of it to work... so far the cd has worked like a dream for me...

oh also, i plan on eventualy making a dc-quake-howto... basicaly howto pop in a cd with enough standalone linux to run quake... this has many possibilities for other linux games that you can now pass onto your windows friends who own a dc

No need for rummage sales

[foo fighter]

My local Software Etc. and Electronics Boutique both have their back rooms piled high with used, working Dreamcasts. I just picked up one of the cool black ones with its controller for $50 + $10 for a six month warranty against it dying.

It comes with a modem and a browser and you can get a keyboard and mouse for it. Several companies make adapters that allow you to connect it to a monitor. You can still find the broadband (Ethernet) adapter on Ebay for about $120.

I have the base linux system up and running on it, so now I'm working on getting it to dial up an ISP and start a browser on power-up. My grandma has been putting off getting online for a long time, and now I can get her there for $50 + ISP charges. All she has to do is push the power button and she's on the web and able to email her far flung family. I'm making sure the interface is big and readable on her 35" TV.

It's pretty easy for me to get linux running on it now, and then connect to my home computer and run terminal services. Why do I do this? Because $150 for a new computer for my wife is much less than $1000 for a new low-end computer, especially when it is just used for basic productivity suite software and web browsing.

Also, the linux system is just a CD-R, so I just pop it out, and pop in a game and I'm playing Quake, or Crazy Taxi, or Ready to Rumble, or Sega NFL with no patches or incompatabilities with up to three of my friends. (All of these games are readily available used for $15 or new for $45)

Re:No need for rummage sales

[drinkypoo]

okay, so there's no monitor, but the DreamCast doesn't come with one either

Consider the percentage of homes around the world which are equipped with television. Even people in third-world countries often have TVs and a satellite feed.

Maybe we should set up some sort of UUCP-like (but receive-only) system (I'd like to use UUCP with a new transfer method, since the software exists already) which will run on abandoned platforms like the dreamcast which can be used in third world countries to recieve news, survival information (like how to build structures which will last, perhaps? out of low-grade materials of course) and so on? You could include on the disc some sort of small encyclopedia and the CIA world fact book :)

X server?

[EllisDees]

If they get Java up and running on the thing, I wonder how well the WeirdX X server would work on it. Still lackin a keyboard, but should be good enough to browse on...

Dreamcast we worship you.

[ImaLamer]

First let me say: I'm very active in the DC scene(s).

Broadband adapters need to be made again!

For god sakes SEGA is still making games for the DC, as they only pulled out of the hardware business. It's flat out impossible to play new games online (WSB2K2, Mars Matrix, etc) when you canceled your dial-up account 2 years ago.

As for another suggestion posted above; yes streaming mp3 support needs to be covered. The DC outputs some of the best sound I've heard on a console. *If* I could get a BBA then I would be able to stream them right of the PC. But, I've also archived all my mp3's to CD so I can already play them in the DVD player, DC and PC. BUT! Playing a shout,er,icecast stream would be great for ambient music.

The DC can be anything people want it to be. It's your all in one box. It's even got a C64 emulator.

But what can we do to resurrect this machine to above it's full glory?

[ps. i noticed on mtv the other day that they gave a few DC's away on a show - so people, of course, still love them.]

No more Broadband Adaptors

[rhadc]

I find that getting the Dreamcast Broadband Adaptor is becoming increasingly difficult. For certain tasks, running linux on here would be great.

At this point I can only find this device on Ebay for inflated prices.

I believe that when the Broadband Adaptor becomes impossible to get, the Dreamcast's viability for any NOS will die. What a shame.

rhadc

Re:Life in it yet

[drinkypoo]

Ultimately, this platform is going to become useless if someone doesn't come up with a way to get ethernet on it cheaper than the $150 or so that BBAs have been going for. I love my DC, and I was seriously jazzed when they announced the BBA, but then of course the platform died off.

Mind you, it's a pretty bad game machine in most respects. While many gamers have learned to live with them, very few actually enjoy the controller, which is the second-worst gaming controller ever, IMO. The first is the original Sega Master System controller, which made an artform out of moving in cardinal directions. If you weren't an artist (and I mean this in the gamer sense) then you hadn't a hope in hell of moving properly. Oddly enough, the Sega Saturn's 3D Control Pad was superior to the DC controller in every way but expandability, especially in terms of ergonomics. Sega took a step backwards with the DC's controller, making it unwieldy and removing two buttons.

The DC will once again be an excellent hobbyist platform if a new source of ethernet access can be provided. With its 200MHz SH4 chip, 32MB of onboard memory, and 2Mbps controller bus, it's actually a fairly worthwhile system. The lack of local storage outside of the CD/GD-ROM is a severe problem if you do not have ethernet, but with it it's no problem at all. And the VGA support really adds to the usefulness of the whole thing.

Has anyone disassembled a BBA and put it up on the 'net? Can anyone comment on the feasibility of building one's own BBA? I assume there's really not very much to it, and that it's similar in complexity (and design?) to an ISA NIC, though of course the bus and form factor are entirely different. Is any custom logic on it something which could possibly be replicated with an FPGA?