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Upgrading the Memory on a DreamCast?

Posted by Cliff on from the reviving-old-hardware dept.

dknight asks: "Ok, a friend of mine recently has his computer die on him. Rather than go out and buy a computer, we thought we'd try converting his DreamCast to fit the bill. We've got the keyboard and mouse, and now have Linux running on it successfully(we're working on getting the network adapter). The problem we're running into, however, is that it's REALLY painfully slow. I'm figuring this is due to the meager 16 Megs of RAM it comes with. My question is: Is it possible to upgrade the RAM on a DreamCast? Has anyone else attempted this feat?" I highly doubt this is possible, but if this can be done, this might breathe new life into those unused DC consoles that are lying around.

4 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Sometimes.. by fuerstma · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sometimes you Linux people are like the bongheads... just like Dennis Leary was saying... As soon as you make your first bong, the bongheads try to make freakin bongs out of everything..

    I have asked my fair share of mundane "Wouldn't think be cool" questions to Ask Slashdot, and I am additionally the cheapest man on the planet, but even I wouldn't try to pass a DC off to someone that actually once had a working PC.. I mean c'mon. I go to compgeeks.com and see awesome PII level machines for like $99.. and wonder what the hell anyone in the world is doing with something less than this (yes, even if you are NOT in the US.. pay the damn shipping).

    Going along with my cheap, tight assed nature, I make use of all of my old PC's, and even with all my niche crap that I do, I still have got P200-class machines that I just can no long use... out of space, out of time.. its just not worth the effort...

    --
    www.jackasscritics.com
    1. Re:Sometimes.. by AnalogBoy · · Score: 3, Funny

      I love this analogy. Love it, love it, love it. Can I steal it? Is it an open source quote? :) GPL'ed even?

      I can't wait to see the first person clam they made a production SQL server from their Dreamcast, PS2, or watch. From there its just a short step to "We replaced all our Ultra Enterprise 4500, 5500's with Dreamcasts in a Beowulf cluster to serve our Production financial database at [insert large financial corp here]."

  2. The Real Question... by The+Iconoclast · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is whether you can make a bong out of a Linux Box. Or is it can you run Linux on a bong? Help! I'm confused!! ;-P

    --
    Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
    1. Re:The Real Question... by The+FooMiester · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is whether you can make a bong out of a Linux Box. Or is it can you run Linux on a bong? Help! I'm confused!! ;-P

      Not with linux, but we're taking the NetBSD/Toaster port and converting it to bong. So far, we've been able to get it to boot, but the smoke gets to us, and we get "confused",
      just like you.
      NetBSD, It'll run on anything!

      --
      The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.