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Dreamcast Broadband Adapters

JayBonci writes "Dust off the old Dreamcast. If you're one of the many like myself who still enjoy their Dreamcast or are aspiring DC hackers, then you may want to pay attention to a quiet announcement by CSI, the Japanese manufacturer of the Dreamcast Broadband Adapter (flaky, but understandable translation provided by the fish). If you have no idea what the BBA is, the official page here. If CSI gets 1000 pre-orders for the unit, they will be willing to make another production run. Keep in mind that these units are very useful for the Dreamcast Linux efforts and NetBSD/Dreamcast, and that Japanese units work on US systems."

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Am I the only one by xercist · · Score: 4, Informative

    who is subtly annoyed when they arbitrarily rename things to make them sound less complex to idiot^Waverage users?

    For example, what they sell here is a "Network Adaptor", or "Ethernet Controller" or perhaps a "NIC" - all terms everyone has accepted and uses to describe the adaptor that allows a machine to connect to an ethernet network. But let's just make up a new name, and call it a "broadband adaptor", because most people will then asociate it with their (cable|dsl) connections, even though the item in question has absolutely nothing to do with broadband. It is, in fact, the exact opposite - baseband.

    I know, I know, I'm making a big deal over a small thing, but I just had to get it out, and I feel better now that I have. If you agree, modding me up and you'll feel better too. If you disagree, modding me up will show how you can see both sides of the issue :)

    --

    --
    grep "xercist" /dev/random ...you'll find me in there someday
  2. Quick translation by BJH · · Score: 4, Informative

    OK, here's a quick translation of the page:

    ====
    Thank you for visiting our site.
    As has been reported earlier the Broadband Adapter (BBA) is no longer being manufactured, with the remaining stock sold out in July and August. However, we have received many requests for manufacturing to be restarted.
    As a result, we have decided to accept "countdown" preordering in order to do a new manufacturing run, with the run to be produced only if reservations reach 1000 by the cutoff date.
    Please follow the instructions below to preorder an adapter.
    In the event that manufacture does go ahead, it will take approximately four months from that point in time until we can deliver the adapter to you. Please take this into account when ordering.

    Start of preorder acceptance: 2002/8/26 (Mon) 13:00-
    Cutoff date: 2002/9/9 (Mon) 13:00
    Number of BBAs to be produced: 1000
    Delivery date (planned): A notice will be placed on this site as it is finalized around the end of December 2002.
    ====

    In other words, you won't be able to put your preorder in until after 1pm Monday (Japan Standard Time).