Slashdot Mirror
Amateurs Pushing the Dreamcast's Boundaries
Wraggster writes "The Sega Dreamcast console, which died an early commercial death, has recently seen some amazing new projects mainly aimed at emulation. Recently, a coder named Bluecrab released a port of the Saturn emulator called Yabause for the Dreamcast. Also, GPF (Troy Davis) has ported the excellent Visual Boy Advance (Game Boy Advance Emulator) to the Dreamcast. Finally, yesterday it was announced that Nincest (Nintendo 64 Emulator), an early N64 emulator that played demos only, has also been ported to the Dreamcast. All the projects are somewhat slow, but the achievement of the work is not to be discounted. Who says the Dreamcast is dead?"
There's plenty of emulators available for the not-so-dead dreamcast
http://www.zophar.net/consoles/dreamcast.html
Best part about the Dreamcast is that it can be found for as low as $15. I recently picked one up at EB. It was a great decision as I can get all the games I want online. These kinds of projects just make me even happier to have bought it.
Don't forget that people were also able to burn games for the dreamcast without the use of modchips.
GroupShares Inc.
-------
artlu.net
The system itself could read CD-ROMs and GD-ROMs (Sega's special high-density format) perfectly. GD-ROMs had two tracks, a normal low-density track readable by normal CD-ROMs (PCs, etc) and a high-density Dreamcast-only track. The low-density track often had wallpapers and screensavers one could grab from them on a PC.
A Dreamcast disk requires a bit of special burning (two tracks, the first with at least 4 seconds of data, and other requirements) but the whole disk is accessible.
The reason CD reading was allowed was so that third parties could create unoffical products such as Action Replay, or so artists could have their music CDs have Dreamcast extras (a few CDs in Asia I believe actually did this, but I haven't heard of one in the west). Sega didn't expect the GD-ROM format to be read, but a way was found to read the GD-ROMs (by ripping them from the Dreamcast connected to a PC). The games were then cracked to work on a CD-ROM, and piracy followed. Homebrew developers then created thier own code.
Scorta futuere amo!
It's worth noting another recent breakthrough in the DC scene - a DC emulator for PC that works with real games at a playable rate.
:) I can now play rez on my PC.
Chankast is that piece of software, and it's a joy to see running
However, with DCs available at as low as 15GBP, it's silly not to pick it up. As a games writer, it's my favourite console I've owned, for the high quantity of top-notch games that were released in its short life. In fact, if you haven't explored the DC's back catalogue - I'd thoroughly recommend it. It's one of modern gaming's best kept secrets.
Gamers Europe - Gaming News. Reviews.
Try starting your gameboy(original, I don't know about later versions of it) up without a cartridge. Interestingly enough, it seems to go through the whole nintendo thing, only instead of the word nintendo, you just see a block. Kind of pointless, but in a fun kind of pointless way.
Sega v. Accolade in the Genesis days determined that if a display of a trademark is required for the software to boot, it is legal to display it and boot even if the trademark isn't correct. Also, in the bottom right quadrant of the screen, a developer can insert an image at the same time as the Trademark Sega text is shown. Unnofficial developers such as bleem! (The commercial PSX emulator for DC) used this space to insert an image that basically says "-- Ignore that information right there, it's not true"
Scorta futuere amo!
Me and my cohorts at S+F Software are getting a game published via the Goat Store, if they can get the pressing details worked out. It's a addictive four player puzzle game called Inhabitants, also available on Lik-Sang
The nice thing about the DC is that it is quite easy to code for using open tools. The KallistOS library gives you easy access to the hardware. It even has a openGL library that does a decent job for simple 3d stuff, and a badass object oriented 2d library.
I can point you to many people.
dcemulation.com
dcemu uk
ConsoleVision
Boob
Sega vs. Accolade was settled out of court, so no legal precedent was set. However, you can infer from the fact that Sega gave Accolade very favorable licensing terms as part of the settlement, that Sega thought there was a good chance Accolade might win.
Hmm...console as computer or terminal eh? Well the "geeky allure" certainly has nothing to do with novelty, as the concept is far from new. Witness the following:
1. The Bally Astrocade console of 1978 was the first to explore the concept commercially, as one of it's "game" carts was the BASIC programming language and cassette interface.
2. Later in 1978 Magnavox (the producer of the first ever home console called Odyssey) introduced the successor Odyssey^2. Marketed head-to-head with the Atari 2600 as a console, it actually had an integrated keyboard. It wasn't really a computer (The Sinclair ZX81 came standard with EIGHT TIMES the memory of the O^2!) the idea was that adventure/strategy games could better use a keyboard than a joystick, and that expanding it to a computer would simply involve adding a RAM expansion pack.
3. It seems Mattel had intentions from the start to give the Intellivision a computer expansion option, and touted those intentions from the console's intro in 1979. However, they were late in delivering on their promises, and were eventually forced by the FTC to bring out the computer expansion or pay huge fines. They did comply--barely--by selling a few hundred in test markets, then pulled out. Eventually the introduced a newer, quite different design to a wider market, however the result was a major disappointment.
4. Atari beat both Bally and Magnavox to the colour console market with the 2600, but it was a bit later in exploting the computer expansion option. This was probably because they figured the entry-level micro market was served adequately by its Atari 400 offering. In the end the "Graduate" keyboard was never released.
5. Coleco was probably had the most success at turning their Colecovision console into a computer in terms of units produced (300K to 500K, although much of that stock never sold) and time on the market (nearly 1.5 years starting in 1983). This was probably more to do with Coleco selling the ADAM as a self contained computer alongside the "expansion module 3" that attached to an existing Colecovision--which sold in lower numbers. The ADAM in fact simply contained a slightly modified Colecovision and the logic board of the Expansion Module 3 in one case.
And that only covers until 1983. Nintendo Famicom and the Sony PS2 could also be made into a computer (with the manufacturer's blessing and products). There certainly is some appeal in being able to "tinker" and have the flexibility of a full-fledged computer, so why did none of these ideas really take off?
I'd have to say that both price and features had a great deal to do with it--the same reason the whole market crashed in 1984. With the exception of the Coleco products (which failed because of poor marketing/late delivery and poor quality control of its initial run) all these expanded consoles were lousy computers, and the combined cost of the console and expander was the same or more than a better entry-level micro. Why would you purchase an Atari 2600 and graduate if the Atari 400 by itself was a way better system that had great games already? Why buy an intellivision that you MIGHT be able to expand to a computer when you could get a VIC or a 400 or a Speccy that was already a computer for the same price? Not only that, but these computers all came with great games to boot.
I also find the "geeky allure" appealing, but I think the market is limited--in fact I think the drive to "tinker" with some of these devices is because the were commercial failures. Hardcore fans feel like they are abandoned by the company and band together for support and to get the most out of the system. Because the supply of orphaned sys
There is also a man porting the original Zelda for the NES to the dreamcast. Of course, all sprites and such had to be changed, because Nintendo found out about it (back when it was for PC only) and used the DMCA to force the creators to either drop it, or stop using their art. The link for today's project, Openlynks, is located here.
Are you telling me that you don't see the connection between government and laughing at people? - Interviewer