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SD Adapter For Dreamcast Released
YokimaSun writes "The Dreamcast was the last console by Sega that had innovations that today's consoles have taken on board, i.e. broadband online gaming and innovative gaming controllers (such as the fishing controller). The console still lives on today, thanks to the support of the homebrew community that still churns out games and emulators and also the odd commercial release for the console by independent developers. Today the spark has been ignited by the fascinating release of an SD adapter for the Dreamcast that allows homebrew games to be played without the need to burn to disc. It's time to dust off those Dreamcast consoles and get back into free gaming. The same company have also released a Dreamcast modified with VGA support and a front-loading SD slot and its own BIOS. Awesome to relive some of those Dreamcast classics."
I thought the Dreamcast had a dial up modem...
"The same company have also released a Dreamcast modified with VGA support"
The Dreamcast always has had VGA support.
Dreamcast VGA
Is SEGA allowed to go batshit insane and demand all these people to cease from manufacturing/distrubuting unofficial products? If so, that'd be sad, because it'd likely be a matter of time. On the other hand, the system officially "died" almost a decade ago, they should feel honored that there are die-hard fans not willing to let their last hardware product go to waste.
All glory to Arstotzka!
This is welcome news for any (like me) who have Dreamcasts that work perfectly but have malfunctioning GD-ROM drives. Hopefully someone picks it up for Western distribution.
This is very interesting news. I used to write homebrew for the Dreamcast but my poor unit broke down. Poor laser went bad. Never did get another one. If this pans out, I may need to pick up myself another unit. Always did love the Dreamcast.
The dreamcast was the first system that really got me into the homebrew scene. During the days of locked down dev kits, running my own code on a console had a surreal appeal to it. The idea of an SD brings up nostalgic feelings, but its a bit too late. Alternatives such as XNA mean that I don't have to worry about such an archaic system in order to run code on a console!
Especially since the drives on the DC are notorious for breaking after a year or 2. Well ok, you can fix it by popping the DC open and adjusting the laser in the drive but at least in my case I've had to do it repeatedly.
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
9-9-99 was an awesome date. I got a Dreamcast for my Birthday. I could browse the web on my Dreamcast faster than on my Pentium 2 PC. And there were plenty of awesome online multiplayer games. VMUs were awesome too. I'm surprised we don't see mini LCD screens on xbox controllers yet.
I also had a third party VGA adapter. The dreamcast supports a true VGA 480p signal which was awesome for it's time. Almost every game supported it too.
There was also the Treamcast. Which was a 3rd party dreamcast with a flip up LCD screen, basically the same thing that guy does with the 360 laptop mods.
The Dreamcast actually had a ton of quality top notch games I still play it once and a while.
I still play it once and a while.
http://eliteownage.com/cc2.png
These are two free online games that I play regularly. Since Q3A was done on the DC, perhaps these games could be ported with the open-source engine and all. Still, DC's 16 MB RAM is a major limitation. Additionally, there's really no logical/technical reason to do this. I can get Urban Terror/Tremulous-capable PCs for free.
FWIW the SD card modification was invented back in 2008 by a Japanese guy here:
http://f17.aaa.livedoor.jp/~takotako/dcserial_ft232bm.php#sdcard
It's an internal mod as the serial port connector is very hard to come by. All this company did was make an external version and package it with (I'm assuming) a CD-R packed with emulators and ROMs without the respective author's permission.
It's a cool product, but it would have been cooler if the original guy who did the hardware hack (and the emulator authors who are getting ripped off) could somehow have been compensated for their hard work which made this product possible.
I know I'm dreaming, console products out of China are all rip-offs so they have zero R&D expenses.
This is based off a free mod from this site
I still think the Dreamcast controllers were the worst ever produced. Worse than the GameCube controllers, and worse than the N64 controllers.
But more to the point, I don't know what the minimum reliable specs are for emulators in the popular desktop OSes, but I bet it doesn't take much to run Dreamcast games. Why go to all the trouble of hardware hacks and improvements on technology that is that old? There are better ways.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
"...that allows homebrew games to be played without the need to burn to disc" Was this really a big problem? Burning discs?
Enough said.
I agree about the controllers, they were like slightly less retarded Saturn 3D controllers that did not work well either, and the cord facing the player was 110% retarded, even with the after thought "groove" ... 2 shakes and its loose
the VMU was a great idea, but it was expensive for the time and very under utilized, in 1999 I had 1 VMU and another 3rd party just memory stick and never noticed the difference
add in extra cost for rumble packs (years after sony had them standard), 2 buttons less than last gen's Sony controllers, and short cords, the control system did suck
though I will admit they did have that good feel and response, it would be like packaging a fine sports car around a frame of shit, and charging extra for the 8 inch fart muffler
Toy Commander.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
you need to burn the homebrew to a boot disk, which isn't just an ordinary disk image. And you just didn't add a bunch of files and burn it to a standard format, if I remember correctly you had to run the files you wanted to a converter to create a disk image that you burned. And if you forgot a game or two that you wish to add, you have to start all over again.
I still think the Dreamcast controllers were the worst ever produced. Worse than the GameCube controllers, and worse than the N64 controllers.
Why? None of those is perfect, but they're not too bad either. The Playstation's controller, on the other hand, is a complete, intolerable piece of junk.
Circumcision is child abuse.
It cheers me to see the system living on so long after its official death.
I know I'll get downmodded for this by someone, but hopefully, calmer heads can even the odds. I actually LIKED the Dreamcast controller, as it was quite comfortable for me to use, and honestly seemed to make sense to me, overall. It was actually better than the stock controller for the original XBox, in my opinion, although Madcats made a smaller XBox controller that was much better by comparison. Gamecube controllers were about equal for my taste, and the God-awful abomination that was the N64 controller was, bar none, absolutely the WORST controller I have ever had the misfortune of having inflicted upon me during my entire gaming history, which, incidentally, goes as far back as Telstar's Pong console, which was, itself, pretty awful. If there was anything that could have been added/ changed on the Dreamcast controller to improve it, I would've suggested a) making the stock controller wireless with rechargeable batteries built in (like the Sixaxis for the PS3), and b) adding two additional shoulder buttons just above the trigger buttons. Maybe skewing the 4-button diagonal array on the right hand side clockwise by about 5 degrees would have been nice, but not really necessary, and moving the analog stick to the right and up ever so slightly would have made it ideal for me.
As for the VMU? Just seemed like a waste of an LCD screen to me, a simple memory card would have done the job just as well for a whole lot less, and the concept of playing minigames on the VMU just seemed utterly pointless and idiotic to me. Of course, my VMU never did function as anything other than a memory card for me, the other functions seemed non functional, perhaps I had a defective unit?
Wow, you young pikers never had to deal with Atari 5200 controllers hmm? Now THOSE were fragile. :p
Never had an Atari 5200, but I DID have an Atari 2600 back in the day. Uncomfortable, true, but the N64 controller still beat it out as a torture device, in my opinion.
I had an Atari 2600, but I don't think its successors and most of its rivals made a dent here in Brazil, if they were released at all. I recall the market at the time was something like... 80% the 2600, 5% the Odyssey 2, perhaps 5% other consoles, and 10% home computers (including Apple II, TRS-80, MSX). Then again, that's some distant memories from a child's perception, and we were not particularly well-off, so I might have completely missed the "high end" part of the market.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Soulcalibur. Heck the console, game, and arcade stick probably cost me less than the arcade game had taken from me in quarters =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Agreed - controllers were crap. They curved back/inwards. To effectively hold them, you had to inflict wrist strain upon yourself. Possibly a design feature to prevent people from wasting their lives away on PSO, but well, it didn't work. :P/in
Yeah, the playstation controller was so bad, the public outcry forced Sony to redesign it like a dozen times over the past decade and a half.
Wait what? You mean the controller hasn't fundamentally changed in over a decade and half? Oh huh...
Sony bashing is fun, and pretty much always well deserved, but saying the playstation controller is worse than a controller that had not one, not two, but three different ways of holding it, depending on which buttons you wanted to use, is just stupid.
I don't own or use any of them, but even I can see that.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
"The Playstation's controller, on the other hand, is a complete, intolerable piece of junk."
Only if you have tiny woman hands. In the meantime, there's no other controller that works with my hands in such a proper ergonomic fashion.
Try your assertion when you've got hands that can swallow a basketball. Even the 360 controllers and old XBox controllers were more of a pain on my hands.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
It's Brazil, you miss the high end of everything until maybe two years later, unless you pay an exorbitantly high price to have it in your hands at that moment.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
"To effectively hold them, you had to inflict wrist strain upon yourself."
What kind of fucked-up wrists do you have that can't bend 13 degrees inwards? I've got shattered rebuilt wrists and I can *EASILY* hold the controller. Typical humans have a 30 degree inwards bend without needing rotation.
Were you born defective?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yeah, homebrew classics like Soul Calibur, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis & Tennis 2K2, Skies of Arcadia, Power Stone & Power Stone 2, Sonic Adventure & Sonic Adventure 2, Samba De Amigo, Virtua Fighter 3TB, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, Chu Chu Rocket!, Phantasy Star Online, Street Fighter 3:Third Strike and other Fighters, Ikaruga and other Shmups. Oh wait, those are all commercial games. If you had them already, why would you take the time to transfer them to SD, when you could just put the disc in and play immediately?
Sega has done it right only once. The six-button controller for the Megadrive (Genesis) was the best I ever played with.
Worse than the GameCube controllers, and worse than the N64 controllers.
That wasn't hard to do, both those controllers were at the top of their respective generations.
Why go to all the trouble of hardware hacks and improvements on technology that is that old? There are better ways.
The best way is to use the hardware that the software natively runs on. The specs of the machine aren't what makes an emulator 'reliable'. You should try playing with MAME and 90's video games a bit and you'll be a much better judge of what the 'better ways' are.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Sony bashing is fun, and pretty much always well deserved, but saying the playstation controller is worse than a controller that had not one, not two, but three different ways of holding it, depending on which buttons you wanted to use, is just stupid.
I don't own or use any of them...
*Smirk*
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Notice I did not say I have not "used" them, my wording was deliberately present-tense. I'm familiar with playing games on all of them, but lack the bias rabid console fanbois have.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Wow, that site's nerd paradise.
Thanks for the link!
Truth arises more readily from error than from confusion. -Francis Bacon
I still think the Dreamcast controllers were the worst ever produced.
I generally agree, but...
Worse than the GameCube controllers
So? Most controllers are, including every revision of the dual shock.
I have giant hands and I can't stand the playstation controller(s) for 3D games. It's okay for 2D games, but they really need to put the left analog stick in the proper location like Microsoft does.
Why go to all the trouble of hardware hacks and improvements on technology that is that old?
Because it's a console. Advantages of consoles over PCs include SDTV output as a standard feature, a guaranteed minimum performance level of the hardware, and a culture of actually using the two to four controller ports for local multiplayer gaming. The Dreamcast just lacks the disadvantage of a lockout chip.
Try your assertion when you've got hands that can swallow a basketball. Even the 360 controllers and old XBox controllers were more of a pain on my hands.
It's not about size, my hands are plenty big (I can palm basketballs too) and the Playstation controller makes my right thumb hurt. My thumb literally started to hurt when I thought about how wrong you were, although that may just be constant pain from using Dual Shock controllers that I've mentally suppressed.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The best way is to use the hardware that the software natively runs on. The specs of the machine aren't what makes an emulator 'reliable'. You should try playing with MAME and 90's video games a bit and you'll be a much better judge of what the 'better ways' are.
Indeed, I had the processing power back in the late 90's to run most arcade stuff from the early 90's using MAME and a PIII 500, yet even now, over a decade later and with a Quad core PC with four times more RAM than my PC back then had hard drive space, there are plenty of ROMs that are unstable. Native hardware is always the best option. Plus, if you're into retro-gaming, there's a lot of kudos to playing on the actual console, like owning an old Pacman or Space Invaders arcade machine even though you've been able to trivially emulate them on everything from computers to watches for decades.
I'm curious, cos I see this happen loads on /., but just above your post there's an AC post with a link to the same website (admittedly you provided a google translate URL for it). Were you reposting the link for karma or did you already know above that site and it was just coincidence that the two posts linking to that site happened to follow each other?
the wii is easiest to hack
Unlike Dreamcast, Wii has "renewable security", tech-speak for updatable firmware that allows for a game of cat-and-mouse. During the month between 4.0 and Bannerbomb, there wasn't an exploit for the Wii. During the two months between 4.3 and Yu-Gi-Vah, there wasn't an exploit for the Japanese Wii because it didn't have LEGO Indy. Renewable security rules out making commercial releases using homebrew exploits, such as Feet of Fury (Dreamcast). Developers not yet big enough for a traditional business structure with an office get shut out of commercial releases on Wii entirely unless they happen to be friends with someone who manages a coffee shop (like 2D Boy).
Wow, that's pretty nice of them to send someone over with the parts and time to install it. Oh sorry, I thought you said free...
Well, I own and use a PS3 controller and I, quite frankly, like it... though I wish there was a controller kind of like the 360, but with the joysticks in the right place (both on the outside with the buttons toward the center)
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
bring your forearms inward, as if to hold a controller.
You're doing it wrong.
Yeah that Google thing is quite awesome ;)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
saying the playstation controller is worse than a controller that had not one, not two, but three different ways of holding it, depending on which buttons you wanted to use, is just stupid.
And none of those ways to hold the N64 cramp my hands as bad as the only way to hold a PSX controller.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I've got nice big hands, and the PSX controller sucks. I liked it at first, but the more I use it the more it cramps my hands. It's essentially an SNES controller with handles hanging off. But the handles mean I can't rest the controller on my fingers like I used to, I have to grasp the handles. I've tried not grasping the handles, it requires sustained concentration, not natural at all. Problem is, the handles on the PSX controller are thin and straight. So I end up really curling my fingers around it, cramps right up.
The Logitech Dual-Action, now there's a nice controller. See the nice big grips, those fill up all the space in my palms. I can play forever with that thing. It has an actual d-pad too. It's superior to the PSX controller in every way but one, the square holes around the analog sticks. I mean, wtf.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Does this mean my Dreamcast is worth its weight in chocolate coins? Let's start the bidding at one hundred. One hundred chocolate coins.
The two main design flaws on the dualshock (PS analogue pad) are the excessive height of the thumbstick (which leads to a longer throw) and the stick resistance is too low, which makes it hard to place accurately anywhere except on the edge. Also, the shape of the controller makes it very prescriptive about wrist angles, which I find means forward on the sticks actually feels like forward and outwards.
Of course, in reality away from fanboy-land, it's all a matter of personal taste. But there are a lot of us out there that find the PS joypads less comfortable than any of the other options. My own rating would be Xbox360->N64->Wii Nunchuck->XBox Contoller S->DC->DualShock. I've not used the PS3 Batarang, so can't place it (although purely aesthetically it would be at the bottom, below even classic NES)
Because of the VGA box which provides excellent color separation and 480p, the Dreamcast actually looks very good on modern HDTVs. If your HDTV doesn't have a VGA input, you can pair it with a VGA to HDMI adapter from Monoprice. I have the DC hooked up to my 42 inch plasma for an occasional game over Power Stone 2 or Crazy Taxi.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
I had two different third-party memory cards end up corrupted, loosing all my data on them. I figured it was just a fluke the first time, but after the second card did the same thing, I packed them away and only used my VMUs from then on.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Yes, yes, we know your time is too important to do anything that might be considered fun. Now, get back to work slaving away for your employer!
I would have to agree Atari 5200 controllers ranked right up there with Intellivision controllers, those things died all the time.
I'd be happy to do it if I got the parts for free.
I honestly hadn't realized that this system still had a dev community. I have a Dreamcast dev kit and some original blanks gathering dust in my garage, perhaps it's time I passed them on to someone who will actually use them.
Because it's fun?
Compact Flash card for Apple IIs: http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php
(I have no connection, though a friend has written some of the drivers)
In two player NFL games, it was priceless. Being able to call plays without your opponent being able to see what small group of plays you were selecting from was THE BEST. Other games have tried to implement various ways to obfuscate what play was being selected, but I've never seen one that was as easy to use as the VMU on the DC.
FWIW, I believe you could also get a card that went in the same slot as the VMU, without the LCD. I.E, a plain memory card.
Looks like it's time to drag the DC back out of the closet for some retro-fun.
file:
You can write commercial software for pc, so why aren't you?
Because the multiplayer mode in the style of game that I plan to develop demands a monitor that is physically larger than the 13" in a typical laptop. Player 1 is using a keyboard or a gamepad, and players 2 through 4 are using gamepads. But as CronoCloud has repeatedly pointed out, only geeks have devices connected to their televisions that aren't locked down.
for some reason you want to code for a console that is not just for your own amusement, if it's a job take it seriously and go through proper channels it's what they're used for.
But the proper channels don't want me unless I have a dedicated office and a previous published title on another platform. I acknowledge that homebrew is good for a project that starts as a hobby and ends as a hobby. Back when I was in the homebrew scene, it was a hobby, and I liked it. Likewise, licensed console game development is good for a project that starts as an established business and ends as an established business. So how should I turn my hobby into a business? Are companies expected to make a game that relies on Internet play before they make a game that relies on local multiplayer?
I find it very odd you can have such a commercial centric view with seemingly not enough passion to do it for the love of it and yet still actually care about it.
Passion carried me through college. But eventually, I have to eat.