Or close, anyway, as long as the developer community still supports it. Here's some screens from a near-perfect adaptation of gameboy tetris I've been working on, which I hope to make multiplayer once Dan's programming libs support networking.
Fortunately, the homebrew development communities are more impressed by ideas-in-action than flat screenshots. Now if I can figure out how to add lens flares to this game, then I'm all set.;>
I was under the impression that most of Creative's hardware is rebranded hardware from third parties. Creative's PC-DVD Encore package is basically a rebranded Hitachi DVD drive, along with a rebranded Sigma Hollywood Plus card (Creative DXR3). Most DXR3 Windows 2000 users have had to use the Sigma H+ driver over the past year as Creative was unable to get a working W2K driver out of Sigma that they could rebrand as their own.
It may very well be that Creative knows absolutely nothing about the Nomad Jukebox except how to rebrand it and market it.
The "controller port" is the front panel of a Dreamcast mounted facing upwards.
Obviously it's a prototype, as advertised. Functionality comes first, then good looks.
The power supply board (toward the front of the case) has the power cable connector attached to it, which runs under the other board and out the back of the case.
Do you have any better ideas for getting power to the thing? (:
The "black thing" over the circuit board in the center of the unit is the standard GD-ROM drive mechanism.
Actually it's a heatsink covering the CPU and PowerVR (pic). The leads for where the GDROM drive would be, are going to the hard-drive looking apparatus at the front-left of the case. Coupled with the fact that it has what looks like an EPROM for the BIOS and two coax leads coming out of the back-left of the box, maybe this thing is exactly what they claim it is, a prototype of a box that lets you download games onto a hard drive and play them.
As someone who bought a DC on 9/9/99, I can safely say that the system was a good investment. I've had more fun with my DC than I've had with any previous consoles. Do yourself a favor, pick up a $99 Dreamcast along with Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, San Francisco Rush 2049, Sonic Adventure, and Soul Calibur.
Dreamcast built up a more impressive library in a year and a half than the N64 did in five years. Sega getting out of hardware is a good thing. Now their top-notch software development teams will be able to play to a much larger audience, and they won't be tied to the money-losing console half of the business.
It took them awhile, but Sega finally got it right. Let other companies eat the loss, you just sit back and rake in the profits.
I don't look at the Dreamcast as a failure. In my eyes, it's the most successful console to be released in a long time. The first console with a VGA adaptor, the first console to come with a modem, the first console with Ethernet connectivity. And the games were actually fun.
In a market that's driven primarily by hype, thank you, Sega, for daring to be different.
I'll believe it when that inventory is replenished.
Um, the inventory is replenished. In fact, it's over-replenished. Which is why it's a good idea to suspend production. Why crank out more units into your inventory than you ultimately plan to sell? There's still plenty of life left in this platform. And with any luck, SEGA will put all of their top-notch software development resources behind the leader of the next-next generation console war.
The method people are using to boot CDRs takes advantage of a backdoor in the DC's BIOS, which was probably overlooked when they decided to start shipping the consoles.
After you pop a disc into the DC, you can select "Play" from the console's main menu. If it's a real GDROM, the screen will go white with an accompanying chime sound, and the game will play. If it's a CDROM using the BIOS backdoor, the chime will sound, the screen will fade to black, the unit will do a soft reset, do its splash screen again, and then the game will play.
The DC can definitely differentiate between a legit game and a burned disc, and it'd be a snap for them to disable CDROM booting. If you've been following the dcdev list, a guy named John Byrd from sega has confirmed that they're crippling the newer units.
An employee of SEGA has commented on the dcdev mailing list on more than one occasion that the Dreamcast will be modified to disallow booting from CDRs in the very near future. This is to calm the licensed developers down after the whole piracy scare. In other words, get your CDR-capable DC while you still can. Besides, at US$150 you can't go wrong.
Beginning April 2, 2001, if you do not dial local calls using the Ten-number Number, you will get a recorded message instructing you how to correctly dial your calls.
And this is the message you're going to get, too:
"Due to a dialing change your call cannot be completed as dialed. You must first dial the area code, and then the number you wish to reach. *click*"
We've had 10 digit dialing in Maryland for years (thanks to Bell Titanic).. It's become a habit here to always mention the area code with any phone number. I had a friend that moved to a state that was still 7 digit and he kept giving out his new phone number with the area code there, and the locals looked at him like, "duh, we know the area code".
The people that most of this will be a PITA for are companies with hardware on-site that makes use of the telephone network. Credit card terminals that don't dial 800 numbers, security systems (!), ISPs with dialup users that can't connect, etc.
Any state that hasn't implemented 10 digit dialing should have done so, long ago.
So it is.. How hard would it be to tack on file searching extensions to something that's already out there, like IRC? True, it'd still be a central-server model, but everything else is already in place (DCC file transfers, chat, etc.). It's easy to network IRC servers together, and since all the file sharing mods would be client-side, you wouldn't have to modify the servers at all. In theory you'd even be able to run something like this over a public IRC net. Only problem to overcome is how the clients find each other.
Slashdot Mirror
A slashdot emulator has been out for ages.
http://douglas.min.net/~drw/msripv6-fnord-1.5.exe
If that were the case, both Chinese planes would have crashed and China would force the US to accept its spy plane back.
Or close, anyway, as long as the developer community still supports it. Here's some screens from a near-perfect adaptation of gameboy tetris I've been working on, which I hope to make multiplayer once Dan's programming libs support networking.
The game, I believe, is "Hard Drivin'" by Atari games.
By the way, here's a Random Dreamcast Lens-Flare that still manages to beat the pants off M$'s screenshot.
Connected to arcadeathome.efront.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.0
Referer: http://mamedk.cjb.net/
HTTP/1.1 302 Found
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 22:21:20 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.12
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.0.3pl1
Location: http://goatse.cx/
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Soon enough, from the looks of it..
Just in case you missed the the technobabble and catch phrases the first time around...
It may very well be that Creative knows absolutely nothing about the Nomad Jukebox except how to rebrand it and market it.
Obviously it's a prototype, as advertised. Functionality comes first, then good looks.
Do you have any better ideas for getting power to the thing? (:
Actually it's a heatsink covering the CPU and PowerVR (pic). The leads for where the GDROM drive would be, are going to the hard-drive looking apparatus at the front-left of the case. Coupled with the fact that it has what looks like an EPROM for the BIOS and two coax leads coming out of the back-left of the box, maybe this thing is exactly what they claim it is, a prototype of a box that lets you download games onto a hard drive and play them.
My Dreamcast has been on pretty much since I bought it (9-Sep-1999). I wish I could say the same about my PC.
IP ELF image loader
Kernel boot 1
Kernel boot 2
Wish I had more, but I don't have an NFS root for it just yet. (: The console is surprisingly legible for something running on a TV screen, though.
Dreamcast built up a more impressive library in a year and a half than the N64 did in five years. Sega getting out of hardware is a good thing. Now their top-notch software development teams will be able to play to a much larger audience, and they won't be tied to the money-losing console half of the business.
It took them awhile, but Sega finally got it right. Let other companies eat the loss, you just sit back and rake in the profits.
I don't look at the Dreamcast as a failure. In my eyes, it's the most successful console to be released in a long time. The first console with a VGA adaptor, the first console to come with a modem, the first console with Ethernet connectivity. And the games were actually fun.
In a market that's driven primarily by hype, thank you, Sega, for daring to be different.
And long live the Dreamcast.
Nerd
Jock
Um, the inventory is replenished. In fact, it's over-replenished. Which is why it's a good idea to suspend production. Why crank out more units into your inventory than you ultimately plan to sell? There's still plenty of life left in this platform. And with any luck, SEGA will put all of their top-notch software development resources behind the leader of the next-next generation console war.
Then you should download the JSR tag to end all tags.
NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA (DREAMCAST) #8: Fri Jul 14 01:42:14 JST 2000e vbsh3/compile/DREAMCAST
msaitoh@vslock.xxx.yyy:/var/sources/src/sys/arch/
total memory = 16384 KB
avail memory = 12988 KB
After you pop a disc into the DC, you can select "Play" from the console's main menu. If it's a real GDROM, the screen will go white with an accompanying chime sound, and the game will play. If it's a CDROM using the BIOS backdoor, the chime will sound, the screen will fade to black, the unit will do a soft reset, do its splash screen again, and then the game will play.
The DC can definitely differentiate between a legit game and a burned disc, and it'd be a snap for them to disable CDROM booting. If you've been following the dcdev list, a guy named John Byrd from sega has confirmed that they're crippling the newer units.
Microsoft BASIC Compiler - Note the misspelling of the word "genius" in the second column.
CompuServe Ad - I'll just let this one's headline speak for itself.
An employee of SEGA has commented on the dcdev mailing list on more than one occasion that the Dreamcast will be modified to disallow booting from CDRs in the very near future. This is to calm the licensed developers down after the whole piracy scare. In other words, get your CDR-capable DC while you still can. Besides, at US$150 you can't go wrong.
And this is the message you're going to get, too:
We've had 10 digit dialing in Maryland for years (thanks to Bell Titanic).. It's become a habit here to always mention the area code with any phone number. I had a friend that moved to a state that was still 7 digit and he kept giving out his new phone number with the area code there, and the locals looked at him like, "duh, we know the area code".
The people that most of this will be a PITA for are companies with hardware on-site that makes use of the telephone network. Credit card terminals that don't dial 800 numbers, security systems (!), ISPs with dialup users that can't connect, etc.
Any state that hasn't implemented 10 digit dialing should have done so, long ago.
So it is.. How hard would it be to tack on file searching extensions to something that's already out there, like IRC? True, it'd still be a central-server model, but everything else is already in place (DCC file transfers, chat, etc.). It's easy to network IRC servers together, and since all the file sharing mods would be client-side, you wouldn't have to modify the servers at all. In theory you'd even be able to run something like this over a public IRC net. Only problem to overcome is how the clients find each other.
Where would we be without it?
Here's the commercial they're airing in Maryland.