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News Archive: February 2001

Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Saturn-cast Posted by CyRUS64 @ 13:02
Saturn-cast, a Sega Saturn emulator for the Sega dreamcast, seems to be making great progress and a new website has been opened. The emulator is already apparatently playing Nights at good speed. Although some may think this highly unlikely since pc saturn emus only run at about 4fps on p3-800, since the dreamcast uses an Sh4 cpu, the saturn sh2 cpu takes little emulation work, since the sh4 can run native sh2 code!

You can view the saturn-cast website here.

ngine-snes9x Posted by CyRUS64 @ 12:59
Tubooboo has announced the expected feature-list for his next release of ngine-snes9x. (version 0.40)
Here is what will be included/fixed:

Crash Bug (impacted 40% of all games that reset the DC after a few minutes) is fixed.
Preferences support! Save your favourite display mode and joypad config to the VMU and have it auto load these settings again when you load ngine.
SNES game display now (finally) correctly centered.
SNES game saving / loading :-D
Loading of splitted ROM images now works
Full VMU control for the keyboard users (delete etc)
(maybe) a VMU file editor

Tuesday, February 27, 2001

EBDemo fix... Posted by TheGypsy @ 3:42
Minor update: Pepsis fixed his EBDemo to include the startup image that was missing from his original release last week. Details are at his page. I've also updated the local copy.

- John...

Sunday, February 25, 2001

dcload v1.0.2d released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 6:19
Those of you using Andrewk's dctool/dcload serial tool with WinNT/Win2000 are probably well aware of the "locks up after the first block" bug. I reported this a while ago and came up with a workaround (sending a nonexistant file to force the port open and the server into "idle..." mode before the actual/real send). In any case, after discussing this a couple of times with andrewk, he located the problem and has corrected it in dcload v1.0.2d. For non-WinNT/Win2000 users, there are no other changes in this release. Note that the change is in the server side so you'll have to burn a new slave disc to use it -- the client side has not changed. You can get the source as well as precompiled 1st_read.bin files from Andrewk's page as well as from the local copy in the Tools Section.

- John...

Thursday, February 22, 2001

Pepsis' EBDemo... Posted by TheGypsy @ 14:13
Pepsis' demo download page was down for a bit, so I put a local copy of his EBDemo in the Tools Section. Basically, the demo just bounces an image (of the Electronics Boutique logo?!?) around the screen -- or you can move it manually with a controller's D-pad. Nothing great, of course, but I guess it is better than just sitting around asking about DivX and emulators like most of the so-called coders lately...

Oh, and to answer some questions that Stalin's original post about it raised... The gzipped tar file of the demo contains the source as well as a precompiled .bin for downloading to the DC (via serial or ip slave) like most other DC "demos."

- John...

New Demo Posted by Stalin @ 4:16
Pepsis has released a demo. I am not all together sure what it is at the moment or if the included bin (NOT a cdrwin file) is a burnable executable or not because my dreamcast is packed up due to taking it places on the weekends and not having time to hook it up during the week. But if you know how to compile source for the Dreamcast then you should be good to go (don't ask me if you don't know). Anyway here it is: http://dcview.cjb.net/

Wednesday, February 21, 2001

NesterDC Posted by CyRUS64 @ 15:05
NesterDC is a port of Nester Public Beta 3 by Ken Friece and has been developed using Libdream 0.95. It is supposed to have good speed, 2 player support and sound, although the sound has been disabled in this release due to some issues.

Visit the NesterDC website for more information and to download a copy!

On another note, i've had no personal internet connection for the last few days due to having to reformat my computer a couple of times. All is now working well though.

Also a Nintendo64 emulator for the Dreamcast called Dream64 has been announced, although it is nothing to do with the PC Emulator Dream64. (The dreamcast authors refuse to change the name however)
They talk about being able to play Zelda, but this of course will not ever be possible. However at most they can expect to play demos and perhaps some 64mbit games such as Mario 64. I wish them good luck but they as many others have done in the past have announced a project without actually having achieved anything - why not get a demo running and then pronounce your success! They have also announced a Playstation emulator for the X-box and a playstation emulator for the dc aswell. I hope they have a lot of time available...

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

dcload-ip v1.0.0 Released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 14:09
AndrewK, author of what I think is currently the best serial loader for the DC, has released an ethernet/IP version of his excellent dcload tool! dcload-ip includes the original dcload's console/fileserver support. You can check it out at AndrewK's dcload-ip page. Local copies are available in Boob's Tools Section.

- John...

Thursday, February 15, 2001

KamKa releases Particle Demo w/ source... Posted by TheGypsy @ 21:30
KamKa has released a new demo with source. It is an interesting particle-sprayer demo that uses KallistiOS. At his site he has a zip with a ready-to-run ELF w/ KallistiOS integrated already (for those that just want to see it) as well as a zip of the sourcecode w/ a userland binary. I've put local copies of both in the Tools Section.

Note that I missed announcing KamKa's modification of Dan Potter's tatest. He added data for a sphere just for fun. I've put that in the Tools Section also just to keep it handy.

- John...

Downtime... Posted by TheGypsy @ 5:39
As you have likely noticed, the site was down (again) -- for about 30 hours. I was a little slow to install a couple security updates last month and some script kiddie decided to crack root on the machine. He then installed a Linux module backdoor. I happened to update the kernel recently -- and the new kernel did not agree well with his backdoor module. This created all kinds of crazy issues -- including trashing large portions of the disk. I had to reinstall from scratch... In any case, I believe that things are back up and running properly again. Hopefully.

- John...

Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Dreamer! Posted by CyRUS64 @ 22:31
Dreamer can now play commercial games! This time its not april fool's day and the game is (predictably) Namco Museum but still this is a great achievement, and it a good dreamcast emulator could be great news for developers...

You can see screenshots of Dreamer in action here.

Monday, February 12, 2001

Server down... Posted by TheGypsy @ 15:33
Boob's hosting server was temporarily down for about 20 hours over the weekend. Things are back up and working properly now...

- John...

Friday, February 9, 2001

bleemcast! Woes Posted by Stalin @ 15:51
It seems that an employee which has left bleem, inc. has decided to write a letter to the public concerning what is going on with that company and their two products bleem! and bleemcast!. You can read the letter at http://www.psxemu.com/.

Thursday, February 8, 2001

Win32 IP Uploader client released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 20:44
Guess I missed this one a couple days ago. Brian Peek (of Ganksoft) has released a Win32 client for uploading to Marcus' new IP Slave. It also has serial support built in -- so that you can get your serial output without leaving your loader. Good stuff. Get it from Ganksoft or, as usual, our local copy in the Tools section.

"Plasma" demo released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 19:40
Brian Baird has released a simple "plasma" demo for the DC. Nothing major, by his own admission, but his first project and he's included the full source for those looking to learn themselves -- so I feel it appropriate to mention here. Check out his DC Dev page or grab it from our local copy in the Tools section.

- John...

Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Hi Posted by CyRUS64 @ 14:41
Sorry that i've been a bit quiet over the last few days but I have a Maple Computer project to finish for next week... (anyone who is good at maple email me!)
Anyhow TheGypsy and Stalin have been doing a great job on updating the news and do check out the now very useful Tools section by TheGypsy!

Tubooboo has updated his site with this news:

"Heya,
so, I finally made it, I moved into the new flat and have my computing equipment back up :). Just a brief update because I am very very busy... I (think I) fixed the crash bug in ngine snes9x, amongst a few other things I tried yesterday night. Also a bit of progress on my generator port has been made. More on these as it breaks. A new version of ngine-snes9x will be distributed to some beta testers shortly. Also, expect a beta of ngine-generator (aka nginesis) soon.
tubooboo"

Sounds cool, and I look forward to the first LEGAL genesis emulator release on the Dreamcast! (please stop emailing me about any ILLEGAL genesis emulators which are blatantly concerned with dc warez and not interesting dc development - personally i dont approve of taking illegal isos and altering their contents whether they be Quake or the Sega Smash Pack)

DemoMenu v1.4 Beta 0 Released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 13:19
Grendel has released version "1.4 Beta 0" of his DC Demoloader application. It is used for having multiple bins on one disc -- you use his app to select which one to execute. It also has a built-in S3M player. You can grab it from Grendel's DC Dev Site or a local copy is in the Tools section here.

- John...

Tuesday, February 6, 2001

Flash Internet Settings Adjuster... Posted by TheGypsy @ 20:14
Marcus has released an application called the "Flash Internet Settings Adjuster." It is used to edit the ISP configuration parameters that are stored in your DC's Flash memory. This can be useful for modifying certain settings that are not available to edit by some browsers (such as DreamKey). Note that this for modifying the modem parameters only -- it cannot be used to modify the BBA settings! You can grab it from Marcus' page or, as usual, we have a local copy in the Tools section.

- John...

Monday, February 5, 2001

EA Posted by CyRUS64 @ 15:36
Sega have rather coolly responded to Electronic Arts' taunts:

"Quite how having 40 years of electronic entertainment experience amounts to 'starting from scratch' escapes us, but at least it shows how the notorious arrogance of EA (predominantly based as it is around the continued and baffling success of lukewarm sports titles, bolstered by bland celebrity endorsements and endless streams of identikit follow-ups) was something the DC was probably better without anyway."

KallistiOS 0.80 Released! Posted by TheGypsy @ 13:53
Dan Potter (a.k.a. DAN THE MAN) has just released v0.80 of his KallistiOS operating system. This should make many developers happy, of course. Most of the changes are bug fixes to previous versions including some TA fixes, thread locking changes, and some various VGA cleanup fixes. Dan has also changed the licensing terms to full BSD-style instead of GPL. You can check it all out at Dan's Cryptic Allusion site.

- John...

Sunday, February 4, 2001

Unofficial Dreamcast Technical Manual Posted by Stalin @ 21:41
The folks over at http://www.dreamcastlinux.org have compiled a Dreamcast technical manual from all the various Dreamcast development sites. You can view the online version here. I spose while I am not doing anything (like homework) I will put some more links on the links page.

Saturday, February 3, 2001

DC Uploader Updated Posted by Stalin @ 20:29
Kamka has released a new version of his DC Uploader. It now supports the IP Slave as well as the Serial Slave. "Also another cool feature is that you can send data via the serial at the same time so you can still get your debug info." Get it at http://www.barcode-search.com/kamka.htm.

Script For The Lazy Posted by Stalin @ 19:41
I meant to post this a while back. Grendel has written an sh script to get, unpack, and then build the elf/arm toolset for linux. It needs to be modified a little to include g++ but thats not complicated. Anyway you can get it at http://dcgrendel.8k.com.

Broadband Adapter source code... Posted by TheGypsy @ 1:02
Dan Potter has released some preliminary BBA source. It is really pretty basic right now -- but it is a start for those looking to do their own coding for the device. He hopes to have full support in KOS soon. Until then, you can grab his early source from the Cryptic Allusion site. Dan also stated that he hopes to have v0.80 of KOS available very soon. A significant change is that starting with v0.80, KOS will fall under a BSD-style license instead of the current GPL. This will help with some people porting various things that didn't quite mesh well with the GPL license.

- John...

Thursday, February 1, 2001

Marcus' IP Slave v1.002 Released Posted by TheGypsy @ 13:36
Marcus has released a new version of his IP Serial Slave which supports using your Quake3 IP settings -- making things slightly easier for some people. It also now properly handles programs that exit and return to the slave. You can grab it from Marcus' IP upload slave page.

- John...