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News Archive: January 2001

Wednesday, January 31, 2001

Vorlem released (VMU Save Utility) Posted by TheGypsy @ 20:04
Obsidian has released their first DC application: a VMU save/restore utility written by CrowTRobo that uses the serial cable for transfers. I've just done some quick testing and it seems to work fine. You can pick any gamesave on any of your connected VMUs/memcards and transfer it to your box via the serial cable. You can also upload any standard VMS/VMI files to the VMU. For those that don't realize it, this is the app that LikSang is always mentioning "will be available soon" for manipulating your VMU files using the serial cable. Check it out at Obsidian's site.

- John...

P.S. Thanks to HYJiNX10 for bringing this new app to my attention!

Unrelated stuff... Posted by CyRUS64 @ 18:15
I'd just like to send my regards to BWB from emuhq.com who has sadly decided to quit running the site at the end of the month. Emuhq was one of the original emu sites that got me interested in emulation and it will be sad to see a great figure in the scene departing!

On another note, although i'm busy with work and leisure at the moment, I have progressed slightly with Boob! Installer. I'll try and get some pics / a working version out soon...

Also Sega of Japan have basically announced that they are giving up on the dc... i hope SOA and SOE don't act so brashly. SOJ have announced Virtua Fighter 4 and Space Channel 5 for the Playstation 2 and Sonic games for Playstation and Gameboy :-(
In my opinion the PS2 will be a success but not necessarily for individual companies other than perhaps Sony and EA. There are just too many games being made for it and not enough money to be made out of it... it also will have a far shorter life-time than the PSX and will be superseded by the X-box.
Teaming up with Microsoft to develop solely for the X-box (they are developing for it also) would have been a better idea.
Incorporation of Dreamcast technology into Pace set-top boxes is also a good idea but do we really need Sega to also develop Java and other *shit* games for Mobile phones / pdas.
What is most annoying out of all of this, is that Sega of Japan said they would be developing JUST 30 games for the dc this year???

UPDATE: sorry, i didnt realize TheGypsy had made a post about it already... but wtf is going on with the article from CNN. PS2 internet-enabled? and Sega having no chance because of faster machines from Nintendo and Sony. As far as i know Nintendo has no such machine in public release at the moment... the Dreamcast is a bloody good console and it really pisses me off to see ignorant reporters get their facts wrong. And why get a quote from EA who try and compare Sega coding for the PS2 to GM making BMWs. Sega make the best games and thats a fact.

The Dreamcast is dead! Long live the Dreamcast! Posted by TheGypsy @ 16:30
Well, it looks like most of the "rumors" from earlier are turning out to be true. Sega has officially killed the Dreamcast hardware. They plan to sell off the existing stock by dropping the retail price to $99.85 as of 04-Feb-2001. They have stated that they will continue to support the hardware, including releasing new games for the platform, at least through the 2001 year. Sega will continue as a software company developing titles for consoles such as the PlayStation 2, GameBoy Advance, XBox, and probably others. They even confirmed a few upcoming titles:

For PS2: Virtua Fighter 4 (Fall 2001), Space Channel 5 (Late 2001), Crazy Taxi (April 2001), 18 Wheel American Pro Trucker (April 2001), and Zombie Revenge (April 2001).

For GameBoy Advance: Sonic the Hedgehog Advance, Chu Chu Rocket!, and Puyo Puyo.

For Dreamcast: Sega reconfirmed that there are over 30 titles for the Dreamcast still coming during 2001.

Oh well... I think that many of us already knew that it was coming -- long before any of the rumors started floating around this month. It has simply become official. Now run out and catch those Dreamcast discount deals! :)

- John...

P.S. See related articles:
At CNN.
At IGN.

My Broadband/LAN Adapter finally arrived... Posted by TheGypsy @ 0:48
Well, my LAN Adapter finally arrived today. Some sort of "problem" at Sega caused some orders placed on the first day to not go out when they actually started shipping. A bunch of them (including mine) stayed in "Pending" status instead of being processed -- and no one seems to know why. Oh well... In any case, I do finally have it. I don't have time to do a bunch of testing -- but just for fun I quickly plugged it into my home LAN (consisting of a couple Win2000 machines right now -- one running Internet Connection Sharing). I started up Quake 3, configured just a DNS server, and gave it a go -- it worked great on the first try -- found a few hundred Quake 3 servers and started playing within about 2 minutes of plugging the thing in.

In any case, I'm happy that it behaved exactly as I expected -- it was a nice surprise to have it work properly on the first try after how unlucky I was at just trying to get the thing to me in the first place...

More details as I have more time to mess with it...

- John...

Monday, January 29, 2001

Sega Press release... Posted by CyRUS64 @ 19:09
An interesting press release has been sent out by Sega. You can read it here, but i'm still slightly weary of how long it would take to download Skies of Arcadia via Satellite!
However I do think that they have FINALLY grasped a good business concept, and decided to enter a field which is currently completely empty, and some might say will remain so, but I for one see the advantages of an all-in-one home entertainment system. It may not appeal to the hardcore gamer, demanding the most powerful console on the market, but it will appeal to the general masses... hopefully it will succeed and sega will be THE leading network game service provider!

Hugo for Dreamcast Posted by CyRUS64 @ 15:07
Some news regarding the current status of the Dreamcast Port of Hugo was posted at the Hugo website today.
Here is the latest news from the author of Hugo:

"About the DC port ... hmm, I hadn't news from the DC coder recently and seen the current instability around this console, I don't know how things will finish. Personaly, I still agree to help porting Hu-Go! to DC (if still doable) but I don't know how interesting a pc engine emu could be for DC users..."

Thanks to warspawn for the news!

Sunday, January 28, 2001

bleem!cast Posted by CyRUS64 @ 22:31
psxemu.com received an email today from Sean Kauppinen, PR manager of bleem!, which states the problems they are facing (but avoiding) with the upcoming release of bleem!

They state some wise words in particular when it comes to the sad world of Dreamcast Piracy, and it is especially pleasing that they will be releasing a *hopefully* great product to the 6million dc owners, of whom the majority dont PIRATE games, out there...

Here is the email in full:

"The good news is, there are something like 6 million Dreamcast consoles out there that will be able to play bleemcast! with no problems. The bad news is, (for the time being at least) bleemcast! will only run on those machines, until we can figure something out for the new units.

However, we anticipated this change when we first heard about the system being cracked and our projections have been based on the installed base of MIL-CD compatible Dreamcasts, so it doesn't affect our product plans in the slightest. And now that the new machines have hit the streets, we're looking to see if there's a way to make bleemcast! work without putting the platform at risk by exposing another backdoor for the pirates to exploit. In the meantime, we'll do what we can to help potential customers determine whether bleemcast! will work with their DC.

Frankly, we can't blame Sega for killing support for the MIL-CD format, given the explosion in piracy in recent months. It's a pity that the information was put out there so irresponsibly and so much piracy has sprung up so quickly - Sega made a great console at a great price, and offers some of the most creative and innovative content out there. What's sad is that many of the same people who steal Dreamcast games will also be the first to bash Sega if they drop out of the market because they can't make any money."

New Emu Posted by CyRUS64 @ 16:00
I got this email from a guy called jerry today:

"hey cyrus cool site just to let you know im working on a new emu its a mastersystem emu called dreammaster we are still in the early stages but we hope to have it up and running by the end of may but the summer is our beta we should have a site up soon with some screens later"

Shame about his use of punctuation, :-) , but the emu sounds cool and we should hear more about its progress soon!

broken links.. Posted by CyRUS64 @ 15:57
there are some broken links on the site still, so feel free to email me any you come across and ill try and fix them asap.
however if you want to access that link anyway just replace http://www.boob.thegypsy.com with http://boob.thegypsy.com in the url of the link, but id appreciate an email about any problems!

Friday, January 26, 2001

Boob! Installer Posted by CyRUS64 @ 16:22
Boob! Installer is progressing nicely and its at the stage where it is almost fully working for Boob!boy. Eventually it will support a large number of different dc software ranging from DCMP3 player to ngine-snes9x...
At the moment you can already download the latest version of Boob!boy through the software (proxy support not yet included), select any games you would like to include, and it will then output a discjuggler self-boot image for you to burn!
I'll try and get a screenshot or two tomorrow and i might even have a Boob!boy only release in a few days...

Thursday, January 25, 2001

Demo/Experiments from MaxDamage... Posted by TheGypsy @ 22:10
MaxDamage/molei has some libdream samples/demos/experiments that he did available for download -- including source code. They basically put up some polys on the screen and allow you to move them around. Decent sample code to check out for those learning, in any case. You can grab them here:
flower.srec - flower.c
second_experiment.srec - second_experiment.c

- John...

Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Marcus releases IP upload slave! Posted by TheGypsy @ 17:29
Marcus Comstedt has just released an IP Upload Slave to replace his old Serial Slave for those of us with LAN/Broadband Adapters! Once run, you just open up a connection to port 4711 on the Dreamcast and dump out an ELF binary for execution. Great stuff from Marcus once again! Check it all out at his site.

- John...

Is this what Sega is planning? Posted by CyRUS64 @ 15:11
This latest article suggests that in conjunction with Pace there might be a Sega Dreamcast mk.2 ... interesting stuff but i dont know whether it would succeed :-)

Boob!boy CD Covers Posted by CyRUS64 @ 0:08
Boob!boy front and back cd covers can be downloaded from below:
Front
Back

Please remember that Nintendo is a registered trademark of Nintendo Corporation, and Sega and the Sega Swirl are registered trademarks of Sega Corporation Ltd.

Tuesday, January 23, 2001

MSX Emulator Posted by CyRUS64 @ 23:23
DreamMSX (what else would the emu be called) is an MSX emulator based on Fmsx, the Marat Fayzullin MSX emulator. It can run MSX1 Megarom at full speed...

You can visit the DreamMSX website here or download Version 0.1b here.
DreamMSX will obviously be supported in my currently-being-worked on Boob! Installer.
Thanks to Fabrice for the news!

Sega... Posted by CyRUS64 @ 23:11
As for further information regarding thegypsy's post earlier visit this webpage here or for an earlier story from the same site go here
Also i just heard on the radio, BBC Radio Five Live 909/693 mw are about to have a feature about Sega stopping making Games Consoles :-(

Dreamcast discontinued? Posted by TheGypsy @ 22:06
I don't generally like posting "questionable" information here in the news -- so be sure to consider that this might not be accurate until I get further confirmation. That being said, it appears that Sega is officially getting out of the hardware business and will be discontinuing production of the Dreamcast by the end of March. They will then focus on software development and marketing. I assume that they will also continue to enhance and push SegaNet and other online ventures, although I have no confirmation on that either. Sega is expected to develop for the PS2 and, probably, the XBox.

More information as I hear it and/or get confirmation of this from additional sources.

- John...

Monday, January 22, 2001

ngine news Posted by CyRUS64 @ 23:52
Tubooboo has updated his website with info about his progress on DCGenerator, albeit major speed problems, and also some info about a memory leak in snes9x...

Here is the update in full:
"Hey all... not an awful lot of updates recently, but here is whats new: I am having runtime issues with DCGenerator currently, and have to say I am not very happy with the sourcecode in the current state. It is basically a mix up of modified x86 code mixed with the Mac Port, resulting in pretty bad speeds because of hefty emulation requirements of the 68000 CPU. My current development build of DCGenerator only runs at about 10% of the actual Genesis speed, no doubt about it, its not suited for a release. I will go on and investigate other source codes, but DCGenerator might not be out in a while.
On the SNES9x front, it was reported to me that ngine will reset the DC after a few minutes of play. I verified it does not happen for all games. It seems like a memory leak in a commented out saving routine, and I will do my best to get both saving and fixing this bug done by the next release of ngine-snes9x. ( in case you are curious, Super Bomberman runs fine, for instance )

On a side note, I have begun work on another, not yet disclosed emulator. It *will* run fullspeed and should have pretty decent support on the first release.

The last thing you guys should know is that I will be moving next weekend, hence I did not update that much lately... running around and getting stuff ready for moving... When this is over, I will again have time to get stuff out to you like in the christmas days ;) Cu around on the message board."

dcload/dc-tool v1.0.2c released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 23:34
AndrewK has released v1.0.2c of his dcload/dc-tool serial loader. v1.0.2c apparently fixes a problem in v1.0.2b that could cause ELF and SREC files to not load properly. It also has a minor fix from Proff to make the Win32 Cygwin build use the serial settings from Makefile.cfg. Grab them from AndrewK's dcload page.

- John...

Sunday, January 21, 2001

Free GBC Rom Posted by Stalin @ 23:43
Demiforce has released a game called Drymouth. I do not know if it works with Boob!boy but I do not see why it wouldn't. Here is the link http://demiforce.parodius.com/drymouth/.

Back! Posted by CyRUS64 @ 22:16
There have been problems with consoledev.com hosted sites such as Boob! and Jules' site... Jules himself will be moving to to a new .com host soon and we are now being hosted at thegypsy.com, due to the fact that we want to avoid adverts at all costs!

Remember to continue to access the site by www.boob.co.uk

Over the last couple of days i've been doing some simple work on a Boob! Installer, which will allow you to check for and download the latest version of various dc software (written from scratch using winsock), add any required files (whether they be legally owned roms or videos) and it will then output this all to a self-booting discjuggler image for you to burn with discjuggler!

I'm currently getting it to work with Boob!boy, but other LEGAL (not-dc warez) dc software will be supported.

Friday, January 19, 2001

US Broadband/LAN Adapters Now Shipping! Posted by TheGypsy @ 18:59
Well, it looks like Sega got some stock a little faster than they expected yesterday. The Adapters are in and have started shipping today. People are getting emails confirming their shipments (although I've yet to get mine -- even though I ordered well ahead of some of the people that have gotten their emails). In any case, they have begun shipping. Sega says that you can call for a tracking number starting on Monday. The rep. on the phone could not confirm nor deny that they were all upgraded to next-day as they told me yesterday -- she just plain didn't know. Just FYI.

- John...

Thursday, January 18, 2001

dcload v1.0.2b (Win32 Support) Posted by TheGypsy @ 22:31
I announced earlier this month that dcload v1.0.2 had been released, but that there was no Win32 port yet. Well, Proff (Florian Schulze) has finished a Cygwin-required Win32 port of it that has all of the 1.0.2 features! You will need to either have the full Cygwin environment installed or, after I did some quick testing, it appears to work using just the cygwin1.dll and cygintl.dll libraries. In any case, you can grab the latest version of dcload including the new Win32 client from AndrewK's dcload page.

- John...

US Broadband Adapter Status... Posted by TheGypsy @ 16:36
Regardless of what Sega may have previously told you, here is the current status of the US Broadband Adapters for those that ordered them from Sega's online store.

Basically, they haven't shipped any of them (or, if any did go out, then the number was very few -- as in the first few dozen -- note that ordering within the first 10 minutes of them showing up on the web site doesn't even get you into that group). They are currently still waiting for stock to arrive at the warehouse. As they come in, they will ship them out. However, they currently do not know when they are expected to arrive exactly. They are asking people to wait until Tuesday (23-Jan-2001) to check to see if they have started shipping.

They are upgrading all boardband orders to next-day shipping. So, when they do come in and ship, they will go out via next-day UPS or FedEx (regardless of if you originally ordered using 2-day or standard 5-7 day delivery).

So -- if things go well, they will arrive sometime next week. But, then again, that all depends on when they arrive at the Sega warehouse, and they currently don't appear to know when that will be.

Just wanted to fill in those of you who are waiting for the adapter to arrive...

- John...

Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Site Updates... Posted by TheGypsy @ 16:08
Recently, it has come to my attention that while we do try to mention everything in the News here -- it is then commonly lost among all the entries within a week or two. I have therefore recently went through the Tools and Documentation sections and added information and links for most of the things that have been announced in the News in the recent few months. This should help keep things readily available for those new to the site and/or Dreamcast development.

If anyone has any special tools/information that they think should appear in the Tools or Docs sections but currently does not, please feel free to let us know.

Note: Do not email me about any emulator updates. I really don't care, and I do not update the Emulators section at all. Send such announcements/updates/information to CyRUS64.

- John...

Monday, January 15, 2001

Quake2 Model Loader Released... Posted by TheGypsy @ 16:17
KamKa has released a Quake 2 model loader for the DC. It includes animation and texture support. Pretty nifty stuff.

- John...

Sunday, January 14, 2001

Just For Your Information Posted by Stalin @ 21:08
I will NOT respond to an email like this one that I received today:

"i have a dreamcast. i wanted to start burning games. i
was trying to find out what programs i need to burn
dreamcast games and play them on my dreamcast. and
what disks can i use, is the 700mb good enough."

Friday, January 12, 2001

New DC App! Posted by CyRUS64 @ 12:39
This sample app has been coded by Mr_Turgid and this is what he has to say about it:
"It basically is a simple file/registry viewer that runs on the dreamcast and lets you execute programs and play wave files. The UI portions are in a separate DLL that provides a basic UI framework which others could re-use in simple utility apps.

It's compilable on the free eMbedded Visual C++ package, and hopefully will be a good point of reference for others.

Once the ethernet adapter I ordered arrives (thanks to the post on your web page btw) and a WinCE game comes out for it, I'll probably try getting the OS from the game and modifying the app to let you transfer WinCE exes to the DC to be run."

You can download this program here.

Thursday, January 11, 2001

DC Coders' Cables Available -- In Stock and Shipping! Posted by TheGypsy @ 19:27
I have done some talking with ToTotek and confirmed that they have a DC Coders' serial cable available and currently shipping! For those that have been waiting for Lik-Sang, this should be great news. They are a smaller shop and it looks like they are not mass-producing them yet -- they are actually custom making the cables. They have let me know that they test each cable before it ships to verify that it is working properly. As of this message, they have about 80 of them left -- and I expect that those will go fairly quickly. They are US$30 each and their part number is DC003 (the "DC programmer cable 2"). It is the version made using a DC RGB cable -- which means it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but as long as it works, I don't really think that it otherwise matters.

In any case, the company is ToTotek (www.tototek.com). Feel free to tell them that B00B sent you if you order, although that isn't required, of course. (No, we don't get anything for you telling them).

- John...

Wednesday, January 10, 2001

US Broadband Adapters released! Posted by TheGypsy @ 20:59
The US Broadband Adapters have finally shown up (a day late) in the Sega.com Store. I've ordered mine... Just wanted to let you all know that they were there -- I'm sure they'll sell out quickly...

- John...

quick note... Posted by CyRUS64 @ 18:51
For people who are having problems with the in-game controls using Boob!boy, remove all controllers from the dreamcast, and just insert a controller pad in port one!
This is a known problem and will be sorted out in future releases...

Tuesday, January 9, 2001

DCWarez redirection! Posted by TheGypsy @ 17:10
NOTICE! Due to a temporary technical problem, www.dcwarez.com is currently redirecting here to www.boob.co.uk. The host for dcwarez has been informed and will correct the problem very soon.

- John...

UPDATE: This has been resolved.

DreamSpec v0.0003 released Posted by CyRUS64 @ 13:54
What's new in this version:

Perfect smooth scrolling on some games.

Hires colors

Added some 222 games to DJ version.

Most of the joypad is enabled.

Organized from A-z instead of Games1 Games2

You can visit the DreamSpec webpage here

On another note, we found the reason for Boob's recent disappearance... apparently we were supposed to have adverts on the site on behalf of ztnet who host consoledev but since we didn't know this we didn't have any! Hence in the near future we will be adding a banner on the top of each page :-(

dcload v1.0.2! Posted by TheGypsy @ 13:28
Ok -- I guess we do still have some more. This is actually not from when we were down, but is brand new... AndrewK has released v1.0.2 of dcload! v1.0.2 adds support for loading ELF and SREC directly. Note that this is a client-side change only -- so no need to burn a new server if you are already running v1.0.0 or v1.0.1. However, this also means that this will not work for Win32 users yet, since a port of v1.0.x to Win32 has not yet been completed.

- John...

Development items... Posted by TheGypsy @ 13:22
Some things from when we were down to get us back up to date from the development side of things...

DCGrendel has released version 1.3 of his Demomenu as well as a patched libdream to go with it. v1.3 has mouse support and he says the descrambling is 10x faster. His patched libdream is mainly support for XORing to the display for the mouse cursor. You can get it all at Grendel's Site.

AndrewK released v1.0.1 of his dcload tool. v1.0.1 is mainly just cleanup and a new disclaimer screen over v1.0.0. Andrew says that if you are already running v1.0.0, to not worry about v1.0.1 and just wait until the next release. The Win32 port is still at v0.9.9 by Florian Schulze with some mods by me. It will still communicate with v1.0.x though (minus a few features in the fileserver) -- so Win32 users can upgrade their servers and still use their current PC client.

Since we were down, Kamka released v1.0.0 and now v1.1.0 of his 3DS Model Loader. It works under Dan Potter's KOS and libdream.

That's it for now. More as I find/hear it...

- John...

Boob is back... Posted by TheGypsy @ 3:23
As you are probably aware, Boob! was down for a few days due to hosting problems at consoledev.com. At this time, we have been
unable to contact SickBits and still do not know exactly why Boob! was unavailable. It suddenly reappeared today -- so hopefully everything is resolved. Welcome back!

- John...

Tuesday, January 2, 2001

Dreamcast Emulator Posted by CyRUS64 @ 23:37
Another dc emu has arrived, although this one imo seems fairly promising since it utilises a dyna-recompiling core...
Here is some info from the author about the first release:

"The emulator doesn't boast great compatibility or any of that. At the moment it just loads the bootstrap and has a simple debugger, although the Sh4 core is dynarec it is VERY fast, memory emulation is lacking somewhat so demo's aren't going to work for sometime, a detailed account of the project can be read in the readme."

Please visit the official site for a download of this release here.

Monday, January 1, 2001

Edge Magazine Scans Posted by CyRUS64 @ 18:06
For all those of you who can't get access to a copy of Edge Magazine, here is a page we have put up, courtesy of ReD ÅLeRt, of scans of the article regarding Dreamcast Hobbyist Development!