[HN Gopher] The Dreamcast Legacy
___________________________________________________________________
The Dreamcast Legacy
Author : zdw
Score : 92 points
Date : 2021-12-22 15:05 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (hackaday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (hackaday.com)
| hahamrfunnyguy wrote:
| One game I haven't seen mentioned here was Ikaruga. It was a top
| down shooter from Japan. Like many shooters, you fought your way
| through hordes of enemies and boss battles. You of course could
| upgrade your arsenal along the way by collecting powerups. One
| innovative gameplay mechanic was the firing mode: you would fire
| either white or black bullets. When you were firing white
| bullets, white enemy bullets and projectiles could not harm you.
| The reverse was also true.
|
| Really fun game!
| [deleted]
| nanna wrote:
| Ikaruga was great, however it was effectively Treasure's sequel
| to its imo greatest game, Radiant Silvergun for the Sega
| Saturn, which sadly never made it out of Japan. Best game of
| the 32bit generation, maybe best bullet hell ever.
|
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wue0F5YyeEQ
| yob28 wrote:
| toywinder wrote:
| The timelines and competing consoles presented in the article are
| all out of order. I get the overall point they were trying to
| make, but that was a painful read.
| pupppet wrote:
| I never liked the Dreamcast for no other reason than petty
| bitterness from having purchased a Saturn.
| b15h0p wrote:
| The article states that the Dreamcast "fell out of the public eye
| as the Nintendo 64 was released". Am I missing something here? As
| far as I know the N64 was released more than two years before the
| Dreamcast's release. The Dreamcast always felt like it belonged
| to the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube console generation more than the PS1/N64
| generation, although it was released in between generations.
|
| Release dates: * PlayStation 1: '94/'95 *
| N64: '96 * Dreamcast: '98/'99 * PlayStation 2: 2000
| * XBox: 2001 * GameCube: 2001
| yob28 wrote:
| arprocter wrote:
| Article also seems confused that the NES competed against the
| Genesis - the Master System was Sega's 8-bit console; and no
| mention of the 32X or Sega/Mega CD either
|
| iirc a big selling point of the PS2 was it could play DVDs,
| whereas the Dreamcast couldn't
| vikingerik wrote:
| The NES did compete against the Genesis. Different technology
| generations, but they overlapped in the market for more than
| half of the NES's active lifespan, from 1989 through 1994.
| There were plenty of comparisons between early Genesis games
| and later NES games.
| nullstyle wrote:
| The genesis was available in stores concurrently with the
| NES, and once it was released the master system didn't get
| much shelf space at stores anymore. The genesis has nearly
| around 2 years lead on the SNES if I remember correctly. The
| NES and Genesis definitely competed.
|
| (source: I remember the store displays)
| icedchai wrote:
| Yes, I remember this as well. Growing up, late 80's, we had
| a NES, then in 1989: a Sega Genesis, and also a Turbografx
| 16. Yes, we were spoiled kids...
| nullstyle wrote:
| We had to sell half our NES games and pool together
| Christmas money from 3 brothers to get an open box
| genesis from the BX. Ah, military brat life :)
| droptablemain wrote:
| The Mega Drive / Genesis was release to the NA market in
| 1989, a couple of years before the SNES. So for a time, it
| was competing with the NES.
|
| But, overall agree that the article has some factual issues.
| Comevius wrote:
| They confused it with Sega Saturn, that's the one that was
| pushed under the bus by Nintendo 64 in 1996. Nintendo however
| was late to the game, the PS1 was already entrenched.
| oso2k wrote:
| I think OP's sentiment was right. I vividly recall seeing at
| Christmas time at a Toys R Us dozens and dozens of Saturn
| boxes next to handful of Dreamcast boxes, next to 2 N64
| boxes. And I remember talking to the cashier and them
| complaining that they couldn't sell Saturn and Dreamcast.
| They expected Sega to go out of business soon. They also
| remarked that the Dreamcast was being artificially held back
| to make seem as big a seller as the N64.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| If I remember right, the Saturn shipped shortly before the
| PlayStation, but it was more expensive ($400USD vs $300USD)
| and shipped in a manner that annoyed most retailers (it was
| initially exclusive to KB Toys, I believe). The article also
| didn't go into the add-ons released for the Genesis/Master
| System (the Sega32X and SegaCD among them), and how Sega's
| attempts at keeping the G/MS alive instead wore out many
| console owners.
| laumars wrote:
| The 32x was released by Sega America and the Saturn by Sega
| Japan. The two groups couldn't agree on much in that era.
| qqtt wrote:
| It's easy to use 20/20 hindsight and say failures were a
| mistake, but at the time, Genesis was selling like
| bonkers in the USA and was a relative failure in Japan.
| Sega (both Japan + USA) had to balance the need to
| generate excitement for a new console in Japan while
| maintaining a happy Genesis install base in the USA. At
| the time, the best compromise seemed to be an early
| launch of Saturn in Japan while giving the USA market a
| stop-gap next generation experience to current Genesis
| owners.
|
| The whole point of the 32x project was to help and excite
| the American market, and it was developed by Sega USA
| using Saturn components.
|
| Yes, after the fact when it didn't work out, there was
| much finger pointing and blame games happening, but at
| the time, the strategy did not seem to ridiculous and
| there is a universe it could have worked. Sega invested
| heavily into the 32x to make it successful, including
| cannabalizing Saturn's only Sonic game to move it to the
| 32x (Chaotix).
| dleslie wrote:
| They launched much earlier than expected, before really any
| meaningful library of games were available. Third party
| developers were taken completely by surprise by the early
| launch.
| laumars wrote:
| It didn't help that the Saturn didn't ship with an SDK
| and was painful to develop 3D titles on due to being a
| sprite based machine (3D was effectively transforming
| sprites. Which caused bugs like breaking alpha blending).
|
| The PlayStation wasn't exactly easy by modern standards
| either but it was compared to that generation of
| consoles. For starters it had an SDK. Then there was the
| lack of storage constraints (unlike with the N64
| cartridge). And while it didn't have a Z index, at least
| it's polygons weren't just hack around 2D sprites.
|
| That all said, I do still love my Saturn and N64 more
| than my PlayStation. This is Tony a rational preference
| but more just what I enjoy more as a retro gamer. In some
| ways their faults enhance the console.
| agumonkey wrote:
| I think I've seen videos saying they somehow
| overengineered the hardware too, and without libs (as you
| mention) people struggled to make use of the many
| processors and couldn't reach goals.
| laumars wrote:
| It wasn't so much over engineered but more old before
| it's time. Sega bet on 2D and then retrofitted their
| console to be 3D after rumours emerged that the
| PlayStation and N64 were 3D-focused systems.
| qqtt wrote:
| That might be the case outside Japan, but the Sega Saturn was
| still relatively successful inside it's home country. Sega
| Saturn outsold the N64 in Japan. Saturn and Playstation were
| competing head to head for a while, with the Saturn
| frequently outselling the Playstation in Japan. The nail in
| the coffin was Final Fantasy 7 where Playstation took off
| like a rocketship and never looked back.
| titusjohnson wrote:
| According to my memory of the time, the Dreamcast launched a
| bit too early compared to the PS2. The Dreamcast was trying to
| sell games and systems right when the PS2 marketing engine went
| into full swing. The marketing hype for PS2 was _huge_ ,
| everyone I knew was talking about how many millions of pixels
| it would push, how the multi-core architecture would make
| everything else obsolete, and of course, how it was backwards
| compatible with existing libraries.
|
| I knew one guy that had a Dreamcast, everyone else saved their
| pennies for a PS2 and made do with their existing PS1.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| You touch on a really important point here that I feel is
| totally underreported: marketing. My friend group all had
| Saturns or wanted them. I remember it being a big topic for
| us how there were constantly PlayStation ads everywhere while
| they were pretty much absent for the Saturn, especially on TV
| where Saturn ads existed but were terrible and and they were
| almost never run (this was in Germany). Our own narrative
| always had been that it was lack of marketing and bad
| marketing that killed the Saturn.
|
| I'd love to see some actual data on marketing spent in
| different regions for the consoles.
| xgkickt wrote:
| There was a rumor that in the UK SEGA pretty much spent
| their entire Dreamcast marketing budget on the Arsenal
| sponsorship. Would like to know how close to the truth that
| was.
| ac2u wrote:
| I believe the PS2 marketing hype was further bolstered by
| great initial sales in Japan, because it was a reasonably
| priced DVD movie player.
|
| https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps2-primarily-used-as-
| dvd-...
| perardi wrote:
| Oh I so remember that, and can even find mainstream media
| articles to back that up.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/26/technology/playstation-2
| -...
|
| Same thing with the PS3--it was a lot of bang-for-the-buck
| for Blu-rays when it debuted. _(Not that Blu-ray took the
| world by storm like DVDs, but still.)_
|
| https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/4/20992215/playstation-3-p
| s...
| Izkata wrote:
| Yep, I was that kid who got a Dreamcast for Christmas (my
| parents' compromise since my brothers and I wanted different
| systems) and I remember the same about commercials for the
| PS2 having just started.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| > Yep, I was that kid who got a Dreamcast for Christmas
|
| There are _dozens_ of us!
| beamatronic wrote:
| The Sega Dreamcast release date was 9/9/99
| emodendroket wrote:
| It was absolutely the PS2 that tanked the Dreamcast. Perhaps
| the author meant Xbox.
| monocasa wrote:
| Yeah, Sony's PS2 pre release marketing hype was out of
| control, and a lot of it was directed at how the Dreamcast
| wasn't going to be worth it. The CPU of the PS2 was called
| the "Emotion Engine" with Sony just straight up saying it had
| the power to emulate the human mind.
| xgkickt wrote:
| Although the PlayStation 2 had the brute force, from this
| programmer's perspective the Dreamcast had a certain finesse,
| largely due to the PowerVR GPU. SEGA's teams were also on a
| strong creative streak at the time too. Such a shame it
| didn't pan out.
| rusk wrote:
| Best selling game console of all time I think. No shame
| losing to the best.
| timw4mail wrote:
| It was only the best in terms of hype and sales. Video-
| quality-wise, it was likely the worst of its generation.
| baochan wrote:
| That's as far as I read before deciding the author had no idea
| what they were talking about and closed the window.
| radicalbyte wrote:
| This; I went from being astonished by Zelda: Ocarina of Time
| on the N64 to being stunned by Shenmue only a two years later
| on my Dreamcast. I bought both of them on release.
|
| The Dreamcast was a great machine, I have fond memories of
| many hours playing Rez, Phantasy Star Online, Sonic
| Adventure, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and Space Channel 5..
| dmicah wrote:
| I think they probably meant to write GameCube there.
| CameronBanga wrote:
| This still doesn't make any sense, as Sega discontinued the
| Dreamcast 6 months before the GameCube even released.
| joeman1000 wrote:
| The Dreamcast is still special. It never made big waves in
| Australia, so I bought one secondhand in 2016. My childhood was
| spent playing the PS2. The Dreamcast library and the whole
| 'attitude' of the system is quirky and refreshing. Playing titles
| like Shenmue and Jet Set Radio is still so enjoyable. If they had
| a 3D GTA on the system I think it could have helped.
| alliao wrote:
| no mention of Samba de amigo I even ordered the maracas kit from
| Japan, it worked so well. It used Doppler effect to track
| distance from sensor to speaker (in your hand) thus identified
| the height of the controller. You could go as fast as you can
| without throwing it off, amazing achievement. Really wished
| they'd re-release it on Nintendo switch, though I suspect the
| reason is hardware of joycon isn't able to keep up.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| No other console tanked the Dreamcast.
|
| The Dreamcast was fatally wounded as a platform because their DRM
| was easily bypassed. You didn't even need a special hardware
| dongle or modification. You could instead straight up download
| copies of games that were modified to work on the system. No
| point in supporting a platform that was dominating arcades but
| whose sales were getting obliterated by piracy at home.
| timw4mail wrote:
| PS2 marketing killed the Dreamcast.
| VRay wrote:
| I remember that the Dreamcast was already dead by the time
| piracy started becoming rampant, at least in the USA where I
| lived
| vikingerik wrote:
| As the other reply says, this didn't really happen this way.
| The Dreamcast was already on its way out after the PS2's launch
| by the time piracy really started up. Piracy was a footnote,
| not a cause.
|
| Internet access was one constraining factor. Not everyone in
| 1999/2000 had broadband to download entire CD images. And an
| even smaller portion ever knew where to find the piracy methods
| and content - most of it was on Usenet.
| p0wn wrote:
| I remember you could copy the games because they had no drm on
| them. My buddy had a complete collection. What a masterpiece.
| ac2u wrote:
| So if you had an ISO of a dreamcast game, it is possible to
| burn it to a CD-R and play it on an unmodified console (when it
| was first cracked it had to be a boot disc with a swap). The
| exploit was some sort of a software hijacking of the console's
| ability to play MIL-CDs which were used for interactive music
| discs in Japan.
|
| Copying itself from the source discs (GD-ROMs that had their
| grooves packed closer together than a traditional CD for extra
| capacity), from what I can remember reading, was primary done
| via a dreamcast console (perhaps initially it was done via a
| development kit) and a serial cable or ethernet adapter.
|
| I think over the years more means of doing the GD-ROM copy
| became available, like firmware overwrites of certain PC
| drives.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Games that were bigger than a CD's capacity had to have their
| textures downsampled and recompressed though. I only point
| this out as anyone interested in playing DC games they don't
| have a GD-ROM copy of has a much better option in the form of
| GDEmu or Terraonion MODE.
| monocasa wrote:
| It was the videos that were reencoded. Textures didn't add
| up the same way.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| I stand corrected.
| fredoralive wrote:
| It's a bit more complex. Beyond using a bespoke ~1GB GD-ROM
| format that normal optical drives can't read, the discs did
| AFAIK have copy protection of the "wobbly track" variety. So
| even if you have a GD-Recordable drive and media, you couldn't
| just copy the games. (Although if you have a GD-R drive you
| almost certainly had the dev tools to run unprotected games
| anyway).
|
| Unfortunately they wanted a way to add Dreamcast content to
| music CDs ("MIL-CD"), which led to a massive holes in the
| security that meant it would happily boot off CD-Rs. I guess
| they didn't want to tie record companies to Sega's own
| duplicators so the CDs don't have any direct copy protection.
| Instead CD programs are "encrypted" (unlike GD-ROM games) and
| the disc drive turned off after initial load. Naturally the
| encryption / scrambling was figured out, and people figured out
| how to turn the drive back on[1]. Thus fun with piracy and
| homebrew. Late in the production run they removed the MIL-CD
| stuff entirely, although the vast majority of systems out there
| would've been built by then.
|
| (Sorry if I've got any details wrong).
|
| [1] Plus a bonus that the boot sector could contain unchecked
| extra code that made "self booting" pirate games possible.
| moepstar wrote:
| iirc, the "wobbly track" you mention was the copy protection
| on the Saturn: http://segabits.com/blog/2016/07/12/sega-
| saturn-copy-protect...
| monocasa wrote:
| And they continued to use it in GD-ROM drives AFAIK.
| smm11 wrote:
| Blundered into a BestBuy early one Sunday, and the Dreamcasts
| were in a pile by the door at $50 with bags of games included. I
| then had one, running Crazy Taxi, for years and years.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Similar here, I picked up mine at a drugstore for $50 along
| with a pile of discounted games from the rack. I never thought
| I'd own the thing for 20 years and watch my oldest beat Sonic
| Adventure at age 6. Watching those credits roll he gave me the
| most badass look, lol. They still ask to play it from time to
| time.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| Sonic Adventure holds up surprisingly well in spite of, or
| perhaps because of, it's surreal voice acting and general
| jank. Controversial opinion: it's better than Sonic Adventure
| 2[0], and Big the Cat's story was a nice change of pace.
|
| [0] Even more controversial opinion: Sonic '06 is also better
| than Sonic Adventure 2.
| pmlamotte wrote:
| > [0] Even more controversial opinion: Sonic '06 is also
| better than Sonic Adventure 2.
|
| Having never played either but having watched gameplay of
| both, I'm very interested in your thoughts on that.
|
| I also agree that Sonic Adventure 1 holds up surprisingly
| well despite the jank. A lot of Dreamcast era games have a
| certain aesthetic to them that feels distinctly different
| from other games. Sega really had some wild ideas and while
| they didn't always hit they were still exciting because of
| how fresh and unique they felt. The lack of polish adds to
| that aesthetic; the games weren't following a cookie cutter
| formula like lots of modern open world games, they were
| spending their time really experimenting because designing
| for 3D and internet connectivity was still so new.
| AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote:
| It's pretty subjective, honestly. For context, I played
| Sonic Adventure when it first came out. I played Sonic
| Adventure 2 (DC version) less than a year ago because it
| had a reputation for being a fan favorite. I hated it. I
| played Sonic 06 recently it had a reputation for being
| terrible and I found I actually kinda liked it because it
| made me laugh.
|
| '06s reputation for being terrible is objectively
| overblown. It is definitely rushed, has long loading
| times, and is jank as hell, but it is otherwise a pretty
| mediocre game. I've definitely played a lot worse and I
| think the general "someone's free Unity game" feel helps
| it to not be taken too seriously. It is also occasionally
| completely hilarious. For instance, during the Shadow
| story fight with Silver, I got trapped in a notorious
| "It's no use" loop getting shot straight upwards. This
| was a little frustrating, but then Shadow's corpse fell
| into the ground head first and got stuck in it like a
| lawn dart and I laughed my ass off.
|
| By contrast I think a lot of what put me off of SA2 was
| how seriously it seemed to take itself. It's a lot more
| polished than '06, but still has enough jank to cause
| frustration and is otherwise just as mediocre in the
| gameplay department. A lot of my gripes about SA2's
| gameplay are actually shared by 06, but I guess I just
| kind of expect that from a buggy unfinished mess so it is
| more easily forgiven.
| ddm379 wrote:
| Still on the hunt for Marvel vs. Capcom 2
| louhike wrote:
| My favorite vs fighting game! The gameplay is diverse, a lot of
| great characters and the pixel art is beautiful. I'm lucky
| enough to have a dreamcast arcade stick and it's such a thrill
| with it. I hope you'll find it!
| ChrisKnott wrote:
| The legacy of the Dreamcast was the Xbox, specifically online
| multiplayer (and massive controllers!).
|
| Peter Moore (who worked on both consoles) has talked about this
| several times over the years, e.g. this recent example [0]
|
| [0] from 7:40 https://youtu.be/tadtqchbbh0&t=460
| kingcharles wrote:
| Thanks for the link. Microsoft really built XBox out of
| everything they learned from working with Sega on Dreamcast.
| Without Dreamcast there would be no XBox.
| joenathanone wrote:
| Funny that, just like how Nintendo created the PlayStation
| through their dealings with Sony.
| ThrowawayB7 wrote:
| > " _Microsoft really built XBox out of everything they
| learned from working with Sega on Dreamcast._ "
|
| People say this but I don't think it's really true or, if it
| is, it certainly wasn't apparent from the worm's eye view. As
| the Dreamcast was dying off, there were actually two rival
| console proposals within MS; one was from the Windows
| division (whatever it was called then) that became the Xbox
| and the other came from the Dreamcast team and was IIRC MIPS-
| based and, of course, ran Windows CE. (And we all know which
| one won.) Nor did it seem that the Xbox project had any
| particular interest in taking on ex-Dreamcast staff; of all
| the IC developers on the project, only one person
| successfully moved from the Dreamcast team to the Xbox team
| to the best of my recollection. (Remember that this era was
| the old Gates-led, cutthroat Microsoft where the internal
| competitiveness was just as high as external competitiveness.
| The Windows division and its leadership anecdotally was _not_
| happy about the existence of Windows CE.)
|
| It remains a mystery to me to this day what expertise was
| supposedly transferred from the Dreamcast project to the Xbox
| project. Personally, I suspect it's a myth and the anecdotes
| by former executives are papering a happy face over a
| complicated history but, meh, what do I know?
| randomifcpfan wrote:
| There was a third team from WebTV, that was based around
| the team that designed the 3DO M2.
|
| That team lost the original Xbox internal design contest,
| but went on to design the 360 and later Xbox consoles.
|
| The Dreamcast WinCE project did contribute several
| engineers to the Xbox org. It mostly taught MS how the
| console game business worked, showed them where
| WinCE/Direct X needed to be improved to support consoles,
| and gave them a list of things not to do.
|
| Dreamcast's controller and accessories were also quite
| influential on the original Xbox controller.
| matthewfcarlson wrote:
| I remember going into someone's office at microsoft after I
| first joined (back when everyone there had an office- it's
| all open office now) and seeing a Dreamcast on someone's
| shelf and being really confused. He explained he did most of
| the DirectX port for it and told me some of the details about
| working in it. It was a fascinating look into what might have
| been.
| kingcharles wrote:
| Microsoft went open plan?! I've not been on the campus in
| years. I always loved the little offices with everyone's
| past projects on the shelves.
|
| Next you'll be telling me they got rid of all those free
| snacks and drinks.
| exsf0859 wrote:
| I think MS went open plan starting in '07 with the "The
| Commons" campus. Some parts like Bungie were open plan
| much earlier. (The Bungie team demanded it, they felt it
| improved collaboration.)
|
| But before that, regular MS engineers were often
| "temporarily" doubled up or tripled up in their offices,
| so going open plan wasn't as much of a difference as it
| might have been.
|
| In the old days people's computers and monitors were
| physically much larger, you needed multiple computers to
| multi-task, and you needed lots of paper documentation.
| One reason we're open-plan now is that people can be very
| productive with a chair, laptop, and 24" monitor.
| Grazester wrote:
| Microsoft's involvement in the Dreamcast was only in the
| Windows CE library for game development and nothing else
| bachmeier wrote:
| I played my Dreamcast a ton. When I'd get stuck while writing my
| dissertation (a regular event) I'd think things through while
| playing a game of hockey. It provided just the right amount of
| distraction.
|
| I never understood the hype around the PS 2. It was so bad that
| when I went to the store to buy NHL 2K2, the employee said they
| no longer made Dreamcast games. She asked the other employee, who
| said the same thing. I told them the game was being advertised.
| They called company headquarters and were informed that it was
| coming out in a few days. They said I was the first customer to
| ask about the Dreamcast in months.
| halpert wrote:
| I had a Dreamcast and loved it, but the PS2 was an amazing
| system. The main draw was the massive game library, great
| online game play, and it doubled as a DVD player. Not sure what
| else you'd really want?
| Grazester wrote:
| Great online plays was not a competing factor with the
| Dreamcast at that time. Even after a mature library with
| online play long after the Dreamcast's death the PS2 online
| scene paled compared to the Xbox.
| moepstar wrote:
| I _still_ play my Dreamcast a ton.
|
| There's, to this date, new (indie) games being released,
| new/old builds of long-lost games do surface [0]...
|
| The Dreamcast is a gift that keeps on giving...
|
| [0] https://en.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/
| iszomer wrote:
| What I found most fascinating about the Dreamcast was the
| extensible utility of the VMU cartridge slotted beneath the
| controller in that it not only served as storage for saved game
| data but as a heads-down display for ongoing gameplay. It also
| had the capability of being a standalone unit for mini games with
| it's replaceable coin battery.
|
| What's even more interesting is the modding community attempts in
| repurposing them and keeping the _Dream_ alive.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNoBQ5nTeuk
| aasasd wrote:
| PS2 emulation is such a pain that I still can't make any emuls
| work on my Mac. Meanwhile Flycast is being ported to PS Vita with
| decent FPS.
| treesknees wrote:
| I've had good luck with this fork of PCSX2. I've been able to
| play Kingdom Hearts with my Nintendo Pro Controller on my M1
| Mac and it runs really well.
|
| https://github.com/tellowkrinkle/pcsx2
| lostgame wrote:
| Is there any reason you can't just use PCSX2?
|
| It works on my _2012_ MacBook Pro...it should work on any
| fairly recent hardware with zero fuss...
|
| https://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-Native-Mac-Testing-Build
| aasasd wrote:
| It works! But... hella slow with games like Gran Turismo 3.
| Vaguely on par with PCSX2 in Windows in VMWare Fusion, if not
| slower. (Fusion can run DX10 stuff on Mac, while Wine and
| VirtualBox can't.)
|
| Previously I assumed that PCSX2 development for Mac stopped
| around 2012 with 0.9.7. Can't remember what was my result
| with it, but possibly the same.
|
| I guess the problem might be with the embedded GPU of the
| Macbook. Which is still telling, if a weak modern GPU can't
| handle a system from 2000 while being able to run games from
| mid-to-late 2010s.
| fredoralive wrote:
| With the PS2 Sony were already some way down the road that led
| to the PS3 and Cell and all that complexity, what with the
| various vector units in the Emotion Engine CPU and slightly odd
| graphics pipeline. So its not surprising its somewhat hard to
| emulate, although as other post points out it should work
| nowadays.
|
| The Dreamcast is somewhat simpler, a fairly straightforward CPU
| and an "off the shelf"[1] PowerVR chip that isn't as weird
| (though the tile based rendering stuff is I guess?). Cue
| emulator authors pointing out all the weird annoying bits of
| the Dreamcast I've missed.
|
| [1] In itself an interesting choice for the late '90s, when
| consoles still nearly always had bespoke graphics, instead of
| just variants of PC GPUs.
| matthewfcarlson wrote:
| The article was updated with years for each console to try and
| make the timeline clearer. I think the initial error stating the
| the Nintendo 64 was released after the Dreamcast was the biggest
| error.
| ksec wrote:
| Since it is fro hackaday, I was expecting at least a word on
| SuperH.
| turtlebits wrote:
| Capcom had so many of my favorite games on the Dreamcast, the
| regular hits such as Marvel vs Capcom and Street Fighter, but
| Power Stone, Tech Romancer, Cannon Spike, JoJo's Bizarre
| Adventure, Rival Schools, etc.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| These retrospectives on the Dreamcast rarely seem to bring up the
| fact you could play burned CDs on the system or the shared
| architecture with the Atomiswave arcade systems the wildly
| popular (to this day) NAOMI arcade system. Or the Microsoft
| collaboration. I also feel like more could be explored around
| SegaNet and its relationship to ALL.net whose legacy is now felt
| today every time someone sits down at an arcade to play Guilty
| Gear Strive.
|
| Especially of interest on a site like hackaday, they don't
| mention the homebrew scene:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dreamcast_homebrew_gam...
|
| Or the ports of Atomiswave games to DC:
| https://www.retrorgb.com/dreamcast-atomiswave-ports.html
| giobox wrote:
| I was unaware one could do this, a quick Google suggests CD-R
| booting only possible out of the box on early Dreamcast models
| as a fix was introduced?
|
| A dirty but effective copy protection would have presumably
| been to just make use of the full 1GB of storage the retail
| Dreamcast GD-ROM discs had, making them to large to copy to a
| generic CD-R.
| monocasa wrote:
| > I was unaware one could do this, a quick Google suggests
| CD-R booting only possible out of the box on early Dreamcast
| models as a fix was introduced?
|
| It was the vast majority of them.
|
| > A dirty but effective copy protection would have presumably
| been to just make use of the full 1GB of storage the retail
| Dreamcast GD-ROM discs had, making them to large to copy to a
| generic CD-R.
|
| They did that, so then the release scene would re-encode
| whatever videos inevitably were taking up space, and bring it
| back down under 700mb.
| itisit wrote:
| Brings back memories. Make a cup of tea. Hop on IRC to find the
| latest FTP. Download 20 some RAR files. Merge them. Burn an ISO.
| I must have gotten 80+ games this way. Sorry, Sega. Thanks,
| Windows CE!
| waffle_maniac wrote:
| There's a custom FPGA mod that allows you use to a usb drive to
| load games. I've been meaning to get around to that since
| eventually the GDROM drive fails. I just loved playing Dreamcast
| with friends.
|
| * Dynamite Cop
|
| * Unreal Tournament
|
| * NBA2k2
|
| * Army Men
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