[HN Gopher] DreamShell: Operating System for the Sega Dreamcast
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DreamShell: Operating System for the Sega Dreamcast
Author : skibz
Score : 77 points
Date : 2024-01-09 09:58 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| dtx1 wrote:
| They have some Screenshots on their website: http://www.dc-
| swat.ru/
|
| That's pretty damn cool
| jonhohle wrote:
| For those that might not be aware, the Dreamcast can read regular
| CDs but also GD-ROMs, a 1GB density format (though not as high
| density as DVD). The only other system I know that can read them
| is Sega's NAOMI arcade (and the colab Triforce) hardware, which
| would read the entire disc into RAM and then not used again
| during gameplay.
| DC-SWAT wrote:
| DreamShell supported SD card on serial port (bit-bang SPI) and
| IDE HDD/CF on G1 port (GD-ROM uses the same).
| MegaDeKay wrote:
| I'm sure you know but this is a bt backwards. GD-ROMs are the
| native format for games because of the higher density. The
| Dreamcast can also play music CDs, but CD really comes into
| play for playing game "backups". The original content was read
| from the GD-ROM disks, unnecessary bits were removed, some
| stuff would be compressed, etc to get down to the around 800K
| that you could stuff onto a regular CD.
|
| I just picked up a Dreamcast before Christmas as part of a
| retro console spree and the modding scene is very active around
| it. There is the GD-emu that can replace the GD-ROM drive and
| store your library of games on a memory card, replacement power
| supplies, SDCard attachments for the console's serial port,
| dual-bios mods (that Dreamshell can reprogram in place!),
| replacement cases, and the list goes on. There is an active
| homebrew scene as well with some high quality games still being
| released.
|
| I myself want to get away from the GD-ROM for playing games as
| that will eventually become problematic. The GD-emu swaps out
| the GD-Rom but I want to keep it in the unit just because. So
| over the last couple days I've ordered up the parts that will
| add compact flash capability to the console by piggybacking on
| to the Dreamcast's IDE bus interface to the GD-ROM (compact
| flash is basically an IDE interface). But compact flash storage
| cards are expensive, so I'm also getting a compact flash to SD-
| Card adapter. This isn't new ground so far, but I _think_ I can
| do this as a stealth mod and do it all within the GD-ROM
| enclosure.
| echelon_musk wrote:
| Beware that if you attempt to use an SDXC card that a lot of
| the really cheap made in China CF to SD adapters do not
| support capacities above 32GB (SDHC). I'm not affiliated with
| the site, but from experience modding iPods I can recommend
| the iFlash CF to SD adapter as one I would trust [0].
|
| [0] https://www.iflash.xyz/store/sdcf-adapter/
| toast0 wrote:
| > also GD-ROMs, a 1GB density format (though not as high
| density as DVD)
|
| GD-ROM seems to be a density doubling setup... A CD-ROM drive
| is run with the motor at 1x and the optics at 2x (all the way
| up to 12x/24x, IIRC). There must also be some magic for the TOC
| and what not, and there's some space reserved at the beginning
| of the disc to have warning audio so you don't try to play it
| in a regular cd player. (Games with less data could have more
| stuff accessible for regular drives, but I don't remember if
| that was actually done though, or if I'm misremembering things
| from earlier cd consoles)
| doublerabbit wrote:
| Some Japanese dreamcast games had anime content and character
| art.
|
| Always thought that was cool
| jonhohle wrote:
| Yeah, that's my understanding. Sega CD and PlayStation both
| used ISO-9660 based CD-ROMs, frequently with CDDA tracks.
| Occasionally these would include warning audio as well,
| however CD players at the time didn't know to skip the DATA
| track 1.
| bitmasher9 wrote:
| Sega's market advantage was that the hardware R&D was mostly
| paid for by their very successful arcade business (they still
| have major success here) and they made reduced costs versions
| of arcade hardware and sold them as home consoles.
|
| It was this hardware expertise that lead to their acquisition
| by Sammy, a company that makes Japanese slot machines. They
| also valued the better public image a game company has, and
| adopted Sega's name.
| wormius wrote:
| Bad news on the arcade front:
|
| https://www.polygon.com/22906391/sega-japan-arcades-sold-
| his...
|
| Sega is leaving Japanese arcades behind. The company
| announced it is selling its remaining arcades to a company
| called Genda, Inc. (also known as GiGO), and leaving the
| coin-op business, where it first made a name for itself, for
| good.
| DC-SWAT wrote:
| Also you can see some videos how it works:
| https://www.youtube.com/SWAT-DC/videos
| sillywalk wrote:
| FTA:
|
| "DreamShell
|
| The Dreamshell is the operating system for the Sega Dreamcast
| based on the KallistiOS[0] kernel. It has a dynamic loadable
| modular system and interface for creating applications with XML
| UI and both C/C++ and Lua script on. You can see examples in
| ready-made applications and modules, drivers for various devices,
| formats and interfaces. Examples for audio and video decoding,
| compression, packaging, binding, network, emulation, scripts and
| more. From hardcore low-level assembler to high-level
| applications. There are also large subproject is the ISO Loader,
| which contains emulation of BIOS system calls, CDDA playback and
| VMU, also it can hooking interrupts for various SDKs and more."
|
| "KallistiOS is an unofficial development kit for the SEGA
| Dreamcast game console with some support for the NAOMI and NAOMI
| 2 arcade boards.
|
| KOS was developed from scratch over the internet by a group of
| free software developers and has no relation to the official Sega
| Katana or Microsoft Windows CE Dreamcast development kits. This
| has allowed it to fuel a thriving Dreamcast homebrew scene,
| powering many commercial releases for the platform over the
| years. It supports a significant portion of the Dreamcast's
| hardware capabilities and a wide variety of peripherals,
| accessories, and add-ons for the console, including custom
| hardware modifications that have been created by the scene.
|
| Despite the console's age, KOS offers an extremely modern,
| programmer-friendly development environment. Using the latest GCC
| toolchain, it supports the entirety of C17 and C++20 including
| their standard libraries, along with support for portions of C23,
| C++23, Objective-C, and various POSIX APIs. Additionally, KOS-
| ports offers a rich set of add-on libraries such as SDL, OpenGL,
| OpenAL, and Lua for the platform."[0]
|
| [0] https://github.com/KallistiOS/KallistiOS
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(page generated 2024-01-09 23:01 UTC)