[HN Gopher] Old Vintage Computing Research: Dusting Off Dreamcas...
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Old Vintage Computing Research: Dusting Off Dreamcast Linux
Author : rbanffy
Score : 154 points
Date : 2024-11-14 20:31 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (oldvcr.blogspot.com)
| 486sx33 wrote:
| And this is how GD-ROMs got ripped. Broadband adapter and the
| shoot out the data over Ethernet
| kilpikaarna wrote:
| Yes, or via the (very slow) built-in serial port. The broadband
| adapters are quite rare.
|
| Interestingly, for a long time there were no publicly available
| tools for or docs on dumping GD-ROMs. New releases from Echelon
| and Kalisto would appear promptly, so there was obviously a
| way, but you could only partake in the rampant piracy by
| downloading the (occasionally-massaged to fit on a CD) disc
| images online.
|
| A lot of discussion in the (tbf probably quite young and
| inexperienced) community was around how this was possible. A
| popular theory/rumor at the time was that they were using CD
| drives with modified firmware, for example.
|
| This probably also helped keep the piracy amd homebrew scenes
| fairly well separated on the Dreamcast, as there was a lot of
| info and examples around running your own code. This is in
| contrast to eg. the Xbox scene, which was in many ways the
| equally vibrant successor to the DC scene, but where piracy and
| homebrew seemed much more intertwined. Not least because all
| the homebrew binaries were built using the off-limits Microsoft
| SDK, so you had to go to some shady FTP site via links found on
| IRC to download them.
| 0xcde4c3db wrote:
| If memory serves, the first (at least publicly disclosed)
| interface was the "Dreamcast Debug Handler", created by a
| member of Hitmen. This worked by adding a breakout connector
| to the expansion port terminator (which came with some Asian
| Dreamcast systems instead of a modem), then connecting that
| to some homebrew hardware to adapt the bus to a parallel
| port.
|
| Another alternative that was reasonably-priced for a short
| while was the Japan-exclusive "LAN Adapter", which was in
| lower demand because it was only officially supported by the
| Dreamcast web browser app and was only 10Mbps instead of
| 10/100.
| whizzter wrote:
| Iirc the Katana devkit could be used to play commercial games
| so I wouldn't be surprised if some developers were part of
| the groups and if so writing a dumper was probably not hard.
|
| There was even a preview version of the game I worked on that
| got leaked so either someone in our office was part of the
| cracking scene or someone at Sega/QA (they were our
| publisher) since AFAIK no-one else had any copies.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| > The other problem we need to solve is swap. Linux, or at least
| not this Linux, won't let you use a swapfile hosted over NFS;
| swapon will give you an illegal argument error and refuse to
| enable it.
|
| To my shock, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_block_device
| says
|
| > The protocol was originally developed for Linux 2.1.55 and
| released in 1997.
|
| so I wonder if you could use that? It's better suited to swap
| anyways.
| undersuit wrote:
| Yes, NBD works. I use it to give my 256Mb Pi a swap off the
| sdcard. You could also use iSCSI now.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| Oh, I know it works today; I was just surprised that it might
| possibly be an option on a 2.4-6 kernel, as I had assumed
| that Linux didn't get NBD until... I dunno, I would have
| guessed late aughts?
| rusk wrote:
| Hold on now. Swap over NFS? I'm amazed this is viable. I guess
| the difference between line and device speed wasn't as vast as
| it is now.
|
| Having read the article it makes more sense. They need
| additional capacity for the RAM disk.
| anthk wrote:
| The XBOX would do it better; but sadly current ports are
| abandoned.
|
| An XBOX with 128MB of RAM would run Fluxbox or whatever light env
| with ease, and with Dillo and a PSP user agent you could even
| post into HN. Gemini and Gopher would do it fine, even with
| clients written in TCL/Tk. It would be a fine backup PC for
| either thinkering or rescueing.
|
| With ZRAM you could almost mimic a 192MB of RAM based device,
| good for maybe a browser like Seamonkey/IceApe if it could be
| built without SSE2.
| znpy wrote:
| oh the days of xbox-linux, the cromwell bios and stuff.
|
| I remember some guy soldering additional memory as well. Can't
| recall if it was 64 to 128mb or 128 to 256mb.
| trollied wrote:
| This dude does CPU and RAM upgrades: https://computerbooter.c
| om/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showp...
|
| He also streams the process live on youtube:
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPWknjnQNOwSD15nNh4rhLg
| rightbyte wrote:
| XBMC was so good at the time. Haven't been superseded yet in
| UX. Locate the movie in some network folder and go.
|
| XBMC4Xbox seems to be a spinoff but I guess it can't play HD.
|
| Edit: And it seemed to have been running the original Xbox
| win32 interface, not Linux.
| aa-jv wrote:
| Crazy to think that we've go the Steam Deck now, as our front-
| line Linux-based gaming console .. I guess I shouldn't be
| surprised to find out that the Dreamcast emulator is probably
| available for SteamOS ...
| wmat wrote:
| Excellent article, it really takes me back. You can still access
| the old linux-sh.org website on archive.org:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20080705101211/http://www.linux-...
| jerf wrote:
| > _Never put a console running DC Linux outside of a firewall: it
| is an intentionally insecure system. Any bot scanning your
| network will get_ root _immediately._
|
| Yeah, that's really important advice. They'll get root, and then
| they'll... ummm... they'll... hmmmmm.... ahhh.... Be really
| confused? Start mining monero? Sideload _Crazy Taxi_ and start
| playing it on _your_ Dreamcast?
| freeone3000 wrote:
| start mining monero is the most likely outcome. I had a server
| get hit with this recently through a vulnerability I was never
| able to track down
| duskwuff wrote:
| > start mining monero
|
| Good luck with that! Even Monero's "light mode" requires 16
| times more memory than is available on the system.
| sangnoir wrote:
| Join a botnet, and use your node to log into other devices
| and/or deliver attack payloads.
| pjmlp wrote:
| From all the variants mentioned across the comments, the PS2Linux
| was the best one, being officially supported by Sony.
|
| Originally they had though as a means to foster indie
| development, instead people got to use it for emulation, thus PS3
| Linux Other OS no longer supported graphics acceleration, and
| then was completly dropped in a firmware upgrade.
|
| On the PS2, we had official Linux CDs from Sony, a hard drive,
| connection cables, and a whole development environment, a GL like
| API, another more low level console like, both with hardware
| acceleration (although the actual one used on the devkit wasn't
| exposed).
| DrillShopper wrote:
| I had that kit and it was really good.
|
| I actually used it to write a small game to demonstrate the PS2
| architecture in my CS undergrad capstone project.
|
| It was slooooooooow even by the standards of the time.
| pjmlp wrote:
| I still have mine.
|
| Unfortunately not seen a use in years now.
|
| Did you use PS2GL, or the low level one with what is now kind
| similar to what devs are exposed to on Metal, Vulkan, DX12?
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