hello i would like to know if some have to install games on the HDD of the dev kit katana for faster access The dev kit katana is faster than a dreamcast in loading time Thanks ;-)
have you done it with any games? i remember ikaruga and border down were very very easy to get them to boot off the hdd, i tried with some more games but they wouldn't work and i didn't have time to research the reason...if i remember correctly i got an error "LBA 45000" or something like that, can't really remember right now... btw the devbox can emulate real gdrom speed or you can simply turn off any speed restrictions and have way faster loading times...
You need tools from the SDK, your devkit needs to be connected to PC to create disc image and transfer tem to HDD, then you can unplug the devkit. All the info is in the sdks.
Ok :smile-new: but i have juste SDK R10.1 Disk it is sufficient ??? it can also change the capacity of the HDD of origin???
The right tools are on the sdk, your version is ok. You got to connect the devkit to your pc via a scsi interface card. I think you can create 2x2GB partitions or 1x4GB partition on the HDD, but keep inmind you won't be able to put a 1TB HDD with all the games on your devkit. It works with old SCSI HDD, 4GB max I think but you probably want to read the devkit documentation to be sure. A good ide is to try to run the demos in it on your devkit just to get a hang of it. Cheers, FG
You can put a SCSI HDD in larger than 4GB too. An IBM Ultrastar 36Z15 would be awesome, however it may not fit as you'd probably need to use an adapter to change the connector size as I'm pretty sure it isn't ultra wide or SCSI III, but standard SCSI II. Who knows though maybe that drive has different conenctor variants, but you could also just use a larger, less exootic drive too. From what I remember there was nothing particularly special about the HDD inside the Katana, but in rare instances you can remove and sell it to recover the cost of the kit. I'm not sure who buys them, old hardware restorers or something, but there can be good money in reselling the original 4GB HDD without data. Make sure you make a disc image before you get rid if it though As for loading the games to the HDD, the process is quite convoluted but still easy. Assuming your dev enironment is ready to roll you need to make a GD workshop project, set the number of tracks to match the tracks of your game .GDI dump, and then extract the files using -=FamilyGuy=-'s GDI2Dat then, copy file the extracted files from track 3 to track 3 and so on. You will also have to make your own track 1 with 3 text files, forget what they are, but abstract.txt, biliograph.txt and copyright.txt will sound about right. You will also need a small junk file to pad it out so you may as well copy warning.das there too. Track 2 you copy and paste warning.da in there I think. Lastly you will have to point your project to your boot bin and ip.bin. Save your project, switch to GD-M mode, and then enjoy. My memory is a little rusty but that is broadly it.
The $130 cost and wrong connector may make it not only cost prohihibitive but impractical due to space. SCSI to SATA may work, but only if you use a 2.5" SATA drive as it is a tight fit. Still If there was a 2.5" SSD plugged into sata to SCSi adapter plugged into SCSI to SCSI II ribbon/IDE style internal adapter it may just about fit and it would be pretty cool to see if it worked and worked well too!
I've just spent 10 minutes looking for pictures of the katana HDD but haven't managed to find any. I've got a large stack (about 20 drives) of SCSI2/SCSI3 drives from old servers in 9.1GB (7200RPM), 18.2GB (10K and 15K RPM) and 36.4GB (10K RPM) with just SCSI connectors on the front (not the ones with molex connectors) if anyone needs any for a dev kit?
The standard HDD in a DC devkit is the Seagate ST34520N, which is a 50-pin fast SCSI-2 HDD with 8-bits data bus, good for max 5-10 MBytes/sec. I never tried it, but any 50-pin HDD should work I guess. (or else you would need the correct adapter of course)
