Dreamcast GD-Rom Drive Emulation

The CF stuff works because it uses the same principals as the original GDROM. Naomi is built to load games one way only, GDROM and CF work because they essentially present themselves as an emulated cartridge once loaded into the system. This means that the game is read entirely into the ram in the DIMM board and any loading is done from that ram. netboot works because it's a system Sega designed themselves and for use by arcade operators so the system already knows how to handle it. CF Loading uses the exact same process, just with a new security routine. Using homemade readers and cards is done by using the same security system as Sega (just with small changes for using non approved flash cards such as a slightly modified firmware for the NET DIMM).

Making a flashcart seems rather unnecessary when you can already load any rom you want via net booting. The effort doesn't seem worth bothering with when there are existing solutions doing most of the same job already. Even without thinking about how to go about programming something like that, I'm not sure how it would physically interact with the way the system works.

Any windows laptop running XP onwards should be able to netboot a naomi, and you can buy an old one for less than a flashcart would cost.

 

If I get myself a DC, I am willing to spend some time and money on this emulation stuff... but because time and free time are sometimes a bit diferent Ill Donate monies if possible and do research on subjects as needed. Sharing Info is very importand. While this post doas not contain very usefull info, I just end this post saying Good luck and ill be watching actively this project. btw, Nice progress already, protocols and fpga connected and all. Wish I had an fpga