Help wanted to dump GDR + devkit harddrive

I have a dozen GDR (some in bad conditions) and Katana devkit which hard-drive I would like to dump to see whats inside. Can somebody reliable help me with that process? I don't have the time to track down the SCSI card and software etc to extract the Katana bits.
I am fine to send out the stuff away (maybe the GDR and only the Katana hardrive?) to someone with a proper trackrecord on those things
I am happy to eventually release the contents of the GD if they are worthful.

 

Hello There

That sounds wonderful as I am a huge Dreamcast fan!

I think there are plenty of people who would be able to help you with this request as everyone always gets excited about this kind of thing, although it seems alot of the skillful people are currently working on the Geist Force ripping issues so it may take a little while.

I think ASSEMbler would be the best person for advice or a point in the right direction although he is very busy at the moment. (I am not speaking for him just suggesting he knows the score!)

Just out of interest is the DEV Kit from Japan (i notice you are located there) and the discs themselves JAP games? if so is there anything interesting written on them?

Pictures would be nice if possible

 

The emulation hard drive is simple, if my memory serves me correctly you can hook up via Adaptec 2940 NP (though I prefer 2930 so no messing around with adapters) - they are quite common thus cheap.

Dumping the game off the hard drive is as easy as copy and paste - though usually an element such as IP.BIN is missing so you have to write your own. Self booting it *should* be as easy as copying the contents of the emulation directory into the data1 folder in FamilyGuy's self boot data pack, writing your own IP.BIN to put into the root of the pack and if it has no CDDA or copy protection, hoping for the best. The only reason we are having issues with HDR-0008 Geist Force is because the game is completely non standard - almost every other title should be fine.

As with the first HDR-0008 Geist Force HKT-06 GD-R I bought, resurfacing them is a very risky business. Now with normal GD-ROM there is a ring which my get scuffed so it fails the check thus won't boot, but as HKT-06 GD-R has no ring this part is less of an issue. What is an issue however is the difference in plastics so HKT-06 GD-R will need a significantly shorter duration with a softer pad to be on the safe side. It is possible scuffed discs my need to be dumped several times between polishes to get enough information to merge out the bad sectors, but some HKT-06 GD-R may be completely unusable.

The other issue people have been having with immaculate HKT-06 GD-R is the dye is starting to go so it is introducing read errors when dumping as they are coming of age now which will start to hit the resale value.

I am willing to offer assistance: I have 6 Dreamcasts + HIT-0400 BBA + HKT-0910 SYSTEM-DISC 2 so I should be able to dump on each machine and compare the checksums to make sure it is read correctly. TOSEC only use 2 unique Dreamcasts for this, but for arguments sake I can dump from a NTSC-J, NTSC-U and PAL-E Dreamcasts to be thorough. That and it will be a welcome change from current affairs

 

I don't recommend to send the harddisk to somebody to dump it.

Harddisks are sensitive to shocks during shipping, so the risk to corrupt it are higher than when you send GD-R... (if you pack the GD-R in a decent way of course )

Installing a SCSI card & cable & having the software run under Windows7 will be much easier & faster than anything else...
(unless you live not too far from Belgium, in which case I could think of other options )

For the GD-R: I have some dc & dc dev hardware, so I can help too if necessary

 

If nyou don't mind sending the GD-R via mail (well packaged) I think LEGiT offer is the best one. Since he got a SystemDIsc2 he could dump them with the new trick ASSEMbler discovered, which is easy, fast and effective.

If you wanna do it yourself using your devkit serial; port it's doable also.

As said, shipping hdd is not a really good idea unless you pack it extremely well in a lot of foam!

FG

 

FYI Omar im in the UK - not so far from France (before you move) but if you don't fancy anything leaving mainland Europe for whatever reason wombat is in the Netherlands, also with Dreamcasts + HIT-0400 BBA + HKT-0910 SYSTEM-DISC 2 and I'm sure he wouldn't mind having a go too (if he can find the time)

 

Yeah no problem, I'm willing to help out if needed.

 

Hope this comes together somehow as it will be interesting to see whats on the discs and on the drive.

 

Yeah , Omar can you take a photo of your GD-Rs ?

 

This sounds promising, like finding a plastic Easter Egg and cracking it open to see if there is a prize inside. ^^

Btw, Happy Easter weekend all.

 

I am moving to the UK in Guildford (close to London) next week but my Sega stuff will follow me only in 1 or 2 months.
I can send the GDR to Legit no problem. Some are scratched.
They are GDR and devkit from a french dev company so they weren't meant for distributionetc, so the GDR aren't necessarily working stuff, I'd expect some GDR to be just "failed" burn.

Where in UK are you LeGit?
Thanks for the detailed post but frankly I don't have the energy to setup the Katana myself and think about every little details, I am sure you guy would do it better than me but if you tell me all I need is a 2930+cable and I can copy the katana files from Windows 7 then I'd be happy if someone can lend me this cart for a bit.

 

I've got a 2940/2940U and 2940UW somewhere. Obviously shipping to the UK is a tad cost prohibitive.

 

He'd be better off to buy a 2940 on ebay.co.uk, they cost nothing:
eg: 0.99 GBP current bid with 1 day left:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Adaptec-AHA-2...Components_InterfaceCards&hash=item1e63053bcd

@Legit: there are different kinds of 2940, some versions have the HD50 connector, so no adapter needed for them. (cfr the 2940 Family: http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/support/scsi/)

So all you need is a SCSI card, a scsi cable, the SDK, and the how-to guide to setup your devkit on Windows7: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25882
(Some say you need a scsi terminator, some say it's not needed)

 

hehe I know 2940 come without UW too but 2930 is easier to find in 50 pin and usually cheaper Katana SDK works in Windows 7 but only after what is a lot of faffing about, I'm pretty sure there is a FAQ here somewhere or you could try that XP on Windows 7 virtual machine.

No one is forced to use adaptec SCSI cards BTW - back when I had a 5.24 I used a Toshiba Tecra laptop on loan with a docking station which had both internal and external SCSI - I still have the unit on long term loan and a variety of cables and terminators.

FYI Omar I'm near Manchester. For what it's worth if your Dreamcast stuff is coming over later, maybe bring your HKT-06 GD-R with your hand luggage and mail them special delivery from within the UK - they will be tracked, insured and cheaper to ship. As for your 5.24 for what it is worth, many come without interesting files but going off my track record with hardware exploding at least, you are better off keeping it intact and in the months before it follows you can get settled and the ASPI / Katana R11a SDK installed as and when to do that yourself - honestly if all goes well it will only take you an hour at most to be able to copy and paste right off the Katana.

 

No faffing needed at all... check the [How-to] link in my previous post.

All you need is a specific wnaspi dll (provided in the guide) + execute the programs in admin mode.

 

I have pmed him.

 

Heres an idea.

I currently live in bournemouth (southwest of england) but make regular trips back 'home' to my mums house which is in macclesfield (northwest of england)

I could be a 'personnal' courier collecting the GDR's from omar in surrey and taking them up north and meeting Legit in manchester (only 20 mins on the train from macc)

Just as an option instead of posting them as its always a worry

I will be going back up north on friday 6th may for the weekend heading back to bournemouth on sunday. I will be heading back up north again on the night of the 12th may (as I am doing the london to Brighton mini run and I have to collect my uncle)

I understand if people are wary of someone 'collecting' potentially unreleased stuff and then disappearing but like I said its an offer and I am a pretty genuine guy and huge DC fan

Thanks :thumbsup:

Hello

My offer of collecting and delivering the discs to Legit up in Manchester still stands if it is something Omar would be interested in?

I will now be in London on Thursday 5th May so might be able to come up with something then in terms of collecting

Just let me know with a bit of advance warning if interested

cheers!

 

Sorry my stuff are still packed in France, I wouldn't have access to them that early (I am now in UK).

 

Okay thats cool.

I will always be flitting around between Bournemouth, London and Macclesfield (for Macclesfield read manchester as its pretty close) so once the stuff arrives I would be happy to help

I am really eager to see whats on the discs and the HDD as you said it was from a French developer I am secretly hoping its Agartha (as it was being made by Frédérick Raynal hopefully in France rather than the states)

A long shot I know but what ever is on the discs and drive it will be fun

Cheers :thumbsup:

 

It has nothing to do with Agartha, it's probably mostly stuff from Evil Twin which I had worked on a little. I inherited some DC stuff when they were throwing them away.

I worked with Fred for some time he was always a bit shy/evasive on Agartha like he is sometimes. That said, he mentioned they had really non-interactive footage running (i think on DC) but not much of an actual game.