"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

Excellent. It's about time, Deunan! :encouragement:

Let's hope it gets released this time and supports raw / GDI files.

Meanwhile, I'm still messing with this BIOS redirect code...
I've managed to compile just the redir stuff without KOS. The binary is now only 4.24KB instead of 272KB.
I'm in the process of copying the code into a BIOS flash image. If I can get serial to work I might have a chance of debugging it.

This is good news about the Duenan's board though. It would be great to have a hardware solution with a fast USB connection.
There are a lot of extra things you can do with an FPGA too.

OzOnE.

 

Wow, that's awesome progress since the last time I read up on the status of GD emulation!

Does anyone know if Deunan plans on selling his FPGAs once it is completed?

 

I guess so. In a previous post on his site (27th Dec 2011) he said that he intends to sell his JVS converter and the GD Emu.
He also asked about setting up a shop when they are finished.

I wonder why the GD Emu board has a separate MCU when an FPGA could do everything?
I suppose it does make it much easier to program and to port C / C++ stuff to. I kind of wish I'd gone that route now.

OzOnE.

 

yeah that's strange, it would make more sense to combine everything onto an FPGA.

however, a modded bios so we could directly solder an IDE to the Dreamcast mobo would be even better if possible.

 

cause MCU is ready to use and it has internal ram and other peripherials, like i2c, spi, USB controller...
yep, after all things work with success - next level to reduce ic's is put all in one fpga... but at the begginig easiest way use everything simple and ready-made stuff...
i used tusb3210 it can load code from pc by usb cable, by "app loader" from Texas Instruments. so i didnt think how make any loader..just usb conn and mcu)))..

..and as for me - it's very comfortable separate things by HW and SW level. fpga is powerful on the HW level, mcu can easily program any kind of algorithm in C/C++ ... so, why not)))

but i didnt see, can he load games from this board?

 

AFAIK he's still working on SD read/write issues with various cards on the new FPGA layout but apparently he is able to boot games using his last setup.

See http://dknute.livejournal.com/39276.html

 

That link is a year old. Not his latest setup

 

I stand corrected. Neglected the year in the post date when I was reading the backlog on his blog.

 

Common mistake

 

If I were to purchase on of these units that deunan is working on, would someone here in America be able to solder one for me? (for a fee of course)

 

Don't quote me on that, but I believe deunan would sell them soldered, at least as an option. This way he'd reach more potential customers. You'd got to ask the man though!

 

I would pretty much buy this regardless of cost - laser's dying is the only fault I suffer with on my Dreamcasts!

Really hope this happens!

 

http://dknute.livejournal.com/

Last posted 3/9/2012, interesting read! This would be pretty awesome.

Wow, there's some real asshole in the Facebook group for this, when finding new Dreamcast games on the Internet, I will usually post a little link in each Dreamcast-related page on Facebook, this is something I do to help gain exposure for new developments and help other Dreamcast users find new games with ease, however; when posting about Project-Firestorm's new game on GD Emulation's Facebook some real asshole has taken some offence - I run a Facebook group myself, for free because I love the Dreamcast and love the fact games are made for it, have I really done something wrong here?

EDIT : The other dude and me are all sorted now.

 

No you haven't and as owner of said Facebook page I have corrected the problem.

 

Thank you Sonicdude! I really hope we find a way around the GD drive, I have 3 donor machines waiting to rise from the ashes once more haha!

 

Just in case anyone is wondering about my project status - I'm basically leaving it for now and hoping SWAT will be able to get the code working for the next release of Dreamshell.

I spent many months trying to get both the FPGA and direct IDE versions working without being able to get past the license screen. :moody:

But, I have a pretty good layout for the DC-to-IDE adapter now, so if SWAT is successful, it will be easy enough to get some adapters manufactured.

Hopefully Duenan will come through with his board soon too. It will be a LOT better and more complete than what I could make anyway.

I haven't stopped the idea of modding Dreamcasts though - I just bought two more DC's last week, so I have three units now.

One of them just has a stuck power switch, and the other one seems to have a dodgy PSU (no orange LED).
I bought them mainly because I was thinking of stealing the HOLLY chip to repair a NAOMI I bought a few weeks ago (someone removed the GPU completely, but it was only £20).

If I can leave two DC's working, I was also going to try some cool stereo-3D stuff by syncing two DC mainboards together (one DC for each eye!).
I have a couple of pairs of video goggles and a VR headset now, so it could be fun. I'll definitely be building an Oculus Rift in a few weeks too (lenses already on their way from the US).

I tried doing this with two N64's before, but the clocking scheme is far more fussy than on the DC.

The obvious problem is that even if the two DC's clocks can be precisely synced, one or the other might drop some frames and loose sync again.
It will probably need a signalling system to keep the frame rate synced.

That's all for now.

Cheers,
OzOnE. :cool-new:

 

Hey Ozone, thanks for the time/effort and research put into better understanding the Dreamcast. I wish you luck in your future projects!

 

i bought another two DC for experiments, and i'm going make something interesting for help this project done with success.

i see, it's too hard do debug "fpga" and "direct access" devices in blind.
i plan make something very useful. that can help Ozone control and see information on PC by USB.
but it can take a lot of time time. and i have to complete with ps1 (PSIO) first.
i think before i made it - most things still staying unchanged

 

Anyone else think this topic needs to be stickied with how popular and useful it seems to be now?

 

@OzOnE: I've actually been working on this independently and it's time for me to start testing my FPGA stuff. Do you have an eagle library for either side of the molex connector? I'd do it myself, but I suck with eagle and don't want to order a board where the connector doesn't fit, so I figure if a working one already exists, I'd be better off. (I'm mainly having problems with the spacing for the holes on either side of the female and the metal tabs on either side of the male.)