Okay, I'm starting out fresh so this might be a very stupid question, please don't shoot me I have a dev-unit, cables and a pc. I figure I need the Windows CE 2.1 Toolkit for Dreamcast, so I can start coding away... But ofcourse, I can't find it anywhere. Can anyone help me out ? Is it still available ? Do I actually need it to do something useful with my dev-unit ?
Hrm...well, I'm no programmer, but here's what I know... 1. Unless you were an officially licensed DC developer, it's not quite legal for you to have the windows CE toolkit... :smt040 2. You don't need Windows CE, in fact most games for dreamcast didn't use Windows CE. The only one I can think of that did use it, off the top of my head is Worm's World Party. But...if you're experienced in writing programs for windows, I'd imagine WinCE would be familiar... 3. If you were to release any sort of game, or whatever written with that illegal Windows CE kit, you'd at the very least get booed and hissed at by the DC homebrew people...they use homebrew tools to develop games...so it's legal. 4. People have it. People on this board have it, I'm sure...but why use it?
Rodolf: I can see why you're after a official dev tools, as I don't think any of the homebrew solutions were made for the Katana dev box, and really, if you have one, why not use it? That being said, Blur is right on a few points. Just owning the dev box is a grey area, but if you were making games with a burnt copy of the Katana or WinCE software, then you could have problems. However, if you were able to buy yourself an original copy of the software, you go back into that grey area. Blur is also right on this issue - there are far better solutions than the WinCE toolkit. Sega's own Katana tools far eclipse that little experiment, and are much more desireable for any serious work. I'm not quite sure about being booed by the homebrew community for developing a game with official tools, especially legit ones, but who knows. Homebrew developers can sometimes be an elitist and finicky lot, to say the least. I guess the bottom line is, you could be asking for legal problems from Sega if you were to develop software with the official tools. I for one, however, would like to see some quality Dreamcast homebrew developed on official hardware and tools, and not using whole sets of libraries, etc. that were hacked from scratch. So good luck to you in your endeavors, and like Blur said again, if you look around and ask the right people, you could find the tools you need. :smt023 BTW, I do know that Sega Rally 2 was developed with WinCE as well... and wasn't HalfLife as well? (The reason for its miserable load times?)
I'm not really worried about that That's indeed why I'd like to use the Windows CE kit I'm not planning on releasing - or even making - a game, I just want to code some stuff for my own fun... And people booing and hissing - I couldn't care less, I just want to see if I can do some fun stuff 'Cause I happen to have a devkit, I'm used to windows / Direct3D coding, and I can't see any good reason why *not* Ofcourse if I can't get it, then I'll have to live without.. But I just wanted to check here first - you never know
Can you write programs for the DC now GSL?If so then I am mightily impressed mate,you have learned a load in a short space of time.If you have wrote anything,drop me it in an email,I'd love to see some programs written by the assembler board members.I reckon with the imagination on this board it would be a blast of a game.Alot of the homebrew stuff I have played is well...shite,unimaginative and pretty boring.Not all of it,but I would love to see something with a little flair and invention.
Heh, sadly I have not written anything for the DC yet Nintendomad, as I'm not quite to the point of being remotely smart enough to be able to handle 3d stuff. I have however tinkered with DC dev software quite a bit (both the KallistiOS solution and the Katana kit) and as a result know a little about them. I am currently attempting to learn NES and GBA assembly (yes, at the same time, I'm crazy) as I've got a rather fun idea for a shmup that I'd ideally like to put on a GBA or something. The only stumbling block is finding time with work and whatnot. But when I do achieve any progress, I'll be sure to let everyone here know. ^__^ And yes, I agree with you on most homebrew software - a lot of it is really impressive from the technical aspects, but the whole fun and gameplay elements are severely lacking - most of them are little more than nicely done tech demos in my humble opinion (no offense to anyone who does homebrew, it's just that the DC ones I've seen are fairly lackluster.) And speaking of homebrew - SweaterFish, if you read this, is there any chance I could get a copy of that NGPC game you were working on? I remember you posting screens or something and it looked pretty interesting...
Pretty cool that you are getting into the programming side of things GSL and I await your shoot em up with alot of intrest mate,you seem to have a lot of imaginative ideas. How hard is it to program for these consoles?Is it something I may be able to do.I am really good at working with pc's and can html edit.
It all depends on the console. I find the NES a bit of a pain as I have to code in ASM, however, there is less to worry about (like 3d) as well, so it's sort of a mixed blessing I suppose. Here's a website with assembly tutorials for a variety of consoles, courtesy of our resident assembly language guru, AntiPasta: http://k2pts.home.comcast.net/gbaguy/index.htm
