I just got a Katana dev.box free from a friend that works in the video games industry. I hooked it up to composite video and set all dipswitches in the down position. The rotating knob is set to 4 for US. I powered up the unit with a mint retail copy of Soul Caliber in the drive. The screen goes white for 2 secs and then black again. No video or sound is shown. I tried a audio cd with no luck. Could it be that the unit is in Emu mode? I have no software or scsi cables. I'm going to try the disconnect the HDD from the emu board trick to switch it back to GD-Rom read as shown on this forum. I wanted to ask people with more experience if its something else. To possibly avoid major issues. This is a awesome forum by the way with a wealth of knowledge.
Yes, a black screen sounds like it's just in emulation mode. Sometimes you might have to reflash the unit if putting it into GD-ROM mode doesn't work, but that can only be done through SCSI.
Do you think this could be a realistic solution? Since I don't have the software or cables? Only problem is the pictures in the post are gone because segakatana.com is gone or down. Thanks in advance.hhttp://assemblergames.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-12771.htmlp/t-12771.html
It might work, but I'd advise against it since there's the possibility that something could go wrong. Plus, without it interfaced through SCSI, there isn't much you can do with it. Functionally, it's just like a retail Dreamcast in GD-ROM mode, but with a different startup animation. The only plus is that it contains a built in VGA box (and the MIDI might be able to be used with OTOIRE). Technically you can also link it to a Dreamcast with a coder's cable for VS compatible games. The SCSI card is fairly cheap as well as the needed cable. I've found the terminators to be optional, but you might want to get a couple to be safe. Overall, getting the SCSI stuff is a good investment, especially if you want to try out some of the Katana's other features like screen captures and running betas from the hard drive. By the way, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your awesome acquisition!
Katana I think I'm going to bite the bullet and invest in the hardware, and it looks like most of the software such as the SDKs are downloadable on Underground Gamer. Playing Betas sounds way to good to pass up. I guess not using the development end of the Katana is like buying a Ferrari and never taking it on the freeway. Any merchants you recommend for buying the hardware? And thanks for the advise and the welcome.
Ebay is your best bet for the SCSI hardware, but no one preferred seller in particular except for the terminators. I recommend these from the listed seller. As for the card / cable, it depends on what card you get. If it's the 2940 UW (Ultra Wide), it will have to be a HD 68 - HD 50 pin cable.
I think the Adaptec 2940U (50pin) is the 'Sega recommended' SCSI card in the Katana SDK documentation. Is it a HKT-0120? If so theres a great thread about setting one up here (If you havent already seen it):- http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13278 Please let us know if theres anything interesting on the hard drive! (If your allowed to) and back it up if you can ;-)
Katana I will keep you guys updated about the HDD once I get the epuip up and running. Also do I need official the Sega Katana software CD or is there a work around? Thanks for all the help, this info is priceless.
You'll need the official SDK to get the unit into GD-ROM mode, reflash it, or run software on it. Connected through SCSI, you can view the hard drive from your PC without the SDK. SDK 9 is recommended for stability, but I haven't experienced any issues with 10.
Hello there, I got quite lucky today and unexpectedly came trough a "garage sale" like business from where I got a HKT 0120 sega developement kit. Unfortunately it only has two SCSI terminators and an SVideo cable, but no manuals or SDK software. I had a consumer dreamcast console for some time now, but I never had any experience with a developer kit before, and I'm quite interested in if I were able to get it run some software, or just experience with it a little. By the way I'm from Hungary, so please excuse my far from perfect English hereupon. So now that I jumped in this exciting topic, I'm on to learn as much as I can from these forums and with this post here (http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...v-Setup-(Inc-Setting-up-an-HKT-01)-(08-05-07)). Additionally, this topic describes the current state that I'm in right now. I tried to turn on the devkit, and it lighted up its LEDs with confidence, had a friendly noise, but I only got a black screen from it just like the topic starter fella up there. So my kind ask would be if you could help me get that SDK software, and maybe show me a way to resolve my issue. Will I need to re-flash the devkit? It sounds kinda risky. Will I be able to switch its "modes" from the SDK software if I get all the needed hardware and connections? Thank you much for your help!
If you got the dev box in Hungary - maybe it is a good chance it is from Appaloosa Interactive - the Hungarian company that made Ecco the Dolphin! I can't think of many more Hungarian dreamcast developers... Maybe ubisoft had an office there?
Well, I happened to get a little intel from the business man whom I bought the devkit (and also some game software and consoles like xbox, xbox 360, NDS), further more he also sells quite a lot of 2009-10 high end PC's, surround sound systems, graphic tablets, and all the hardware that a game development company needs. The deal is that a hungarian developer team called Black Hole Entertainment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_Entertainment made a rather wrong business contract with Ubisoft making of Heroes 6. This job caused financial crack for them, and all the property of the studio were sold off in order to cover their depts. (for full story check wikipedia, and its references) This is the auction where my seller got these wares. Well by the fact that the BHE dev team didn't made any dreamcast titles, i suppose one of their mates may used to work in Appaloosa Interactive earlier, then somehow he ended up in BHE with this devkit, but sadly I don't have any other or more accurate information of the origin of this devkit. Maybe in the future I'll try to find one of the BHE members and ask him a little more of this hardware and their story. But in the mean time I luckily found those SDK softwares that I previously asked for, so I one step closer to get this baby show some! I'm currently working on getting those SCSI hardwares, so I'll keep you updated if something fancy happens... and even if I get stuck somewhere.
Sounds interesting, good luck Plenty of developers purchase development kits/licenses, and never actually release or preview a commercial product. Maybe there is some unknown demo or prototype of an unknown game on there. (Or on the other hand, maybe there is nothing)
In the meantime, what you could try : Press and hold the reset button and power up the devkit, release the reset button when the internal check is complete. (all the LED's are done flashing) This should boot the system. You could also try to enter the System Selftest mode which is on EPROM (and should always work) To do this : 1. Plug in an LCD monitor via VGA 2. Set DIP switch 1,2 and 4 to the ON (UP) position 3. Make sure that the slide switch is to the Left position 4. Set Rotary Switch to 0 5. Turn on the devkit. Good luck (Look to the date of topic, puts hand on face...)
Thank you so much for these instructions ZakhooiTM! As I implied before, I completely have no clue how to use this device. There are quite some switches on it and I'm desperate for a manual, or any information how should I set these switches. I read somewhere here, that the frontal rotary switch is used to set the video region codes, but all the other stuff (slide sw, dip sw, those two rotary switches on the back next to the SCSI connectors) are still a mystery for me. By the fact I don't know hot to set up the unit, I instantly did your Selftest instructions. At first I thought I'm out of luck, because I got no signals from the VGA output, then I connected the S-Video and Composite cables to my monitor, and luckily those had a quite lot to show! I think the Selftest went through in order, but at the end it gave me some warning on the GD drive. Maybe the issue was that I didn't put any disk in for the test? So thanks again for those instructions, and I'd be delighted if you cold share more of this kind of information with me.
If you want to know more, just ask me via PM. When I got some more time I will create a Wiki page/site with info for everyone But here is some more info Here is a picture of the front switches with an short explanation: For the rotary switch at the front of the box : Code Country or Region 0 Japan (NTSC) 1 Not used 2 Not used 3 Not used 4 North America (NTSC) 5 Not used 6 Brazil (PAL-M) 7 Argentina (PAL-N) 8 Not used 9 Europe (PAL) A Not used B Not used C Not used D Not used E Not used F Not used Now for the backside of the devbox, the SCSI rotary switches are (ofcourse) for the SCSI bus. SCSI is a daisychain system, so all the devices connected to it are on the same cable that goes to your PC. Your PC will send a request to all the devices that are connected with the SCSI cable, the devices will in turn respond with "Hello this is my ID" The computer will then know that if it have to communicate to the Katana Debug Adapter(DA) it should use ID 3 and ID 4 for the GD-Emulator when sending a data packet. Normaly the rotary switches on the back of the katana are set to 4 for the left switch and 3 for the right rotary switch( if I remember correctly, dont have the devkit at the current location) As long you haven't changed them, they should still be in the correct setting, if not it should still work. The reason you need SCSI terminators is that they ensure the signal remains good when in operation, read this for more informatio : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_SCSI#Termination Now for your selftest screen, that looks good! the reason you get a error from the GD-ROM is that you need to put an special Test GD-ROM in the box and you probably dont have one. You can also run some other variations of tests by setting the rotary switch to an other region ID (make sure you turn off the devkit before changing the region) If you want to know more, again just ask
Thanks again so much for these information! Thanks to you, I were able to set it up right and I succeeded to get to the DC menu! then I put in my copy of Crazy Taxi 2, and it worked flawlessly in VGA mode. Looked so sharp and clean that I forget to breath for a moment =) Then I tested my copy of Sonic Adventures and that worked great too. Now unfortunately I currently don't have any other genuine copy of DC games, just a few more community edited CD size rips. I tried to test Sonic Adventures 2 rip and Triggerheart Exelica rip, but the DEV kit recognized them as an Audio disc I suppose, and of course it weren't able to play them. Do you think is there way to get those self burned discs work in the devkit? Maybe when I'll get the SDK environment working I'll be able to edit some properties?
Now that is great news!, and yeah the disadvantage of the devkit's BIOS is that it doesn't support MIL-CD's that are used to boot non-GD games. You could however use GD Workshop of the SDK to get an game to boot. (This is educational info only)
