Replace GD-ROM with Flash Card?

Ok
lets face it, this pinout is totally useless, no matters wich eye looks at it.
Yes, a gdrom drive emulator is possible with an fpga, as its possible on saturn or psx, it just has to be coded, can this pinout be usefull for the masses ? NO
I am sure the guy who did this pinout cant do anything with it as the rest of us.
Totally useless

 

What'd be cooler than a CF reader would be to have a DVD-ROM drive so that you could possibly put multiple DC games onto one DVD if you got it to selfboot using some kind of ISO tool, similar to the GCOS multiboot to put 3 GC games onto one 4.7GB dvd. You e could even do Blu-ray, but that might be pushing it and HD-DVD might be a more appropriate choice for the Dreamcast.


A similar idea is in development for the Xbox 360, for a flash device to connect to the Xbox 360 in lieu of the DVD drive and what ISO is selected is controlled by the device so the 360 sees it as a normal drive.

 

Negative.

1) I don't care about the masses for the most part. Sure they're the ones who hire me to remove viruses, install RAM, region mod their TG16, etc. But those aren't the same people who care about swapping their GD-ROM assembly for a CF card in the first place.

Now if by "masses" you mean "people who lack the ability to hack the DC BIOS to put this new information to use" then sure, its useless to them. But I don't really care much for them given how many people I see like that who have the mentality of "GIMME GIMME GIMME!!111". A bit cynical and jaded an approach I'm sure but one many of my fellow members can relate to.

2) If one assumes there are two steps to getting a CF card hooked up to a Dreamcast in place of the GD-ROM then one step is done. The other is hacking the BIOS to work with this. Bad mouthing it because it isn't immediately useful is bad form.

On topic: I've had a few people who can hack the BIOS in such a manner express interest in having a re-writable chip installed in a Dreamcast for them. Hopefully this interface will provide motivation for them to re-inquire about my stash of chips.

The only absolute way this could be considered useless is if the information presented has enough flaws as to render it unusable.

 

guy, you have no clue about what you are talking about

First, there is a checksum on dreamcast bios that avois any modification there (the mix betwen retail and debug bios works thanks to a collision)

Seccond, this is not as easy as patch something into the bios, you have to create a lot of code from scratch, a compat flash its not an ata cdrom drive.

Now call all your friends and bring us a hacked bios

How good it would be that speak would not be free

Can it be done ? Yes, it can, everything is possible, but this pinout is not the rosseta stone, its the same thing than bios pinout, nothing special

 

just so you know CF ises the ATA interface just in a much smaller form factor
until you can back up what you say buddy i wouldn't be saying APE doesn't know what they are talking about

 

1) masses in his post means anyone who that has any electronics skills. there simply not enough info.

2) this info is incomplete no matter how we look at it so step one isn't done. The other is hacking the BIOS to work with this. expressing these facts is not bad mouthing but reality. calling me uninformed is bad form.

The only absolute only way this could be considered usefull is if we had schematic to the cf board and the code snippets from the bios that this came from and that wont even get us close to enough info.


Naomi GD-ROM drives are more then a dreamcast gdrom drive. Naomi GD-ROM drives are self contained unit that streams its data. a gd rom drive on a dreamcast has these electronics on the dreamcast itsself. so we can not compare the two directly. the gd rom on a dramcast isnt ide so we can not compare.

 

Guys, calm down, a bit of info is better than no info at all. End of the argument please!

 

so far this info is great but the misinformation of what the info is has been destructive.

this is way far from the how to interface a cf to a dreamcast gdrom pinout. this is just neat info that needs ahell of alot to be added before its even step one of ape's roadmap to how to do this.

ape i respect you alot. lets not fight.

 

After servicing some of them, I have to disagree with you. It's simply a case which holds an complete Dreamcast GD-ROM assembly and an pinout adapter. Whatever you're talking about is contained on the DIMM interface unit, along with VXWorks OS and other interesting stuffs.

Serantes mentioned the BIOS CRC but oddly it seems that the CRC doesn't really matter at all, because it can be patched out, fixed or changed.

The only issue that remains is how it will behave (will it hold only one game per card or more than one ? Will it use ISOs in a FAT FS or we just toss the ISO data on the card RAW ?) and some other issues like for example CD-DA tracks that NAOMI doesn't use but Dreamcast DOES use on some games (Guilty Gear X for an quick example)...

This post just mean to illustrate some of the quirks I see on the idea. It seems doable.

And you gentlemen have no need to fight because of this idea ... :thumbsup:

If it's really a good idea some smart person might pick it up and develop. One thing is granted, though: Flamming others won't make that happen. :lol:


P.S.: I'm pretty sure I'm not capable of doing something like this, even having a vague idea of how it could be implemented ... :shrug:

 

Glad to hear it but I'm not intending to fight anyone here.

As l_oliveira pointed out the checksum is highly irrelevant. You can modify the BIOS, calculate a new checksum and insert it into the routine like a virus does to cellular DNA. One can even remove the routine entirely.

I just prefer to not get bad mouthed for reasons that are readily proven to be false.

 

thank you this is the stuff we have to investigate to make that info posted half way relevant.

my disagreement is the idea that this is some kind of drop in replacement for a dreamcast gd drive. which as your explanation shows why its not. there is allot of support hw that the dreamcast gd drive has on the the dreamcast.


i love the idea of a cf slot for dreamcast and i know some but not alot about Naomi. im willing to help in anyway

 

i wonder if the expansion port pinout will be of any use
that is if anyone has ever documented it

because the zip drive attachment uses an IDE interface
there might be IDE lines in the expansion port

might be a much simplified point of attack

 

The pinout shows how to make a compatible CF unit for sega DIMM, that is it.

If you have a CF unit, you can swap it with something that has the pinout in the link and it will work.

The corresponding firmware for Naomni has already been leaked, and google with tell you where to find it.

How can this possibly offend you guys? If you thought it was a dreamcast thingy, you should read the page again and check your head.

 

invzim

such a change from you from earlier posts. thank you for reading the topic now.

 

CD-ROM emulation may be good for all console, especially Nec's machines like CD-ROM² or first gen PSX. Mecha parts are hard to preserve and the best way to play on original hardware in a far future is a low level medium emulation. Keep all hardware except drive (lens, mechanic...). I'm aware that is very dificult, but how playing with your favorite game in 20xx when your game disk data will be corrupt by wear ?

 

Just to chime in the info is not useless. If you were to do everything in reverse and build a custom Bios and then a CF adapter you'd be thinking "damn how do we connect this bad boy???....ooooh look a handy pin out someone provided...that's useful!"

Anyway Dr.Wily I think you've hit the nail on the head there. Finding suitable replacements for actual hardware is far greater in importance than allowing people to play their ROMZ!1!

I'm guessing that would require some kind of translation sequence in-between a new laser assembly and the motherboard yes? Probably trickier to do than a CF mod but it would be far more worthwhile in the long run. Albeit the wider community wouldn't appreciate it until 20 years from now.

 

pinout with out a schematic of the cf adpater does no one any good.

 

Is this the twilight zone?? You don't need a schematic, it's just hooking up the signals 1-1. Why else would the table look like that? I'm done with this thread, best of luck

 

i got the same feeling THAN you, better let daydreamers alone

 

I've tried to strike up that conversation before and most non-engineer types are usually "who cares". People are only starting to realize that video games are a part of our culture just as much as Michael Jackson, Jackson Pollock, Steven Spielberg, etc. The difference is interactivity really, but museums have no problem spending $50k+ to restore a single painting.

We can preserve our video game heritage today before we resort to that seen in an episode of Cowboy Bebop where Spike and Jet attempt to track down a Beta player and compatible TV ~80 years after they stopped being produced. They only found one in a building partially flooded and by sheer dumb luck. Replacing the optics with flash is a good step in removing one point of failure and allowing the hardware to still be considered "useful".