What did the Utopia bootdisc actually do?

All the descriptions I find of it simply say "it lets you play import games" or "it will boot non-self boot ripped DC games"

I get that this is what it does, but I'm looking for a description with some more granularity. Why does it allow for playing of import or non-self boot DC games. If I have a program compiled for DC, can I just burn it to a cd-r as a standard data disc with no consideration for format of the disc, and boot it with the utopia boot disc? Is the utopia program the same as the dreamcast system disc 2?

 

This gives a bit of an insight:

http://codeidol.com/community/gamedev/retro-hack-the-dreamcast/21080/

 

Interesting. But it doesn't explain why games 'copies' can be run even on Data/Data format instead of Audio/Data.

 

The mil-cd exploit doesn't rely on the type of the first session, only in the fact that there's 2 sessions. Thus data/data and audio/audio are both feasible.

Mil-Cd was designed to be audio/data though.

FG

 

The (sketchy) story I'd always heard, was that this mil-cd booting was unintentionally left as part of the bios from back when the DC was in prototype stage and people were testing out software on CDs.

It sounds like the term exploit, which I've heard since 2000 for the mil-cd booting, is false in the sense that if retail SEGA mil-cds have bonus features like playing video or interactive menus, clearly they are booting non-bios DC code to run the videos/menus as the bios doesn't have these features by itself. In other words, it was no mistake that SEGA allowed the DC to have this feature.

 

That could be. Music albums with DC bonus content isn't far fetched. IIRC PS2 and Xbox had DVDs of the sort.

 

Mil-CD is an official cd-rom format made by SEGA that is nothing else than a music cd specially crafted to have some bonus when put inside a dreamcast. Some (around 10 IIRC) jap mil-cd discs have been released commercially.

In fact it's a 2session audio/data cd with it's 2de session first 32kb (user data) being a modified ip.bin. When the DC detects a cd-rom, it checks if there's a ip.bin in 2de session first bytes, and if yes it boots the executable accordingly.

However SEGA had put a protection in those discs to avoid easy piracy. The executables on the disc were scrambled (as opposed to gd-rom ones) and the gd-rom drive was completely locked up after the main binary was loaded. This was supossed to make it impossible to load a game without knowing the scrambling algorithm, and also impossible to launch game with more than one file; which isn't really practical for games. An unscrambled binary is directly loadable in memory, the "regular" way of booting gd-rom skips the scrambling thing.

If the inserted disc is a CD-ROM, it follows the Mil-CD bootstrap, if it's a GD-ROM it follows the regular one.

But somehow, some smartass figured out the scrambling algorithm and also figured out how to tell the Dreamcast to unlock the GD-Rom. This smartass implemented both routines in the ip.bin file that's the first thing to execute code from disc in the bootstrap.

Utopia is a simple game loader that unlock the gd-rom and then loads a game from a 2de CD.

In short, SEGA designed MilCD *roughly* this way:
0) Mil-CD inserted
1) Bootbin scrambled on disc
2) Loading it into memory. Unscrambling it.
3) Locking the gd-rom
4) Executing

And the Mil-CD exploit goes *roughly* this way (exploit steps are indicated by **)
0) Mil-CD inserted
1) Bootbin unscrambled on disc
2) Loading it into memory. Unscrambling it. (This create non-working un-unscrambled code)
**) Scrambling it. (back to unscrambled working code!)
3) Locking the gd-rom
**) Unlocking the gd-rom (GD hardware reset)
4) Executing

IIRC this explanation is correct, but it's been a while since I've worked into ip.bin stuff.

I hope this clarifies this topic!

Cheers,

FG

[EDIT]

The part that *might* as been left from developpement bios is the ability to run code from ip.bin, rather than just blindly following the regular/milcd bootstraps according to the inserted disc type.

 

Thanks! That was a really interesting read in layman's terms.

 

I believe the point of allowing to run code from IP.BIN was to allow for the insertion of the Windows CE logo on the Licence display screen .... :thumbsup:

Poor SEGA ... How such a silly mistake (well they were trying to be innovative and creative) could be their absolute ruin. :shrug:

 

I don't think so, as the only thing to change to display a 3rd aprty logo is to change the logo from a blank one to a custom one.

I *think* a logo is always loaded, but that most of the time it's only a blank one.

FG

 

When a Windows CE logo is used, the SEGA logo and license text changes position, getting pushed up a bit. I believe. :shrug:

So no, not "blank logo" is aways shown.:shrug:

 

I'm not quite sure about that, but I never verified myself. The point it they could have hardcoded the bootstraps in the final BIOS and made the coders forced to comply to a strict standard for the ip.bin. It'd have blocked modless selfboots.

FG

 

x

 

Guess why the PS3 is far behind in the current generation...

Easy and early piracy is a system seller, no doubt. Best examples include the PS1 and PS2.

 

Everyone I knew with a PS1 had it modded.

If you buy a used PS1 its usually got an old 4 wire modchip in it.

 

In most cases the companys dont make any money on selling the console, but compensate this with the sale of games and accessories. So if a console is easy to pirate, doesnt really do any good for such a company.. yes there are more units sold, but most of the time without any origional games!

 

It does help you get a foothold however....

I dont think the PS2 would have been the run away success it was, if it wasnt for everyone getting a PS1 (because they could pirate the shit out of it).

I knew very few people with a modded PS2, even if their PS1 was modded before it.

 

^ This is what broke SEGA. :shrug:

 

I thought it was the CEO's choice that killed 'em. They decided it was "better" to make only software on someone else's hardware - The Dreamcast had plenty of life left in the platform when they canned it...

 

Unless my memory fails me all this happened right around the same time that both the Gameshark and Action Replay came out. I remember using a CD-R of an Action Replay demo disk that was distributed in a European magazine to boot import disks prior to the Utopia disk making its rounds.

Was it ever established which came first? Did Datel (or Interact, bleem!, and whoever else) find this exploit first, or did they just use the existing information to make their own product?