Question about DC Hardware Capability

[zratchet]

Hello,

I'm working as a business development manager with a new game controller company and I have a few questions about the Dreamcast:


Would there be interest in the homebrew community for a motion-based controller like SIXAXIS or Wii?
Is there any info on how to connect new hardware devices to the Dreamcast (currently our controller is USB) ?


Thanks for your help in advance!
Michael Lubker
Software and Biz Dev Mgr
Axelo Inc.
http://www.axeloinc.com

[kojiro7]

dear friend,unfortunately the dreamcast homebrew community is fading,so doing such an investment will impress many but finally it will attract only some real hardcore dc owners.i wouldnt proceed if i was you into such move.thats my opinion of course

[BlueCrab]

I think it would be an interesting idea, to say the least.

Anyway, Marcus Comstedt's site (http://mc.pp.se/dc) is probably about the only place you'll see much in regard to the actual serial protocol behind Maple (the Dreamcast controller bus).

Specifically, you'll probably want to look at the following pages, if you would like to make something of a Dreamcast controller:

http://mc.pp.se/dc/controller.html
http://mc.pp.se/dc/maplebus.html
http://mc.pp.se/dc/maplewire.html

Those are pretty much all the documentation of the actual workings behind the bus that I've ever seen available from the homebrew community.

I don't know how much flexibility the controller function type would give for a device that does motion sensing (basically beyond the normal controls, you only have one more 2D axis to work with and a couple of buttons), so it would probably be a matter of creating an all-new function type that would only be accessible to homebrew (since commercial games would obviously not know about it).

It would be an interesting project (coming from my background in Dreamcast homebrew), but even I'll admit that the previous poster is probably right that it wouldn't be a good return on the investment. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see it, and I'd probably be first in line to buy one (assuming it wasn't exorbitantly expensive), but I just don't see it going very far in a strictly business sense.

[beetroot bertie]

I agree it would be interesting to see, but I think you'd need some very strong software to go with it to make it salable. And the market isn't probably that big anyway :(

Kinda reminds me of the DC fishing rod. I never had one, but didn't that have some movement sensing in it for when you're casting your line? I remember people saying you could play Soul Calibur with it to some extent too.

[WhizzBang]

Hi,
I think the problem you are having is the fact that I'm afraid your PC still doesn't spec up to being good enough to achieve high framerates in source games. 1920x1200 is considered a very high resolution, and even a high-end PC would only achieve frametates of around 50-60. However with your current setup, 20-40fps with a lower resolution would seem about right for your spec.
As a brief comparison I used to run a similar system with a Radeon X1650Pro, and achieved about 30fps with my resolution set to 1440x900.

I think you've accidentally replied to the wrong thread.