Flashing Dreamcast BIOS

[kohan69]

Greetings

I would like to flash the dreamcast's bios with my own
modified version - can this be done with coder's cable or boot-up disk?

With the final purpose of it addressing the extra ram I soldered in.

afaik games code talks to the api which talks to bios, so some games maybe able to utilize the extra ram.
at least the games that are programmed using wince instead of segaos

thank you.

[quzar]

There is no way to 'flash' the bios. What you can do is add another chip. http://cadcdev.sourceforge.net/hdwrprj/navi/ this is the only documented time anyone has ever done it (that I know of). I believe the source to the bios is open, and is availible in the svn repository of kos.

I don't think any game would be able to do anything with it, as restrictions are probably hard coded (as opposed to a malloc that would be happy to not be able to allocate more ram) MAYBE there could be a game or two that would be made faster with this (or a bit happier?) and definetly homebrew could take advantage of it.

[kohan69]

thanks for the link that really helps.

I could not find if there was a hardcoded block or not.

ps; was there ever any source code released for any official dreamcast games?

[quzar]

As far as I know, there were a handfull of unfinished games whose sources were found sitting on devbox hard drives.

[Elven6]

thanks for the link that really helps.

I could not find if there was a hardcoded block or not.

ps; was there ever any source code released for any official dreamcast games?

From what I heard when the Sega stopped supporting Dreamcast a lot of developers sold unfished copies of games like Propeller Arena, Half Life, Flinstones Racing, PBA 2001, and mabye some more.

Once hackers got a hold of these GD-ROMS they put them all together and released them.

[kohan69]

From what I heard when the Sega stopped supporting Dreamcast a lot of developers sold unfished copies of games like Propeller Arena, Half Life, Flinstones Racing, PBA 2001, and mabye some more.

Once hackers got a hold of these GD-ROMS they put them all together and released them.

But they were late-beta games, the late betas were leaked, not the code itself.

A beta is a complete game but not a final store copy (it may still have bugs)

[Mark30001]

I've just found in my PC a program that is supposed to flash the Dreamcast. I have no earthly idea if it is warez or not.

I hope this doesn't violate any rules. Here's the readme:



Dreamcast internal flashrom eraser



DISCLAIMER
----------

This program is provided as is, I'm not responsible of any damage
and loss resulting from its usage, blabla



WARNING - MUST READ
-------------------

* When you burn this on a cd, be sure to clearly write what it
is. You won't want to use it by mistake. It doesn't ask you for
confirmation or anything.

* If you use this program after you gone online in PSO once (or
more) with the serial # currently stored in your DC, you'll no
longer be able to go online again with this serial # without
calling Sega and ask them to reset it.

* Beware also that all PSO saves created with a certain serial #
won't be recognized with another serial #.

* All your ISP settings will be erased too. (For Europeans users,
it means that you'll have to launch dreamkey and select
reinstall-me. This, of course, only if you don't use the PW
browser to setup another ISP)



WHAT IT IS ?
------------

This little prog will allow you to reset your dreamcast internal
memory, erasing all isp settings, and, most notably, PSO serial
number.

It's useful to run import JP PSOv.2 over an US (and probably EU)
PSOv.1. Note that if you do this, you'll of course won't be able
to re-use your v1 saves. You'll have to restart from scratch.

Note that I don't have PSOv.2 myself, and don't know all of the
details to make it work.

I just quickly hacked this stuff together because I had to reset
my DC's internal memory for a complicated PSO serial # mess, and
it seems that many people need this these days with import
PSOv.2. There's also the alternative to use v1 PW browser and
hold B+X at start, but for people who can't find PW browser v1,
this one may come handy.



HOW TO BURN
-----------


1. Using Nero under windows
---------------------------

Thanks to Arim on PSO-World, an image for Nero is included in the archive.
Don't know the details to burn it, but it must be rather straightforward.


2. Using anything else (in particular, Unixes and AmigaOS :))
-------------------------------------------------------------

The archive contains the ISO images of two tracks (track1.raw and
track2.raw). They are plain binary files, and they can
theorically be used with any decent burning software. They don't
hold informations about their format, sessions, etc, so I will
explain how to burn them.

You have to burn the first track as a mode2 track, and then close
the session.

Then, you burn the second track as a XA/mode2 form 1 track, and
then close the CD.

It's not so complicated, you just have to find the right options
in your software. Please note that track2 should begin at LBA
11702 to work. If you burn the first session properly, it should
be the case.



HOW TO USE
----------

Just put the CD in your dreamcast and power it up. Once the SEGA
license screen appear, the screen's border should become red,
then green. It is red while erasing the flash, and turn green
when it's done. It's very quick, it takes approx 1/2 second.

Once the border is green, you can remove the cd and switch your
dreamcast off and on. It will ask you for the date and time like
the first time you powered it up.

Note that all your ISP settings will be erased too.


THANKS
------

To Arim for the Nero image ^_^
To Dragon_lord to have pushed me to do this ^_^
To all people on PSOW forums for being generally nice ^_^

[quzar]

I don't know if that's warez or not, but it can be done using KOS. That doesn't modify the bios though, it modifys the flashrom, which is kind of like the equivilant of the cmos on a pc (where hardware settings data is stored). On the DC it's used for a few things: language, timezone, sync with vmu time, all the isp settings for internet connection, pso serial keys, and a few other random bits.

[fackue]

That program flashes the Dreamcast's flash (not the bios), like it says, it holds information like PSO serial and ISP info.

[Mark30001]

Ah, sorry. I read the title of the thread wrong! :p

[kohan69]

On the DC it's used for a few things: language, timezone, sync with vmu time, all the isp settings for internet connection, pso serial keys, and a few other random bits.

Maybe even system clock or memory timings?! :D
...no reason for those to be there



Thanks for thin info Mark30001.