Whats the Dreamcast Scene Missing?

[Ian_micheal]

[quote author=JMD link=board=news;num=1081851032;start=0#8 date=04/19/04 at 13:37:28]I though about this topic for few days and now here is my feeling :

--> A kind of system disk should be cool. Something between an OS and a Utiliities compilation : Imagine DemoMenu with a nice GUI with Icon + DCloadIP built in
+ VMU Manager Â*built in (as Speud's one) + a lots of utils on the disc (text editor, web browser, BA Basic interpreter, MP3 reader, Image viewer etc...). When you exit a program, the Gui just reload as DCLoadIP (by asking swap CD if needed) .

-> A soundTracker or a Rebirth clone

-> More Reverse specific Hardware : GPU and SPU (as BlackAura said in the interview)

-> A little JVM as phone mobile's one

-> An Amstrad CPC, PC Engine Â*& Amiga emulator




[/quote]

All sound do-able but the amiga. Complex hard ware with exact timing. No room for doing some thing wrong. JMD are you going to start any of these.?

[JMD]

[quote author=Ian_micheal link=board=news;num=1081851032;start=0#10 date=04/20/04 at 12:58:57]
JMD are you going to start any of these.?[/quote]

Few of them seems to be a bit complicate for me :-/ . Anyway, I will working on the final release of Maqiupai for 2 or 3 weeks more.
After that, why not working on a Amstrad CPC emu in a team .
I never made any port or emu but I can code a GUI, an CPC Disk autoboot (cf. DCEmulation topic) or help on few points.
Should be a good point to learn how emus works.

[smiles]

What the scene needs most is a site that has all the apps, games and emulators available in one format. Preferably plain scrambled files. Every site conatine Nero images, Diskjuggler images, plain scrambled and unscrambled files, ELF files and it makes it rather difficult for people to get things going when there are so many different types of files to download.

Perhaps this site could take the time to convert all available downloads to ZIP or RAR files containing the Plain scrambled files.

[BlackAura]

We're missing a couple of major development tools. Specifically, an IDE (which Propeller seems to have taken care of, as soon as we can get an English version), and a simpler development language that could be used for making games (like the BASIC interpreter I'm working on). Between the two of them, they could make coding for the Dreamcast so much easier to get into.

A totally foolproof CD burning program would be good too. Selfboot Inducer works well, but relying on a completely separate program like DiscJuggler or Nero is a weak point. DiscJuggler doesn't work on many systems, and Nero 6 seems completely incapable of burning Dreamcast-compatable CDs.

[wraggster]

I like the sounds of the Basic Interpreter

did the commodore 64 use Basic?

[BlackAura]

Yeah, but it used a really weird version. Virtually all 8-bit machines came with their own BASIC interpreter, and they all did everything slightly differently.

[wraggster]

ive always wanted to make a wrestling manager game, more for the management side of things rather than graphic side as you wouldnt acxtually do the fighting yourself.

[Turrican2K]

A port of a Java VM would be nice. GCJ http://gcc.gnu.org/java/ is progressing quite nicely now and will compile down to machine code, which is nice. Sadly it doesn't have any graphics support yet which kind of spoils the whole games idea :'(

The DC is only 200Mhz too with 16MB RAM, which would limit things too. Would be nice to see this happen, with the alterior motive being that I don't have to spend any effort to port my game to the DC

[curt_grymala]

[quote author=smiles link=board=news;num=1081851032;start=0#12 date=04/20/04 at 23:50:04]What the scene needs most is a site that has all the apps, games and emulators available in one format. Â*Preferably plain scrambled files. Â*Every site conatine Nero images, Diskjuggler images, plain scrambled and unscrambled files, ELF files and it makes it rather difficult for people to get things going when there are so many different types of files to download.

Perhaps this site could take the time to convert all available downloads to ZIP or RAR files containing the Plain scrambled files.[/quote]

You could just visit http://www.sbiffy.com/ and get them all in SBI format. Then, you can put them all on a disc together. I think that was sort of the original focus of Sbiffy! in the first place. Every time something is released, if it is compatible with DreamInducer, then we work hard to get it put together in SBI format. Then, it is either uploaded to DCStuff or to Sbiffy! (they are all eventually uploaded to Sbiffy!, but I don't have upload privs there, so I have to host a lot of them temporarily on DCStuff)

[curt_grymala]

What's the Dreamcast scene missing?

Well, I don't know if this counts as something that's missing, but the DCScene really seems to be getting further and further divided up, into smaller and smaller pieces. It would be nice to see all of these DC sites focus on one narrow element of the DC scene, and work strictly from that angle. For instance, DCStuff is currently under re-construction to have a rather narrow focus. We eventually hope to be the one place that people go for helper apps. Everything that needs to be done before you put the disc into your DC will be found on our site. We don't plan on hosting any emus, apps, demos or games. We will just be hosting tutorials and helper apps. However, we will constantly be updating those two things, to make sure that everything is current. If a tutorial is not good enough, it will be improved as soon as deficiencies are pointed out.

I think this site could really benefit from choosing one particular focus (for instance, hosting all of the apps, demos, emus, games that are released), and focus mainly on that one thing. This could be the one-stop shop for NRG, CDI and plain files downloads for everything. The interviews are fantastic, and they would still fit into the scope I am suggesting.

We could all work together, in cooperation, to build a nice network of sites that each have a narrow focus. It becomes too difficult to keep track of things, and keep things current and updated when you are trying to do everything.

On DCStuff, we plan on having a page devoted to the development of new homebrew stuff, and that page will simply include a short write-up about the scene, and some links to this site, DCEmulation, and CV. We will have a page devoted to SBI's and Dream Inducer, which will include a short write-up, and a link to Sbiffy! We will have a page devoted to artwork, and include a short write-up about the types of artwork that are utilized in the DCScene, and have a link to some place like B!CC. Then, we will have a lot of tutorials, and a lot of helper apps. That will be our focus.

We should each have a focus, and work to further ourselves in that direction, then develop a tight network of sites so that all visitors know where to go for step 1, then where to go for step 2, etc.