Dreamcast Reading An IDE Hard Drive

evilpaul13 writes: "Somebody got an IDE Harddrive hooked up to his Dreamcast! He plans to build a new case for it as a later project. Maybe this will encourage new Linux for Dreamcast work with the greater possibilities it presents for a small SH6 based web server?" This is still a work in progress -- but it's encouraging, especially given the current price of Dreamcast consoles.

Dreamcast is Cheap, but not easy to find anymore

[LordZardoz]

A friend of mine was / is looking to purchase a Dreamcast, but none of the large retailers carry them any more. Unless you can get one off of E-Bay or a Pawn Shop, you will probably have great difficulty finding any these days.

END COMMUNICATION

Play from hard drive?

[gss]

I'm not as interested in running linux from a dreamcast but this would be rather handy if you could play games from the hard drive. I'd probably play with my dreamcast more often if the damn games loaded quicker.

what happened to linuxx on the xbox???

[Anonymous Coward]

i heard something about someone putting linux on an xbox and running it on that. where can i find information?

Cheap Kiosk

[geoffsmith]

Here's a recipe to roll your own cheap kiosk:

• 1 el cheapo Dreamcast for your local walmart with dreamcast linux installed
• 1 inexpensive little TV (you've probably got one in your garage)
• 1 spare ide drive -- I've got one sitting on my desk
• Plywood and paint

And as a bonus, you can play Sonic the Hedgehog on it!

Websurfing done right! StumbleUpon [stumbleupon.com]

Re:Dreamcast is Cheap, but not easy to find anymor

[saveth]

There's a store just up the road called GameStop. It's a part of Barnes and Noble, so I assume you can find GameStops pretty much anywhere you can find a Barnes and Noble. Anyway, they sell used consoles, including Dreamcasts. I bought my N64 there about a year ago for only about $50, and it's worked wonderfully since then. Good quality, low prices. Check them out.

Linux on the DC...

[Junta]

It has beend done, here is a url:
http://www.m17n.org/linux-sh/dreamcast/
You can even get an ISO for the modified RedHat/eCos there.
It supports the video card (unaccelrated framebuffer, maybe improved by now), and the BBA (if you are lucky enough to have one). You *could* make it into a web server through nfs, or static on CD, but see no good reason. Doesn't support the sound though.
Personally, If I had a BBA and linux supported the sound, it could make a convenient MP3 jukebox with neato visualizations, or even an MPG player. You can get software to play MPG and MP# from CD already, but over NFS would be so much more convenient... Home theater applications, that could be useful, since it's form factor is so nice. Linux on the XBox would be a truly great Home Theater thing (hard drive and ethernet built in). Hell, any general purpose OS on the XBox would make the box more attractive, the games sure as hell don't excite me.

I can actually think of a use...

[Paradoxish]

...for running Linux off of a HDD hooked up to a dreamcast, although the PS2 serves the purpose a little better for me (just based on its shape and its PC-like CD tray): car "PC" systems! Think about it, a console is generally cheaper than a PC, has a smaller profile, doesn't generate as much heat, and has more "out of the box" uses (A PS2 placed in a car is already capable of playing games, DVDs, AND CDs - and with Linux running on it could probably very easy serve as an mp3 player).

A Dreamcast might not be as useful for that specific purpose, but the moral is don't immediatly assume any Linux project done "just for the hell of it" has no practical use. Anyone with the creativity and skill to get Linux running on unusual hardware (and in this case modify the hardware itself) can definetly come up with a good use for it.

A success?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dreamcast Linux distro isn't a success yet from what we've used (on the DC we bought specifically). It's certainly got potential. Just a shame about the broadband adapter drought.

Re:Summary of Sega consoles/CPU's

[Anonymous Coward]

Despite its bulky size, the SMS converter did not have a Z80 in it. It was just necessary to convert between the cart pinouts which varied greatly between the 2 systems.

Except for some minor differences, the Genesis is able to run SMS software in its SMS compatibility mode. It isn't emulation, it's just the way the Genesis was designed to work. The Z80 subsystem's memory is easily remapped to work with SMS carts and if you've ever taken a look at how the SMS and Genesis video processors work you'd notice some funny similarities.

The Genesis VDP can be programmed to act like an SMS VDP (which was similar if not the same as the MSX's.)

Re:Summary of Sega consoles/CPU's

[ActiveSX]

The DC uses a Yamaha AICA chip for sound, which is just an ARM that runs code given to it to process sound. Pretty flexible beast, from what I've heard.

Re:Summary of Sega consoles/CPU's

[DrPascal]

Flexible, and as far as the homebrew people are concerned, slower than expected. As someone that has played with the homemade dcdev kit setups, while they can do WAV/MOD type stuff smoothly, the SH4 processor has to get involved in order to decompress MP3s in realtime. The ARM audio chip should have enough power to do it, but the guys that wrote the code can't get it to run at full speed (yet).