Boob!boy update... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:08
A busy week, but i managed to do a bit of coding on and off:
Bad news: I spent a fair amount of time at the beginning of the week trying to find the problem that is causing the dreamcast to crash when sound is enabled... but still no luck! I'll get there eventually.
Good news: Although directinput has been previously working there were a lot of problems with it and in-game support was very buggy and temperamental... The directinput stuff has been redesigned and the following has been improved:- in the menus, i have added some timing sensitivity code so that, whereas previously you would move the keyboard/analog stick and the page number or game selected would move 10 pages/games or more and it would thus be quite an effort to select which game to play, i have now added in code and calibrated it to a suitable level so that the page or game selected will change at a suitable rate! In-game controller support has been re-done so that it is much more responsive... to do this, rather than using up my v.limited supply of cdrs, i added in code so that i could test the analogue stick support using my nintendo 64 controller on the pc, and when everything was thus working right, i tested it on the dreamcast! hence pc adaptoid support (www.wishtech.com if u dont know what this) has been added...
my next step is to get speed suitably adjusted so that it runs at the same speed as a real gameboy. sound will still be worked on but its not the sort of thing that one can persist at for long periods... itll be on and off bug finding!
Here are a couple of pics of some new games running in the emulator and there are 3 more in the screenshots page. I have also updated the progress page.
Austin Powers - Oh behave!
Gameboy Basic (just in case you don't trust my programming skills)
Thursday, September 21, 2000
snes9x port by tubooboo Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 13:33
tubooboo has begun work on the port of snes9x which is going to be incorporated into ngine... he has already got it to compile, but not link yet. you may be aware that sin is also working on a port of snes9x, called sintendo. These are seperate projects, and the race is now on, to see who will get snes games running on the dc first!
Tuesday, September 19, 2000
Time for a BIG announcement... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 13:52
You might have wondered what one of the other original coders of boob has been up to... well here's what: A new emulation project is currently underway for your Dreamcast. Actually, it is a bit bigger than that. The project is called ngine, and is sort of a multiplatform environment for rendering 2D screens. It is easiest to be understood as taking DirectDraw one step further, as by providing rendering to target operating systems/platforms as opposed to different hardware on the same platform (like DirectDraw does for Windows). The system currently supports GFX, File I/O, Input, and Memory management functionality and is coded by tUbOobOo in C++. Current display / File / etc plugins are already available for Windows32, WindowsCE, WindowsCE for Dreamcast, and soon Linux. The first big project utilizing ngine will be a SNES9x port for the Dreamcast. Want to learn more / try ngine for your own development? You can visit the seperate ngine homepage for more information... We'll be updating here whenever significant progress is made.
MP3 player Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 10:27
The wraggster informed that a new version of the Mp3 player has been released... This is what is new in version 1.1:
Playlist/.m3u file support File browser(subdirs) Play/Stop/Next/Prev/Shuffle New gfx by Aeg2K, bigger fonts Noise/bitrate/samplerate bugs fixed
speed Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:41
thanks to a tip from Tubooboo (who is working hard on a project himself at the moment) i think i've solved all Dreamcast Speed issues. Sure enough, as soon as i changed all unsigned 16-bit integers with 32-bit ones, the pc version began to run at the same speed as the dc version previously was! i just hope that when i have time to test this on the dc, vice-versa will be true! (it will be) that means that from now on speed should not be an issue... as for the dreaded sound, the code is there but something is going on that the dc doesnt like much and causes it to crash still. i will hopefully get it sorted out soon. i said that there would be a prize for the 300,000th visitor but suspiciously 2 people have claimed it! Could both those people email me again with details of the isp used and the time at which they were apparently the 300,000th visitor?
Sunday, September 17, 2000
search engine... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 12:19
ive removed the search engine box above since very few people used it anyway... no adverts on the main news page from now on!
Saturday, September 16, 2000
Gui pic... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 16:36
*UPDATE* The gui pic below has been replaced with another one which displays the page scrolling for selecting a gb game which is fully working now. I've also implemented resetemulation stuff so that you can press a button on the dc controller and it will take you back to the main menu from where you can select another game to play.
Also here is a pic of Pokemon red for all you Pokemon fans: *END UPDATE*
Here is a pic of the gui in practice: Although this might not seem much different than that of the gui in the gdviewer tool, it has been completely reworked and rewritten.
The gui currently supports upto 1000 gameboy games (could be made bigger obviously, but 1000 seems high enough!), displaying 20 games per page from which the user can select one to play... up and down analog stick buttons will move up and down through the games (the game with the blue blackground in the picture above is the currently selected one) and left and right buttons will move between the pages of games!
Feel free to discuss what features you would like to see supported in Boob!boy on the message board... or request any games you would like to see pics of in action.
Boob!boy Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 14:47
My work on the gui file routines is coming along nicely, and i've fixed some annoying bug that was stopping it from working right... you can now select a gameboy game from a list to play. ill post some pics once ive tested it out on the dc version to make sure all is working correctly!
Friday, September 15, 2000
ip0000.bin tool update... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 1:29
the tool does actually work... _joe_ sent in an email saying he got it to work with nfl2k1 and having taken a look at the ip0000.bin file using the dcinfo tool (u could use any other ip.bin proggie) it does seem to work... it comes up with the correct release dates and the fact that _joe_'s copy is USA version etc... i might try and incorporate the source code into my dcinfo tool eventually, but until then, you can use gonzo's tool to get info about any of your GD-ROMs, such as region code / game name / no.of discs / peripheral support etc... well done gonzo, and thanks to _joe_ for the email! remember this program might not work on your computer cuz it only works on certain os's at the moment...
*UPDATE* This was kindly sent in by Sonikku: "Might want to post that the tool is not reading anything from the high density track of the GD. Its just extracting the first 16 sectors of the low density ISO9660 track." Sorry if there has been any confusion...
Thursday, September 14, 2000
New tool by Gonzo Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 22:06
Yesterday i posted a tool which reads the first sector from a GD-Rom and writes the included IP0000.BIN Informations to the HD. PLEASE NOTE: This does not seem to work on my computer at the moment and the author says he has got it to work on win98 only... if you alter the source code and/or get it to work please email me! Do not email me saying it doesn't work :-) You can get the source code and binaries from the Tools page
super gameboy games... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 12:13
whereas the borders when playing super gameboy games were messed up before the directx rewrite, that has all been fixed and here is a very nice pic of Fifa 96:
Boob!boy fullscreen... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 12:06
After a few questions about the screensize whilst playing games, these pics should make you all happy:
To do this i rewrote a lot of the Directdraw stuff, since it was pretty sloppy anyway, and this rewrite should fix some speed problems also... and it will allow me to very easily allow the user to select their desired screensize for playing games, and do other stuff like turn borders on or off for super gameboy / a few color gameboy games.
Oh, and there are also 2 other pics of WWF Attitude and NBA in the Zone 2k in the screenshots page.
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
New poll Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 22:55
After a great response to the first poll, i decided a second poll was well overdue... Anyhow to the question, "What system emulator would you like to be ported to the Dreamcast?", the results showed that N64 emulation was most sought after (29%), then pleasingly Snes emulation (22%), and Mame coming a close 3rd (19%). Ironically Gameboy Emulation which is a reality wasn't even an available option :-) You can find the new poll on the left-side of the main news page.
Tuesday, September 12, 2000
emulator page Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 22:48
i've updated the emulator page with boob!boy stuff... of particular interest to some of you will be the progress update page which can be found here. At present i'm rewriting the menu file io stuff...
Boob!boy Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 13:20
Directinput on the dreamcast is now fully working... including analog stick support!
HuGo! Posted by
worldrave @ 8:12
Well guys, it looks like HuGo! (a turbographix16 emulator for the PC) will be making it's way to the Dreamcast. Let's wish him luck on a good and painless conversion. I'm impressed on the author's work on the PC version. I'd imagine the Dreamcast will be just as good, but better on a fullscreen TV. Also, on the Gleam! site it looks like he has a cool compatibility chart now on the games that work with the currant version he's working on.
boob!boy... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:30
i havent done much work on boob!boy today, but ive made it a bit faster by removing some unnecessary if statements, since they are not relevant for the dreamcast (stuff like restoring surfaces if the displaymode changes arent needed)...
*UPDATE* - i said i hadnt done much work on boob!boy today, but its not about quantity, its about quality! basically, controllers on the pc version are now fully working (dc version just needs to be tested and since the main directinput stuff is done already it should work first time) and as an example i've posted a 3 pics of super mario land and zelda dx in the screenshots section.
Monday, September 11, 2000
more sad news (on top of ultrahle) Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 20:02
I only today found out that a mod for half-life, which many have been eagerly awaiting, including myself, has been cancelled... imo this is a great disappointment since the work they had been doing thus far looked absolutely amazing. Some of the models by Austin are definitely worth checking out... although i dont know where they can be found :-( if i understand correctly the mod team has split into 2 groups who are each working on their own mod??? The Existence mod, of which Austin is a member, can be found here
Sad news... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 2:03
Although this is non-dreamcast related, i feel it is still worthy of posting... it was announced today that ultrahle has been discontinued by RealityMan. It was a landmark emulator and substantially altered the emulation scene. However since its immediate legal threats from Nintendo, it never recovered and although RealityMan began work on a sequel it is yet to have materialised :-(
Regarding Boob!boy, you might have noticed some pics of NBA in the Zone 2000 which have been added to the
Sunday, September 10, 2000
boards updated... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 18:55
thanks to a suggestion from stalin, i have spent time redoing the boards, so that it is now necessary to register before you are able to post any messages. I'm sorry that i'm forced to do this but it seems people can't handle free speech and accept that this a development website and not for posting requests for illegal dreamcast games! The new forum can be found here and we welcome all dreamcast development / research discussion...
GypPlay nfo updated... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:00
I've updated the GypPlay doc, which describes the features / current limitations / instructions on use for GypPlay 1.1 This doc was written by TheGypsy himself, and can be found here or on the Documentation page
Saturday, September 9, 2000
250,000 visitors! Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 16:28
We recently had our 250,000 visitor to the site after about 1 month and a half! I'll try and think of some "prize" for the 300,000th visitor so take a pic if it happens to be you... (the counter is at the bottom of the screen) Also if anyone has an incite into wince self-booters could they email me... it would be nice to be able release stuff in this format (as well as the normal utopia-bootcd style for all you anti-discjuggler-guys) and it would also save those precious few seconds whilst testing our work on the dc :-)
Screenshots... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:52
Rather than fill up the newspage with screenshots i've created a screenshots page which can be found here I've added screenshots of the gui, the Gameboy color demo, and 2 of tetris dx all running on the dreamcast!
Boob!boy Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:24
it is still fairly temperamental but at this very moment i'm downloading some pics from my camcorder of it running on a tv for any of you doubters :-) my current problem is that i try and be too clever and achieve too much between dreamcast tests, and the dc hangs on the menu screen if anything is slightly wrong. it also seems to take quite a long time to load the rom using the readfile function but at the moment i dont know why cuz the rom is only 500k. ill update the emulator page soon with lots of info about this emulator.
Friday, September 8, 2000
3 pics of WWF attitude in action Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 9:53 WWF 1
Click on the pics for a bigger picture... more later
****ing hell! it worked :-) Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:17
as i said i took a break from dc coding for about 2 weeks and finally returned to do some coding today!!! with a bit of playing around with directdraw surfaces, i was just about to go to bed and thought, "i might as well try it out again", and it worked! i have the nintendo gameboy color demo playing nicely on my tv :-) although the sound isnt working (it cant be too hard to fix cuz it works on the pc version) and the in-game controller support hasnt been implemented (the menu controller support is done), i am in a VERY GOOD mood. im busy tomorrow during the day but ill be at it all night... and i might get some coding done aswell tomorrow :-) screenshots soon.... expect a lot more - imagine being able to play every gameboy game on your pc, well its reality!
Thursday, September 7, 2000
yo Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:06
You guys probably already know about this, but for those who dont, a dreamcast emulator has been released. At the moment it runs the Stars demo only but even doing this is a mighty achievement imo. More information can be found here (This site is in spanish but if you look down in the news you will find some info about it.) At the same site they have posted some cool news of a Sega Saturn emulator for the pc, which now plays commercial games. There are pics of Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter, and i personally can't wait till the compatibility/speed improves! The emu is SSF and you can download the latest version here or visit the website (japanese) here. Although neither of these emus are for the dc (it would be a bit stupid if the first one was :-) ) they are both noteworthy achievements. I have had a break from coding, but i will get started again soon. Be patient and remember that the first release of Boob!boy WILL play all gameboy / gameboy color / super gameboy games... hopefully it is something to look forward to. If any of you are coders and have written any software / tools / utils / other relevant stuff or are interested in helping out with Boob! email me, cuz all help helps. (if u understand what i mean)
Sunday, September 3, 2000
emulator... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 22:45
updated the emulator page with the sega saturn emu... thanks to all those who emailed me about this. also the killer instinct arcade emu will eventually be ported to the dc, but i wont add this to the list until work on the port has actually begun.
Saturday, September 2, 2000
Emulator page... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 11:11
I've updated the emulator page with details about current emulators in progress for the dreamcast. Take a look, and if you know of any other dc emus in progress, send me a quick email! Also, although i personally have been very busy lately (driving tests / work / holidays), we are all still working hard on our various projects... i'd also like to thank all the people who continue to send in great information, and keep it up :-)
Friday, September 1, 2000
Gleam news Posted by
worldrave @ 20:35
In the Gleam news, looks like he rewrote the PPU handler gaining about 20-25% in speed. He said he started writing an asm core, but accidentlly deleted it. Great news for all!! Great job!!
Thursday, August 31, 2000
more info re: cdr disc swapping Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 15:03
This was kindly sent in by Mike from GameFreax: "yo!
Just to let you know that there's no need to wait 6 minutes for the disc to stop spinning. we know it from the beginning when we started playing importgames I offered a modification on the dreamcast, well just a small one. I added a motorswitch to the GD-Drive by just cutting the red wire of the cd-drive which is responsible to support the GD-Rom Drive's motor with tension and soldered a switch in a row. you can now open the lid while the small black button (lid-switch) is pressed anyhow (you can also solder a switch to the lid-switch), switch off the motor, wait till the lens stops bumping up and down and then insert the CD.
damn... a lot of swiches up there ;-)"
Tuesday, August 29, 2000
gleem address.... Posted by
intrnal @ 20:57
I did not give the web site last time because it was still listed on the page and I thought people could see it. Yet, not every one could find the gleem site so here is the address Gleem.
Gleem release! Posted by
intrnal @ 3:42
Gleem, the nes emu, has been released. Only mappers 1,2,3 are working. There is no sound support yet, but so what. We can play nes on our dreamcast.
Monday, August 28, 2000
MP3 player Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 11:13
A standalone MP3 player can be download from here This has been coded by strat76...
MP3's Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 9:42
I've put up a doc on how to play mp3's on the dreamcast using the latest internet browser disc... The documentation page is down at the moment but you can view the mp3 doc here. The doc was kindly written by Kilson955.
Saturday, August 26, 2000
Boob!boy update... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 21:05
directx graphics are working on the pc version fine now, i just need to test it on the dc version aswell. btw:ill post a features list about this forthcoming gb emu tomorrow stating what will and wont be included in the first release and also features that will be included in subsequent releases...
Boob!boy news Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 18:56
I've been away for a couple of days... but ive just spent a couple of more hours on the emu. Sound is now working perfectly. I now have to fix some directx problems, due to the fact that the gui uses different surface sizes to the actual emulation part... hopefully ill work it out soon.
Unofficial Dreamcast FAQ Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 16:23
I've added an unofficial dreamcast faq to the documentation section... this was written by Number Six. An interesting read imo...
Friday, August 25, 2000
Status report... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 0:33
Now that i've got a basic gui working, i will be attempting to put this together with the already-ported emulator code... hopefully ill start getting results soon.
Thursday, August 24, 2000
GD-Viewer Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 20:51
I've uploaded the gd-viewer utility. You will need to read the readme file which explains what files you need and how to run the gd-viewer... just one note - sorry about the small size of the text but it is hopefully legible anyway! (i havent taken a look at changing the font but it seems like a bit too much work at the moment :-) - if someone wants to send me a fontsize function it would be great) Anyhow, the files you'll need for the util can be found here: Boobcast GD Viewer Thats all the work i can handle for today - its been a long one...
utility... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 14:25
the utility which i will release later is a gd-rom viewer... you burn the util onto a cdr, run it, insert a gd-rom, and it'll then display the list of files on the gd-rom. this is not supposed to be anything great, but it might give you guys an idea on how to do something the dc public have wanted to do, which only a few elite groups know how to... as you will see when you try this util out, the splash screens/gui are obviously part of the boob!boy gui, and i thought i might as well release something interesting while you are all patiently waiting for Boob!boy - essentially i just added gd-rom swapping support to the original gui and removed the file extension filters.
Gleem Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 10:10
Glue Sniffin' Ed sent in a nero (.nrg) image of Gleem, especially for Squidney :-) It can be downloaded from here.
nice... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 2:01
off to bed now, but directory displaying routines are all working fine... pics/videos tomorrow : i promise!
cdr disc swapping... (by Squidney) Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 1:17
this was posted on the boob message board regarding disc swapping with no mod chip...
"Quite easy really, just open your dreamcast up and tape the button back( The one that tells it the lid is closed). Load up Gyplay as usual but do not atempt to play any mpegs, wait for about nine mins and the disc will stop spinning. Open the lid and place in the VCD etc... close press a and it will play. If any is grateful for this info could you please do a nero image of the DCGLEAM as my writer is not compatable with CDClone.
Cheers
Squidney!"
*UPDATE* I also received this email today: "the button is inside of the dreamcast..... you have to take it apart to reach it.... not really a button. its a little black lever that gets pulled when the lid closes.. so unless you run the dc w/ the case off you cant do it.... guess sega was alot smarter than sony when designing the lid"
Gui work... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 1:09
I mentioned earlier that i was planning to do some work on the Boob!boy gui. Although I havent had time to work before 12:30 am each day, i have now tested my work on the gui on the dreamcast and it works perfectly. Thus far it displays a boob splash screen, then a boobboy splash screen, then the menu screen. The menu screen allows you to move up and down on a list of games and select one... i tried to take a video of this all working but my camcorder batteries have run out. ill post some pics and maybe even a video tomorrow. I might also release a nice little utility for you all soon, which will have been created through my work on Boob!boy but you will all also find it quite interesting to try out. I havent had a chance to mention someone who has been amazingly useful in helping out with Boob!boy... this person is Lowlife who has created some cool splash screens / logos. He has also created an extremely nice looking rotating gameboy cart video with his boob logo as the game picture on the cart. I again would like to thank the many of you have sent in logos etc... i promise your work will not go to waste, and i will allow you to choose which logo to use in the final product. I recommend you Boob! supporters keep checking this site out over the next few days, because hopefully we will have lots to keep you occupied :-) - Boob!boy is being solely coded by me but other Boob! members have some interesting projects going on... if you yourself are a developer and would like to join Boob! and post updates on your projects / release them on Boob!, feel free to email me. Boob! will also serve as a news source for the dc developing world / dc emulators, and the 2 new updaters are doing a great job thus far at this. cya tomorrow...
Wednesday, August 23, 2000
Sintendo update Posted by
worldrave @ 23:58
BTW- On the newest currant beta of Sintendo (SNES9X for Dreamcast). It rotates through about 5-6 or so pictures of the possible screens he may use in the final for the background or main screen. I just burned it and tried it out. (Wanted to note for those who are limited on CD's.)
Gleam! Progress Posted by
worldrave @ 23:09
Great news on Gleam! So far he has managed to get ROM's loadable off of a separate CD. Now you can burn your ROMS's collection on a disc,load the Gleam! disc, then swap out and put in the ROM's CD. (Yes, you must own the original game in order to be able to use the ROM) :-) Great progress so far!!
gleem updated Posted by
intrnal @ 13:31 Dcgleem has updated its page with a clonecd build of its last beta. I know some people were having problems getting the other version to work. This one should be easier.
Boob!boy update... Posted by
CyRUS64 @ 2:57
I've taken a break from actually coding the emulator (although i must also admit to just having taken a 2-day break from dc developing altogether), and have at present seperately started building the Boob!boy gui. With just a couple of hours work, it happily displays 2 splash screens and a primitive menu... controller support is also included. The menu will display a list of all the gameboy roms on the cd and allow you to choose which one to play. Hopefully i might also have an interesting utility out for you guys soon... (please dont ask what this will be)
