Who knows what developers would have come up with if the DC had been commercially around for a bit longer but the Devs who have kept the DC going into 2023 have done some amazing things in the interim. It's only when you list them that you begin to think holy sh*t - look at all this stuff!
Hardware wise we've got GDEMU, HDD , SD card adapter, DreamPi and DCHDMI.
Software wise an OS in DreamShell with multimedia support. Standalone music and video apps. A choice of GUIs for your GDEMUs, emulators, game engines and even SDK's and Beats of Range.
Reverse engineered online servers. Digital archaeology and preservation and even rom to GDI resurrection with the Atomiswave haul.
Think my favourite is probably Ian's concept of reading from both the serial card adapter and a gd rom image as this hack goes beyond the capabilities of both the original hardware and software design. Ignoring what I imagine are some pretty hefty data synchronization difficulties "In theory" you might be able to rebuild a game to work in this way - think sof without the loading screens :p
The dead zone racing wheel mod is also pretty high in my list.
I'm sure I've left tons out but I don't think a homebrew/ indie dev community group have done so much for a system - well apart from the c64 crowd. That scene is just insane.
Best Dreamcast hacks since 2001
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Cass
- MegaDeath
- Posts: 226
- Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:50 pm
- Dreamcast Games you play Online: None
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fraggle200
- Graffiti Grind
- Posts: 313
- Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2019 5:51 am
Re: Best Dreamcast hacks since 2001
I think if the DC had lasted a few more years and we'd got what was teased, we would have eventually seen a Zip Drive mod to bypass the internals of it and put in a hdd/sd card.
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dubcity
- Super Sonic
- Posts: 1578
- Joined: Sun May 03, 2020 2:01 pm
Re: Best Dreamcast hacks since 2001
It is a great community that has accomplished a lot. And Lord willing it will keep going for a long time.
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Snake79
- lithium
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Tue Jan 03, 2023 12:36 pm
Re: Best Dreamcast hacks since 2001
If Sega's fortunes were different and they hadn't pulled out of the console market and continued supporting the Dreamcast, I think we may have seen it run to 2003, possibly 2004 before a possible successor was released. I do wonder what games we could have had. There would be the usual multi-format releases but it would have been the Dreamcast exclusive titles that I would have liked to have seen.
If the zip disc had been officially launced and supported or an option to use the serial port for an external hard disk or even adapted to USB, we may have seen an entirely different avenue of hacks appear.
Given what we have already, it proves there is a dedicated and passionate fan base. I'm sure we will see further developments and new hacks in the coming years.
For me as a gamer rather than a developer, the three important ones are the DC-HDMI mod so we can fully appreciate the Dreamcast on modern HD tvs and monitors, the ODE, be it GDEMU or MODE and the Internet Archive. GD-ROMs can fail over time, and will eventually become harder to find, so having another method to play games on the original hardware is important for the longevity of the system. The Internet Archive has an extensive catalogue of software from all regions so the games are accessible for decades to come.
If the zip disc had been officially launced and supported or an option to use the serial port for an external hard disk or even adapted to USB, we may have seen an entirely different avenue of hacks appear.
Given what we have already, it proves there is a dedicated and passionate fan base. I'm sure we will see further developments and new hacks in the coming years.
For me as a gamer rather than a developer, the three important ones are the DC-HDMI mod so we can fully appreciate the Dreamcast on modern HD tvs and monitors, the ODE, be it GDEMU or MODE and the Internet Archive. GD-ROMs can fail over time, and will eventually become harder to find, so having another method to play games on the original hardware is important for the longevity of the system. The Internet Archive has an extensive catalogue of software from all regions so the games are accessible for decades to come.