Dreamcast-Talk.com

PhiseJr wrote: That being said, the onboard ram itself can be changed?

https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/vi ... 39#p131334

PhiseJr wrote: And these upgrades would improve Dreamcast performance what else would be ideal for an upgrade on the Dreamcast without it losing compatibility.

with partial losing compatibility.

PhiseJr wrote: But I always thought a hard drive preferably solid state would be a better choice.

HDD is connected to Dreamcast for many years

PhiseJr wrote:

BlueCrab wrote:Sure, it's possible to hang RAM off of G2... It's just that it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fast to access that RAM as the main RAM of the system (not to mention that there are significant hardware limitations to that bus in general). Heck, if you really wanted to, you could do so yourself with a bit of soldering and some (relatively) simple decoding logic.

Simply put, this wouldn't have been anywhere near as useful or even all that usable compared to if they had just doubled the amount of main RAM on the board in the first place. Games would have had to be programmed specifically for that extra RAM (and as I said, it would've been significantly slower to use than the main RAM). I'd be willing to say that it would've been less useful than the Saturn's ability to use memory cartridges in the cart slot -- which very few games took advantage of in the end.

Also... a little off topic for this topic, maybe?

You know I remember having a similar discussion that the expansion port on the Dreamcast is very flimsy or not very expansive.

That being said, the onboard ram itself can be changed? And these upgrades would improve Dreamcast performance what else would be ideal for an upgrade on the Dreamcast without it losing compatibility. The GDRom has been a great addition to the Dreamcast ecosystem. But I always thought a hard drive preferably solid state would be a better choice. probably not as much of an issue now I would always think the SD card would give issues like becoming corrupt etc.

Would GPU be upgradeable like the POWERVR chips that were used in the 1st or 2nd gen iPhones?

You can overclock the SH4 and there is a bit of a performance boost. Haven't done it myself and it wouldn't be for me. Not sure if this is classed as a performance boost but the GDEMU is great, loading times for games like Soldier of Fortune and Half Life are massively reduced compared to the GD-ROM drive.

PhiseJr wrote:Hello again Blue Crab, I love seeing your input in any topic.

Something else just dawned upon me.

Im sure you all heard of/seen the "Analogue Pocket" Where its a remade gameboy/portable console with various compatability.

Would this be possible with the Dreamcast where it can play the dreamcast games, be portable and able to dock? Ideally i would like something where it functions as a dreamcast console but also able to have some versatility.

Would it be possible? Sure.

Would it be cheap or easy for someone to make? Probably not.

The Analogue Pocket is basically an FPGA-based reimplementation of the hardware it supports. There have been people that have done various parts of the Dreamcast hardware in an FPGA form, but it would probably require a much more complex (and thus expensive) FPGA than the Analogue Pocket uses (or more than one FPGA). Also, it would take time and effort to develop. This isn't to say it won't happen (because, ultimately, it probably will eventually), it just isn't going to be a very affordable option when it does come about, likely.

Perfect!

Well as far as mods go has it reached its limits?

My dream Dreamcast hardware would be a modem-emulating-wi-fi adapter.

I need my BBA's fast transfer rate for development, but I don't want to have to constantly swap between the modem and BBA, wearing out the expansion port, for online games. Something that could work as both at once would be great.

You would have an FPGA pretending to be a modem, talking to a Raspberry Pi Zero W, running DreamPi. The Pi 0 W can be easily updated when new games get added to DreamPi. By writing to an extra register, it would be possible to disable the modem emulation and get high speed wi-fi transfers. It doesn't need to emulate a BBA, I'm fine with using a custom wi-fi version of dcload.

I think extra RAM would but useful, even if it's slower than main RAM. Even if it's a few MB per second, you could still load a couple sprites from it per frame, or have it function as a swap region for Linux/BSD, or store debugging information. Maybe the RAM could be bankswappable, so the Raspberry Pi and Dreamcast can use it at the same time. You could have the Raspberry Pi write a screenshot of a web browser to one bank, while the Dreamcast displays another frame from the other bank. If the port is fast enough, you might be able to stream video this way.

USB ports would be nice, too.

My second dream hardware would be a way to use physical discs and an ODE in the same console.

So would the new BBA Mod that someone made with Naomi parts and the Raspberry Pi "Bridge" be a good idea or possible ?

I remember talk or possibilities of the Ram being overclocked. How Would overclocking Differ from the upgraded ram. Would there be a possibility to toggle the Overlock maybe via a switch or menu?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zesVf3XWayI

Just found this as well

TapamN wrote:My dream Dreamcast hardware would be a modem-emulating-wi-fi adapter.

I need my BBA's fast transfer rate for development, but I don't want to have to constantly swap between the modem and BBA, wearing out the expansion port, for online games. Something that could work as both at once would be great.

You would have an FPGA pretending to be a modem, talking to a Raspberry Pi Zero W, running DreamPi. The Pi 0 W can be easily updated when new games get added to DreamPi. By writing to an extra register, it would be possible to disable the modem emulation and get high speed wi-fi transfers. It doesn't need to emulate a BBA, I'm fine with using a custom wi-fi version of dcload.

I think extra RAM would but useful, even if it's slower than main RAM. Even if it's a few MB per second, you could still load a couple sprites from it per frame, or have it function as a swap region for Linux/BSD, or store debugging information. Maybe the RAM could be bankswappable, so the Raspberry Pi and Dreamcast can use it at the same time. You could have the Raspberry Pi write a screenshot of a web browser to one bank, while the Dreamcast displays another frame from the other bank. If the port is fast enough, you might be able to stream video this way.

USB ports would be nice, too.

My second dream hardware would be a way to use physical discs and an ODE in the same console.

Sega was in the works of a Wifi Modem Adapter that was to be slotted in the Ext port as well as the Zip Drive Add on that had a USB port in the front.... If only Sega stuck around a little longer who knows what other cool stuff they could of made. Maybe one day some mad hacker with leaked source code from a Sega Dev Kit can make it happen

Well, another question I have or something im questioning. is there a way to remodel the VMU with this method, possibly to a Gameboy Advance/Neo Geo pocket color. size that can pose as both controller and VMU ? and a wireless adapter till.

PhiseJr wrote:Well, another question I have or something im questioning. is there a way to remodel the VMU with this method, possibly to a Gameboy Advance/Neo Geo pocket color. size that can pose as both controller and VMU ? and a wireless adapter till.

So what you want is a controller with a built in screen that can also be turned on independently?

Roareye wrote:

PhiseJr wrote:Well, another question I have or something im questioning. is there a way to remodel the VMU with this method, possibly to a Gameboy Advance/Neo Geo pocket color. size that can pose as both controller and VMU ? and a wireless adapter till.

So what you want is a controller with a built in screen that can also be turned on independently?

Well im thinking more on the lines of a multi functional VMU with more memory.