Ok how would I port over bennu/fenix?

MisterN · July 14, 2011, 05:29:38 AM

I know enough that if I had the source code, a program that would compile things, and a knowledge of the console, then I will try my luck at porting bennu. However if someone already is working on it I have a crap load of cd-r's and cd-rw I would gladly test your work. The russian guy has given up on porting it because he has become extremely obsessed with his own operating system... He manged to get all files to work properly and all .dll's working. Do you think its possible that on the first test run of bennu on dreamcast the xvid.dll will work along with .png files?

If you show me how to do it ill try and get it started I have the equipment, i just need the programs and know exactly what to change. The dreamcast has windows ce on it so it shouldn't be that difficult unlike the other consoles. The problem with the russian guys is his had a file manager, thats a no no in my world becuase i want the game to be burnt to a disc and be default loaded like all the other versions before it. Hopefully he gives me what he has so far, im not so sure about that yet.

Thanks

handsource-dyko · July 14, 2011, 03:17:22 PM

Code Select

I have the equipment

You actually have a devkit!? The official ones are impossible to obtain unless
you were an official licensed developer who had to sign a Non-disclosure agreement.
I know some of them are sold on ebay auctions from ex-developers. Nintendo usually
destroyed old snes devkits when then developers stopped developing for the system.

But, clever hardware hackers can turn consumer consoles into home built devkits, like the
DevTendo, wich is a hacked nes.

MisterN · July 14, 2011, 04:01:16 PM

No devkits linger on the internet for about $100 sometimes. Most people dont use the devkit though because its actually just the exact same thing as a dreamcast except it also has (insert windows 98 or 2000 here) on it as well. Devkits at the moment are inferior to actual dreacmasts at the moment because even though you can get them with all the parts, there is no real puprose to have one, it only has dial-up and some games dont work (unless you have a dev-kit gd-rom, but then again theres a boot-disk made for dreamcasts to load those anyways). What I mean by I have the equipment is I know someone with the ultimate dreamcast tool, a bba to be specific. I can borrow it long enough to stream bennu things to the dreamcast. However I doubt that is necessary. There is also software lingering on the net and its the software end of an sdk.

However I doubt I would need any of those extra things, I have a dreamcast with the controllers, vmu's, keyboard, and mouse, and soon to be getting the sd card slot for it.

handsource-dyko · July 14, 2011, 05:18:32 PM

Isn't software emulation an option? Lot's of emulators have debug features.
Also, on the net you may find adapters or modification ideas to hack a dreamcast
controller and give it usb support. I did a hack to a nes fourscore, that allows me
to use nes controllers on a pc, but fourscore can also still be used with a nes.

I'm still looking for a gpe2/cannoo emulator, since bennu runs on those machines, and
I don't have one of those, But I got a Nes, Snes, gb, gba, megadrive and a C64.

MisterN · July 14, 2011, 07:12:49 PM

Ok that had no correlation with what I was asking :-\ I was asking how would I port bennu/fenix to the dreamcast? By that, I mean what software? The dreamcast has windows on it so a regular program (but which one) would work, I just have to change values of it. Im not going to mod my dreamcast.

Sandman · July 15, 2011, 11:56:17 AM

You may want to read about KallistiOS. I don't know the current state, only looked at it two+ years ago.

josebita · July 17, 2011, 03:03:33 PM

Quote from: DoctorN on July 14, 2011, 07:12:49 PM
Ok that had no correlation with what I was asking :-\ I was asking how would I port bennu/fenix to the dreamcast? By that, I mean what software? The dreamcast has windows on it so a regular program (but which one) would work, I just have to change values of it. Im not going to mod my dreamcast.

You'll have to recompile bennugd for that platform. If the console is running some variant of windows on it, you can just use upstream bennu as dll will most likely work fine. You'll have to investigate a little bit on which compilers are available and what's the current state of the tools (SDL, mostly) that are required.

MisterN · July 17, 2011, 03:28:58 PM

KOS I heard is an IDE, ill probably set up a clean virtual os with kos on it. Heres the problem, BennuGD has to fit entirely in what the dreamcast reads as 1ST_READ.bin, its on all the dc versions of fenix, but im not sure how to compile it that way, http://mc.pp.se/dc/ip.bin.html. heres a link to the downloads for bennu (i couldnt find the source nor know what is in the source) http://www.bennugd.org/node/2 and heres a link to kos http://gamedev.allusion.net/softprj/kos/

ill work on it later but if theres someone whos willing to try it now. the specs of a dreamcast are right here
http://dextremes.com/dc/specs.html

and like i said the dreamcast has windows ce built into it.