DCEmulation

After almost a year, a new update is ready. The networking has been debugged - you can now actually play against other people running this version of Doom for the DC, my latest Doom for the PSP, old versions of sdlDoom for the PC, ADoom for AROS, or ADoomPPC on the Amiga. I also fixed a bug in the OSK (on-screen keyboard) when using VGA out.

Doom for the Dreamcast is a port based on older Doom code. In that sense, it's more like Chocolate Doom. It does support variable resolution, allowing you to run at 320x240, or 640x480, for example. It plays the MUS format music in the WAD files by converting them to MIDI, then playing that via libWildMIDI. Doom for DC supports regular controllers, the mouse, and the keyboard. The primary stats from the HUD are shown on the VMU screen of the controller so that you can play with the screen size set to turn off the status bar.

There are quick cheats, cheat selection, and of course all cheats via the keyboard. Read the readme file for details on that. The game starts in a GUI that allows you to set nearly every option, and save them to the VMU. All IWADs are supported and easily selected through the GUI. It also allows up to four patch WAD files, and four dehacked files, also all easily selected through the GUI. Note that patch WAD files or replacement IWAD files should be DOOM compliant, not BOOM compliant.

Network support allows you to play against up to three other players across the internet. On the Dreamcast, you need the BBA to use networking. The readme describes how to setup the network options. It can be a bit involved, so please read it carefully.

DCDoom-SW-CW-1.2.sbi

Please add abit more background to your post.

Better? I didn't make a longer post initially since it is just an update. I guess a longer post is needed for those just now noticing this port.

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! i don't know how many homebrew games support networking in Dreamcast, this is the first i've seen.

Thanks for this update.

You're the man.

oh very awesome. I'll be downloading this shortly. My friends and I have BBAs so we will give it a try.

/edit

read through the readme. So basically when doing the network setup, one player as the host puts their IP and the IP of the user trying to connect to them. And then player 2 would put their IP and the IP they want to connect to? I don't know all that much about networking so just trying to be sure before I give myself a headache later.

Every time new people notice a news post, so it always makes sense to give a quick recap .

Great release. If I have any questions about adding network support I know who to turn to. Is this port open source?

Yes. The source is part of the archive (remember that .sbi files are just plain .zip files with a different extension - just use any zip program to unzip it and the source is there).




Set the Play Network Game to ON. One person leaves the Player Number at 1 while the other changes their number to 2. Player one should start his system first, and everyone else after him as the first player serves as the "server" while everyone else is a "client". All the network options should be matching for all players (other than the player number of course). In the Network settings, you are shown your local IP address. Note that it is probably a local IP assigned by your router, like 192.168.0.101. If your opponent is hooked to the same router, it's not a problem - everyone just uses their local IP address. I did that when I played against my PSP. Otherwise, it's more complicated: using a PC, find your IP address for your connection to the net (using sites like What is my IP Address). Use THAT as your IP address in Doom. Set the router to forward the Doom port (shown in the GUI) to your local IP address (also shown in the GUI).

Once you have all the IP addresses for those playing, you enter your opponent's IP addresses in the three fields available. All the opponents will enter their opponent's IP addresses. Then player 1 starts the game, and everyone else starts. The systems should all synchronize and the coop/deathmatch game starts playing.

A simple example: My DC shows 192.168.1.102 as its IP address in the Doom GUI. My PSP shows 192.168.1.103 in the Doom GUI. So I set the DC Player Number to 2, and set the Network Player #1 IP Address to the PSP, 192.168.1.103. In the PSP, I leave the Player Number at 1, and set the Network Player #1 IP Address to the DC, 192.168.1.102. Then I start the PSP, wait until it gives a message about networking, then start the DC. As soon as the DC reaches the network init, both systems start playing the game.

Thank you Chilly Willy, we will test it and of course enjoy it

Hi, Chilly Willy. Thank you for the great release.

I'm am still experiencing an OSK issue when using VGA out. I'm trying to input an IP address but it will not save it correctly. A real keyboard works properly. Do you have any idea what might be causing this issue still?

Thank You,

Impulse

What's the base for this port?

Can you describe the problem in more detail? I could enter the IP address no problem on my DC (via the OSK). Remember that saving is not automatic - you have to go to the top of the gui and tell it to save. If you change the name of the save file, it won't be loaded automatically the next time - you'll have to manually load that save file.

EDIT: Maybe you aren't hitting "enter" on the OSK... remember that the DPAD gives you a few different keys in the OSK. From the readme:



Once you've entered the IP address via the OSK, you have to hit Dpad-Down to make it enter. Hitting START will abort the entry.




If you look at the readme or the About screen in the GUI, you'll see the lineage. It's a port of Doom for the PSP, which was a port of ADoomPPC which was a port of ADoom, which was based on the original linux code. I've been involved in virtually every step in that chain - all the way back to the Amiga.

Chilly Willy,

I assumed Start would enter the text and should have read the entire readme. I apologize for falsely reporting this as a bug.

Thank you for the reply.

No problem. I probably should have printed a list of button mappings on the bottom of the screen to help out. It's not obvious what any of them do, so if you weren't familiar with Danzeff OSK (many PSP users are) you could easily get confused.