Pipe dream?

[Kevin Beckman]

I'm thinking about making some major hardware modifications to a Dreamcast. Like replacing the GD rom with a DVD+RW drive(Not because I want to be able to burn DVDs on it, but because it can read both CLV and CAV format). Am I correct in assuming I would only need to worry about the firmware and bios in this situation?

[|darc|]

I would say, yes, this is a pipe dream. Unless you have the open source for both the drive's firmware and the firmware/BIOS of the DC, I would say that this is impossible.

[Ex-Cyber]

It could probably be done with an FPGA (or maybe a high-end microcontroller) between the DC and the drive, but that represents a pretty considerable engineering effort. If you just want a DVD reader attached, it would make a lot more sense to build a G2-IDE interface.

[Kevin Beckman]

Well the DVD+RW wasn't gonna be the only mod. The finally product was gonna see most of the original hardware gone.

However before I begin that project I'm gonna try to mod a Naomi board to play Dreamcast games and from there mod the Naomi 2 to play Dreamcast games. Just to get a good handle on what I'm doing. Obviously getting the source for the firmware and BIOS will be top priority.

[bizzle]

Well the DVD+RW wasn't gonna be the only mod. The finally product was gonna see most of the original hardware gone.

However before I begin that project I'm gonna try to mod a Naomi board to play Dreamcast games and from there mod the Naomi 2 to play Dreamcast games. Just to get a good handle on what I'm doing. Obviously getting the source for the firmware and BIOS will be top priority.

Pretty much impossible.

[kohan69]

your only possibility is using the parallel port for ide support.

google:
bsd hard drive dreamcast

[Kevin Beckman]

That's alright I've scrapped that idea entirely. I'm shooting for a USB port now.