Another DC Programmer wannabe!

Mr. Jones · Post by **Mr. Jones** » Tue May 11, 2004 3:05 pm

*sigh*

I've begun again.

About a year ago, I had started really getting interested in developing for the Dreamcast. The DC is the reason why I'd want to do game programming, and after seeing the tetris clones, and games like Sheep Herders, I said that that was it, its time I got my feet wet.

I barely got my shoes off, let alone get my feet wet.

I never was able to get a environment configured on my Windows PC to allow me to compile programs, and I was skimpy about buying anything for the DC (hell, my second DC was given to me; my friend just didn't play it anymore...). SO, other than the coders cable that I bought (and later sold), I got no C documentation other than the disjointed bits and pieces that you find on the net. Needless to say got discouraged, said *&$#!!!, and promptly gave up.

Well, I'm ready to go at it again.

I have a powerful beast of a computer to code on (an old 800mhz AMD box) and a DC with a BBA. All I need is to learn how to set up a Linux environment in Windows.

I have no aspirations of making the next Halo or Soul Calibur or GTA. I'll be estatic if I can make YATC (Yet Another Tetris Clone). I just want to be able to say that I've made something besides "Hello World" that runs on a Dreamcast.

Thanks for reading my rambling.

Post by **Quzar** » Tue May 11, 2004 3:16 pm

first step is to download a full install of cygwin.
second step is to get the toolchains. afaik, the ones for download in most places are broken.
third step is to get a compiler.
4th step is to get dcloadip for the BBA and hook up your PC and DC
5th step is to start programming.

also, it might be a good idea to ask about this in the programming forum.

Gav-X · Post by **Gav-X** » Tue May 11, 2004 3:28 pm

A friend of mine wants to get into Dreamcast programming too. One of the things he wanted to find out is how to test his future creations without having to burn CDs left and right. Would he need a coder's cable and a broadband adapter for that?

The OK Pope · Post by **The OK Pope** » Tue May 11, 2004 4:32 pm

No, he could burn the bin files on a multi-session disc with Nero and then launch them with the DCHakker boot disc.

Alexvrb · Post by **Alexvrb** » Wed May 12, 2004 12:07 am

If you don't want to use CDs, you'd use either a coder's cable or a bba. You wouldn't use both a coder's cable and a bba together. The coder's cable is a much cheaper and more readily available solution than a bba, but much much slower (topping out at the max computers run serial ports, 115kbits/sec).

Anyway, good luck Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones · Post by **Mr. Jones** » Wed May 12, 2004 8:41 am

Thanks, Alex. I'm looking at links where I can download the software needed to start. I'll put up pics of my oh so professional setup later this week.

I'm thinking that I'm gonna make the most kickass version of pong on the Dreamcast.

tyrell · Post by **tyrell** » Fri May 14, 2004 3:04 am

Just get the DevkitDC dev kit which is really easy to install and which is perfectly integrated to the VC++ 6 IDE (you just install one plugin). For me it worked from first try. No need to have a complete Cygwin env.
The coder's cable is more than enough to test your applications. It's even possible ro redirect all VFs calls to an .ISO file to simulate your final cd.

_tyrell_

Barret7sc · Post by **Barret7sc** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:06 am

Keep in mind that the transfer rate of a serial cable is slow as, well, its just very slow. Once you start adding in lots of graphics, it can take 5 to 10 minutes to upload to test it. I would suggest doing what I did with Inhabitants, burning a Multi-session CD that contains the graphics and such, and taking things out of the romdisk.

It works like this.

Burn data files onto the CD and remove your graphics/sound/etc from the romdisk.
Change all in-program references of '/rd/' to '/cd/', so that things load off of the CD, not the romdisk.
Boot dc-load serial.
Swap out the dc-load disc for the data disc.
do a 'make clean run' and upload your new, much smaller program to the dreamcast.
Enjoy.

I would love to have a BBA, but I really can't justify the cost. This method has worked fine for me.

As far as building compilers and such, I've found that Hangar Eleven's tutorials, while old, still work fine.

http://www.hangar-eleven.de/en/devdc-gc ... chain.html

Check it out

-B

Mr. Jones · Post by **Mr. Jones** » Fri May 14, 2004 10:44 am

Tyrell - do you have a link for "DevkitDC?" I see that as simply a default directory for GCC tutorials, but I haven't found a downloadable DevkitDC dev kit.

Barret7sc - That sounds like a sweet idea. And thanks for the link; I'll check it out a bit later today.