Just a Idea [Emulator-> Modem -> Database -> Rom -&

Mrfiddlez · Post by **Mrfiddlez** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:33 am

Heya People,
Just reading through here, and i sprung an old idea i had years back that would be great for an emulator,
I was thinking, a DC Emulator that would take advantage of the 33.6k modem residing within the dreamcast, meaning that it would possibly be able to download ROM'S to the VMU or Internal Memory, then play them, Then, if u got bored, u can delete the rom and download another, ofcourse it would be restricted to the capacity of the VMU or if possible the Internal Memory.
it would go something like this if have it pictured right

Emulator-> Modem -> Database -> Rom -> VMU/Internal Mem -> DC

Don't flame me or anything, this is just an idea, i have no programming experience.
James

Strapping Scherzo · Post by **Strapping Scherzo** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:43 am

Sounds like SEGANet from the Genesis days. Of course you'll get flamed if you suggest that we do this with anything but PD roms.

Mrfiddlez · Post by **Mrfiddlez** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:59 am

That's what i was thinking about, i read somewhere about this genesis thing that would download games, i think thats where i might have gotten the idea.
I never mentioned what roms i would use, just Under the Impression that you Owned the Original game

James

qatmix · Post by **qatmix** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 3:04 pm

Ive already spoken to Tyrell about this for the speccy emu as 1000'as of speccy games are free and at one location

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:34 pm

It'd be good for systems that have a large repositry of free games, and where the game images aren't going to be very large. You could probably chuck the idea out the window for a MegaDrive or SNES version, because there aren't that many free games available in one place, and they tend to be a little large.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 6:40 pm

Am I the only one who remember an emulator author talking about this feature? I can't remember who it was, but I think the emulator was for the C64 (or Spectrum maybe). Once KOS got decent modem support, he came on here and announced his plans to the world.

Does anyone (BlackAura?) know what I'm talking about?

gamedudex2 · Post by **gamedudex2** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:46 pm

ya would it be possible for atari 2600, 5200, 7800 i know the roms are freakin small. well atari are really small and would have no prob.

frogcoin · Post by **frogcoin** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:17 am

the problem it that the VMU has around 200kb which limits the rom size to something really smaller. but i like the idea that it charge the roms to the internal ram

Mrfiddlez · Post by **Mrfiddlez** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:59 am

Yer, That's One of the probs, I think the Standard VMU is 128kb? if not, the Internal Memory would be good to use if ur a Emu Programmer, Unless u had one of those 4Mb Vmu's and correct me if im wrong other 3rd party made a 8mb Vmu?

frogcoin · Post by **frogcoin** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:20 am

errr i think it is 4X memory. or in other words 4in1 memory. not 4mb

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 11:02 am

A standard VMU is 100kb.

Mrfiddlez · Post by **Mrfiddlez** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:57 pm

http://dreamcast-vmu-station.freeservers.com/main.html
- It Says that the standard VMU Holds 200kb and a Nexus 4mb Holds 800kb, I Might be getting confused about this 128kb Memory thing too, maybe im thinkning of the gameboy camera.......
and yet as i just searched
http://www.planetdreamcast.com/hardware/vmu/#vmu
This Place says a standard Sega VMU holds 128kb.....
Well i dunno

Post by **|darc|** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:28 pm

VMUs have 128 kilobytes of memory.
They have 256 blocks of memory.
Each block is 512 bytes.

200 blocks are allowed to the user and the rest are either not used or used for system stuff.
So az_bont is wrong and right, though technically wrong, as 100kb is allowed to the user, but 128kb exists.

Mrfiddlez · Post by **Mrfiddlez** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 7:15 am

Would anyone Ever use this idea for a Emulator do u think?
It would be heaps cool to like just connect to a private server, download ur ROM's and play em, if only that Iomega Zip Drive was released for dc, it would work heaps cool.

ninja · Post by **ninja** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 7:31 am

Hmmm, perhaps using the "dc to pc via the modem" could allow you to transfer stuff over. of course, from what ive read, no ones really tried utilizing the modem in kos since from what ive read, its kind of weird. ehhh, i dunno...

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 8:20 am

Could do it but for such small games you could easly just download them all in 5 mins and put them on a cd.

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 8:32 am

|darc| wrote:VMUs have 128 kilobytes of memory.
They have 256 blocks of memory.
Each block is 512 bytes.

200 blocks are allowed to the user and the rest are either not used or used for system stuff.
So az_bont is wrong and right, though technically wrong, as 100kb is allowed to the user, but 128kb exists.

Quite. There are tools that allow you to gain some additional blocks, but you will never be able to unlock 256 of them. I think you can push to around 240.

ethoscapade · Post by **ethoscapade** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 11:07 am

wow, vmus are tiny...

as great a resource of worldofspectrum.org is, i'm not sure that any given spectrum game would even fit on there...

Post by **Quzar** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:33 pm

ninja wrote:Hmmm, perhaps using the "dc to pc via the modem" could allow you to transfer stuff over. of course, from what ive read, no ones really tried utilizing the modem in kos since from what ive read, its kind of weird. ehhh, i dunno...

actually people have tried a lot, but its kind of hard to test something like that. The usual method would be connecting it to your own modem, but then you need a line voltage simulator, which isnt the easiest thing to make.

Post by **|darc|** » Sat Jul 24, 2004 4:16 pm

az_bont wrote:
|darc| wrote:VMUs have 128 kilobytes of memory.
They have 256 blocks of memory.
Each block is 512 bytes.

200 blocks are allowed to the user and the rest are either not used or used for system stuff.
So az_bont is wrong and right, though technically wrong, as 100kb is allowed to the user, but 128kb exists.
Quite. There are tools that allow you to gain some additional blocks, but you will never be able to unlock 256 of them. I think you can push to around 240.

200-240 are unused.

241-253 are used for the directory, which keeps information on the user files, and has enough space for 200 entries. If we are to use blocks beyond 200 there isn't enough space in the directory for information on them, which is why Sega left 200-240 unused.

254 is used for the FAT data, which ties blocks together.

255 is used for the root file, which holds information about the card itself (what date it was formatted, what color it is in the menu, etc).

The most probable reason why Sega chose to have 40 unused blocks is it was cheaper to purchase standard 128kb flash chips over making 108kb flash chips, and instead of compromising the directory size with the unused block size they decided to chop it off at an even 200 blocks.

Just a Idea [Emulator-> Modem -> Database -> Rom -&

Just a Idea [Emulator-> Modem -> Database -> Rom -> Emulator