Dreamcast-Talk.com

We trust no one here..

I don't have any SDK software. And, I've never gotten the Dev Unit to output any video or audio, hence why it's been a resident of the bottom of my closet for nigh four years now.

There was a guy who was some expert on DC Dev Kit's back at the time I bought the unit who went by the screen name Mark30001. I got to chat with him in IM a couple of times and his conclusion was that I needed to get ahold of the SDK software in order to reset the unit in order to get it working again.

Well I've been passively keeping an eye open for the materials needed to make this all happen these past four years, but never had the money to bid high enough on the SDK software when it ever so rarely makes an Ebay appearance. I have gotten hold of a SCSI cable, have access to borrow a SCSI PCI controller card, and from research I did over the course of this past week it appears I will also need to get hold of a SCSI terminator. The terminator could be a bit of an issue as I'm not sure if my place of work even has one of that type, and if not then I'll have to hunt one down to purchase.

And all this may be for naught as I was just reading some interesting comments regarding my original post here on DC-T over on the AssemblerGames forums which someone sent me the link to. Seems that if no "1st_read.bin" file is present that the games are incapable of being booted. Well I just checked and there is not a single binary file with a name even remotely like that contained within any of the folders I got off my Dev Kit's HDD, rather disappointing.

The most recent post (as of this time) in that topic over there was a suggestion by a someone named "neoblast" (why is that name familiar?) suggesting running an erased data recovery program on the drive to potentially see if a file by that name had ever been on the drive at all. I'm not entirely keen on this as running such a recovery program on a drive which still has active (not erased) data thereon always ruins the active data. Which may not be an issue considering I now have said active data backed up to three other locations and should be able to restore it back to the drive when all is said and done.

Well, guess I just talked myself into giving that erased data recovery a try. Nothing to loose really. Will be tomorrow before I can do that though as it's something I'll have to remove the HDD for and take it to work with me once again to do.

Seems that if no "1st_read.bin" file is present that the games are incapable of being booted.

The main boot file can any named ****.bin so not extactly 1st_read.bin , it can be even 0.000 like in Deadly Skies .
I would recommend you contact with someone who really now what to do with that data . a man who has cracked Bleem per example ... TuxTheWise too .

Oh well that's good to find out. Thanks for the bit of info Vasily. There are some manner of, presumably binary, files which start with zero's in some of the main directory folders. So there is hope once again.

New question for anyone reading this. Fackue (aka LyingWake, aka EmptyThought) from over at DreamcastHelp had at one time either written or hosted a small program on his site that would create a directory list of all the files contained within a folder and it's sub directories neatly putting it all in a text file. Anyone know where I can still download this or a program like it from?

game_player_s , try Directory Lister Pro .
_http://www.krksoft.com/index.php
That is what you need .

game_player_s wrote:Oh well that's good to find out. Thanks for the bit of info Vasily. There are some manner of, presumably binary, files which start with zero's in some of the main directory folders. So there is hope once again.

New question for anyone reading this. Fackue (aka LyingWake, aka EmptyThought) from over at DreamcastHelp had at one time either written or hosted a small program on his site that would create a directory list of all the files contained within a folder and it's sub directories neatly putting it all in a text file. Anyone know where I can still download this or a program like it from?

Just use command line in windows (cmd) and navigate to the hardrive root directory or the one you want and use this command - dir /OG /S > list.txt
It will save the directory, sub and files in text file with the name list.txt

Thanks michal99, wasn't aware that could be done simply using command line, worked great.

And thank you smith for pointing to where to obtain the SDK software from. Downloaded it while at work yesterday, but forgot to copy it onto my flash drive before leaving.

Forgot to remove the HDD from the Dev Kit before going to work on Monday. Since this software is available to me now though I'm going to hold off running recovery software on the bare HDD. Best not to move a HDD any more than you really have to, and it should be possible to run deleted file recovery on it once the kit is linked to a PC through SCSI anyways.

Here's what you've been waiting for though, file directory listings:
http://www.segaforums.com/psoarchive/dc/

I don't see any possibility of making a working copy of thief 2 as i see no known binary files there... BUT ss2 is HIGHLY possible since 0winceos.bin is there (that's the name of the wince executable files), along with all the directx port on it.

*crosses fingers*

SS2 is WinCE game . nice . yeah main boot binary is 0winceos.bin
and Shock2.exe and folder WinCE is there . so there is all nessesery files to make this game run on DC .i am waiting for testing and playing...

good, now all we need is a copy & a secret forumsection for beta testing