DreamArena 3 - New Browser Development

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Wombat
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#101 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:03 am

It's for the PHS-adapter (if you look closely to the URL path you can also see PHS), which indeed what @ticky says is for to connect a mobile phone to the system. Actually one of these cabled showed up on Yahoo some time ago, there is an whole article about this over at the Junkyard: https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/ ... dream.html

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Roareye
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#102 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 3:05 am

Wombat wrote:It's for the PHS-adapter (if you look closely to the URL path you can also see PHS), which indeed what @ticky says is for to connect a mobile phone to the system. Actually one of these cabled showed up on Yahoo some time ago, there is an whole article about this over at the Junkyard: https://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/ ... dream.html

Fascinating. Thanks Wombat :D

Looks like I found some official information on the disc for the PHS adapter then, which supports the last line in that article. This page on Premier verifies that the wireless PHS adapter was indeed in the testing stage. I wonder if a prototype wireless adapter will ever see the light of day?

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-drez01-
Tank Jr.
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#103 » Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:52 am

Thanks Wombat! Very interesting read, same with the dreamphone!?

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XadPT
undertow
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#104 » Wed Jul 28, 2021 12:01 pm

Hi, a very interesting post, I hope you can finish this project, I will be very happy to surf that pages :D
OH and if you need later a translation for Portuguese from Portugal, just ask me, It would be a pleasure to help with this, I really think that DC needs a online fanbase like this, I enjoy the dreampipe net too, but we'll this have dynamic, awsome designs and if those ideas become real, oh boy...

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Roareye
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#105 » Sat Sep 25, 2021 4:13 am

I apologise for the lack of updates guys. I've actually gotten quite far with this, but my DC has stopped connecting with my Dreampi and it seems to be an issue with my modem adapter (the two flashing lights don't light up). I need to find the money to replace them.

I'll upload a few screens with updates, however it's impossible to test page layouts without a genuine DC online.

milewheeler
noob
Posts: 1

Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#106 » Tue Oct 26, 2021 6:56 am

Roareye wrote:
Cass wrote:Roareye this is really interesting - thanks for all your digital archaeology. If only the little white box had got a some more time - seems that Sega had some ambitious online ideas.

Absolutely. Sega seemed to be ahead of the curve but weren't in the game long enough to enact all the concepts out.

DLC for the first time on consoles.
Downloadable retro titles (Dream Library)
Music Player
Online out of the box
In-game Microphone chat
Keyboard+mouse combo
Portable gaming device (VMU) that would now likely be done as a mobile phone app
VOIP Calling (WhatsApp+ calling anyone?)
Twin stick control inputs (unused currently in the MAPLE controller bus)

Among many others. It would have been glorious to see them stay in the game.

I have a brief video update. -drez01- sent me a modified Dream Passport that he successfully got the Dream Library and page music running on! The audio in the video is unedited and plays through the DC when the relevant pages load. This is and early test, so there's a lot to be done on both the site and the browser disc. We only just worked out that images stored to the disc itself can't have a dash "-" symbol in their name or they fail to load for some reason, but they work fine online. We are inching closer to something usable.


Yes, it's very impressive considering how utterly crap Internet Explorer really was at the time. Slow, insecure, no web standards, bad javascript interpreter, no tabs (!), no download management, bad password management... actually it's useless to list the ways IE sucked, it was just all-round incomprehensible that it was what almost everyone was stuck with for years and years.

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Roareye
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Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#107 » Wed Nov 10, 2021 5:20 pm

DreamArena 3 PAL.png


Okay, time for an update and seeing what people think of what can be achieved.

First, let's give you a rundown of the browsers DreamArena 3 will include;
Dreamkey 3.0 - UK PAL Browser, Modem only.
Dream Passport VF4 - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated
Dream Passport Premier - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated
Dream Passport 3 Urban - JP Browser, Modem only, English Translated
Dream Passport 2 for LAN - JP Browser, LAN only, English Translated
PlanetWeb 2.0 - US Browser, Modem & BBA
WebTV - JP Browser, Modem & BBA, English Translated (Work In Progress)

Each browser has benefits and features over the others. The closest to a feature complete browser is Dream Passport Urban 3, but it doesn't work with the BBA Adapter. Dream Passport Premier is similar but lacks the IRC features for some reason.

DreamArenaSplash001.jpg

After you've selected your browser, you'll need to connect. Once connection has been established, you'll be loaded into this splashpage (which is stored on the disc, so should be an instant load). This page will be unique to each browser as some features for some browsers aren't available on others. Some browsers will allow me to add Settings buttons to access browser settings (and Manual to access the in-browser instructions - fully translated where need be), others (such as PlanetWeb) will be barebones with only the option to Go Online/Offline as they have no functionality options. Either way, the stars pass by and the water moves in the bottom right - with the DreamArena logo moving in and out of the screen.

DreamArena-Index001.jpg

This index page hasn't changed much since it first appeared. It was one of the first stylised pages built and acts as a landing page for the navigation bar and updates on the right hand side (currently filled with placeholders). The navigation and updates bars could be sped up by accessing their relevant pages stored on the disc, but for the time being they access via the site server.

NAVIGATION OPTIONS
Sega "S" Icon - Currently goes to the pinball page that houses online game information.
CommunityPages-001.jpg


Dreamcast Controller Icon - Goes to the DreamArena Community page. Goes to San Francisco with moving city lights, trees blowing in the breeze and a randomised vehicle in the foreground. This example shows Axel's Crazy Taxi cab, but it can also load the Virtua Racing F1 Car, a Ferrari F355, Ferrari Testarossa, Scarlett Moon buggy (Buggy Heat). I may add more vehicles, but it's not a necessity atm. Though I am open to suggestions. You'll see Sonic on a board in the yellow street sign as a nod to SA2. DreamOn Profiles is part of something I want to develop where you log in via Dreampi and into a set "gamertag" for setting leaderboard times, chat etc - though this may not be plausible. I'm not a coder, so it's just a concept right now.
DreamCommunity001.jpg


VMU Icon - DLC Pages. I may change these up as the design is nice but too static for my liking. I also don't like the Games List menu as it resorts to quite bland late-90s design, which sticks out badly against the more visual assets across the rest of the site.

Dream Library Icon - The Green and Yellow icon is the logo for the original Dream Library software. I may swap this back out with the Mega Drive Icon I have already as a better visual indicator of where this leads, but essentially it moves us to the emulator section of the site. The first page shows a selection of TVs. This used to be a menu stage for selecting a "bank" of ROMs - as each ROM had to be loaded individually. However -drez01- has moved us away from Dream Library/Smash Pack to Gens4ALL due to it's superior emulation, and ROM selection is dealt with in-emulator. My reimagining of this page will be to instead use it to link to different emulators on the "disc". So "Sega Channel" would be replaced with an artwork sending you to the Mega Drive emulator. Other emulators would be down to consideration and disc space.
Arcade-preview002.jpg


I do wish to keep the Arcade, however, as it has a great visual flair. I may try to pull the Arcade ROMs from Yu Suzuki GameWorks/Shenmue/Shenmue II so that they can be booted from this Arcade - that way the Arcade aesthetic fits and the emulation will be more accurate than simply emulating the Mega Drive versions.
Arcade-preview001.jpg


IRC Icon - The IRC button will be browser-specific (another good reason to store the navi page on-disc, it'll be customised to each browser that boots it), with the browsers that include IRC functions showing this option. This will boot up the built-in IRC feature that was built for the browser.

E-Mail Icon - The E-mail icon will be similar to the IRC one, in that it will be browser specific. It will load up the Dreamcast's built in email functionality.

Cog Icon - Settings, will load up browser settings when selected. This will again be browser-specific.

Disc Icon - Return to DreamArena menu (DreamOn Menu) to select another browser.


NEW FEATURES
WebTV - This browser is being rebuilt and recovered by two friends, JarHead and WindowsXPCat. They are avid fans of WebTV, and are working tirelessly to revive it for the Dreamcast. WebTV only came out on DC in Japan, and it is a unique browser with it's own user interface and built-in functionality. The vast majority of us (if not all of us) would have never had the chance to try this out on DC before. They're translating it as they go, and have had a breakthrough on a new feature (below).

Gens4ALL Emulation - Mega Drive Emulation will be vastly improved with Gens4All replacing Dream Library/Smash Pack. It also allows us to store all the ROMs in one easy to use menu rather than having to return to the browser to select a new game.

Discord On Dreamcast - While working on WebTV, JarHead and WindowsXPCat managed to get the browser to connect to Discord and post there in real time. One click Discord chat on Dreamcast! Then, because he's also a legend, -drez01- found a way to do the same within Dream Passport's IRC feature! And this is a browser that I have fully translated into English (images, text etc) for ease of use. I'm sharing a couple of stills from both browsers, however I can't show much because it's still a Work In Progress and it's not my place to give out too many details on this development.

DISCORD ON WEBTV
WebTV-Discord001.png


DISCORD IN DREAM PASSPORT
DreamPassport-Discord001.jpg

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Jako
Sunday Shootout
Posts: 663

Re: DreamArena 2.0 - The revolutionary browser

Post#108 » Thu Nov 11, 2021 1:51 am

Wow Roareye!
From the beginning I loved this project but is going much better than I thunk!!!

Pretty and usefull, the Dreamcast worth this browser. Great job guys!
Image
Be Dreamcast My Friend!!!

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Roareye
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Re: DreamArena 3 - New Browser Development

Post#109 » Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:00 pm

Saturn-preview009.jpg


New Sega Saturn page had been added. Sub pages are still in progress, however this is an animated page that fits both Dreamkey and Dream Passport, with the Saturn ship flying into the screen and a spinning planet with an X-Band "X" to reference the Sega Saturn's online capabilities.

Figured we may as well include the Saturn online services since they are back online and relatively active.

You'll also note a slightly altered navigation bar at the top. The Dreamcast controller has been replaced by a Dreamcast itself, the Dream Library logo has been replaced with a Mega Drive and the Saturn has been added for the content in the picture. The VMU icon (DLC) is still there but has been moved to the end of the consoles.

Pages will be modified to fill the full height of Dreamkey browser while (where possible) not adding scrollbars on Dream Passport. For those not aware, Dreamkey gives a much better screen resolution than Dream Passport (and is a standardised size, unlike PlanetWeb);

DREAMKEY 3.0
Saturn-preview009.jpg


DREAM PASSPORT 3 URBAN
Saturn-preview010.jpg


I hasten to add that this variance may be due to the perceived extra height of PAL televisions of the time, being 576p in height as opposed to NTSC's 480p. However the Dreamcast, on modern sets, will output the same across the world thanks to Sega's forward thinking with VGA and standardising global outputs with DC.


There will be many more updates and changes to come - do let me know what you think so far ^_^

PS. Anyone out there willing to give me some basic pointers on how to build a Dreamcast-friendly database? ^^;;

Cass
MegaDeath
Posts: 225

Re: DreamArena 3 - New Browser Development

Post#110 » Thu Nov 11, 2021 7:00 pm

Ffs Roareye looks like I'm going to have to buy a DreamPi after all :p

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