Game Gear Reverse engineered

[PhiseJr]

I’ll upload the link later. Some of you may already seen or maybe not. But someone has reversed engineered the Gamegear console to improve on some of the common problems of the console. What would be something that could be improved on the Dreamcast if there was something like this to be done to the beloved console.

Someone just improved on the internet connectivity by creating a alternative method with a home brew BBA. I was thinking of something like how the sega saturn has the cartridge slot to expand on ram. I wonder if that could be something that’s possible for the future of the Dreamcast.

A reverse engineered console, with expanded ram, bba, hdmi, solid state hard drive. I know the processor might not be able to be improved upon due to how that being a core portion of development and game function im not thinking emulation either.

Or maybe a reverse engineered VMU with possible controller functionality and graphics like the GBA or Neo Geo Pocket?

[Wombat]

A few years ago Twitter user AshEvans81 actually doing just that, I quote "The intention is that it will have twice the normal amount of RAM for the CPU, GPU, and audio, so will eventually be able to run Sega NAOMI games as well.

That will need to be done via "cart" emulation on an FPGA, but it will definitely have HDMI and USB 2.0 GD Emu built in."

Unfortunately the project is on hold I guess seeing there have not been any update anymore, but if you check his feed around 2018 you'll see quite some progress: https://twitter.com/AshEvans81

[Roareye]

While not RAM in the true sense of the word, we can already theoretically expand the storage capacity and speed up load times of games with an SD Card reader in the rear expansion port. Obviously no official games took advantage of this (and to my knowledge, no unofficial ones do either), but I've seen developers on here mention the possibility of using the slot to more quickly load in items to the DC without having to re-read disc data. In my mind this is similar to storing data on the Saturn's extra RAM carts, but I'm not technically minded so they may not be similar at all.

[OGDCFAN99]

All the existing 2 and 8 MB ram chips could be replaced with new ones of the same size and partition. It wouldn't offer any new functionality or more memory, but having fresh RAM chips (whose cells haven't been loading data on and off for 20 years) would probably run a bit smoother and reduce load times overall.

If the proper "retro" chips could somehow be sourced it would be a worthy upgrade without any reverse engineering needed.

[killer-elite]

SEGA WAS ORIGINALLY GONNA UPGRADE THE DREAMCAST RAM THREW THE EXT PORT, THEY HAD A PROTOTYPE DIALUP MODEM OR BBA WITH A RAM CHIP BUILT IT TO....SOME GUY ON TWITTER POSTED A PICTURE OF THE INTERNALS THAT SHOWED A EXTRA BOARD + RAM IN A BBA

[BlueCrab]

Sure, it's possible to hang RAM off of G2... It's just that it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fast to access that RAM as the main RAM of the system (not to mention that there are significant hardware limitations to that bus in general). Heck, if you really wanted to, you could do so yourself with a bit of soldering and some (relatively) simple decoding logic.

Simply put, this wouldn't have been anywhere near as useful or even all that usable compared to if they had just doubled the amount of main RAM on the board in the first place. Games would have had to be programmed specifically for that extra RAM (and as I said, it would've been significantly slower to use than the main RAM). I'd be willing to say that it would've been less useful than the Saturn's ability to use memory cartridges in the cart slot -- which very few games took advantage of in the end.

Also... a little off topic for this topic, maybe?

[PhiseJr]

Hello again Blue Crab, I love seeing your input in any topic.

Something else just dawned upon me.

Im sure you all heard of/seen the "Analogue Pocket" Where its a remade gameboy/portable console with various compatability.

Would this be possible with the Dreamcast where it can play the dreamcast games, be portable and able to dock? Ideally i would like something where it functions as a dreamcast console but also able to have some versatility.

[yzb]

Sure, it's possible to hang RAM off of G2... It's just that it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fast to access that RAM as the main RAM of the system (not to mention that there are significant hardware limitations to that bus in general). Heck, if you really wanted to, you could do so yourself with a bit of soldering and some (relatively) simple decoding logic.

Simply put, this wouldn't have been anywhere near as useful or even all that usable compared to if they had just doubled the amount of main RAM on the board in the first place. Games would have had to be programmed specifically for that extra RAM (and as I said, it would've been significantly slower to use than the main RAM). I'd be willing to say that it would've been less useful than the Saturn's ability to use memory cartridges in the cart slot -- which very few games took advantage of in the end.

Also... a little off topic for this topic, maybe?

I have tested several games and the speed increase is really great when reading instead of discs, including with gdemu

https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/vi ... 66#p144884

[megavolt85]

I have tested several games and the speed increase is really great when reading instead of discs, including with gdemu

https://www.dreamcast-talk.com/forum/vi ... 66#p144884

memory expansion on the G2 bus will not be as fast

[PhiseJr]

Sure, it's possible to hang RAM off of G2... It's just that it wouldn't have been anywhere near as fast to access that RAM as the main RAM of the system (not to mention that there are significant hardware limitations to that bus in general). Heck, if you really wanted to, you could do so yourself with a bit of soldering and some (relatively) simple decoding logic.

Simply put, this wouldn't have been anywhere near as useful or even all that usable compared to if they had just doubled the amount of main RAM on the board in the first place. Games would have had to be programmed specifically for that extra RAM (and as I said, it would've been significantly slower to use than the main RAM). I'd be willing to say that it would've been less useful than the Saturn's ability to use memory cartridges in the cart slot -- which very few games took advantage of in the end.

Also... a little off topic for this topic, maybe?

You know I remember having a similar discussion that the expansion port on the Dreamcast is very flimsy or not very expansive.

That being said, the onboard ram itself can be changed? And these upgrades would improve Dreamcast performance what else would be ideal for an upgrade on the Dreamcast without it losing compatibility. The GDRom has been a great addition to the Dreamcast ecosystem. But I always thought a hard drive preferably solid state would be a better choice. probably not as much of an issue now I would always think the SD card would give issues like becoming corrupt etc.

Would GPU be upgradeable like the POWERVR chips that were used in the 1st or 2nd gen iPhones?