Chinese Dreamcast SD Adapters for sale

[D--]

Can DreamShell run scrambled executables or do I have to use unscrambled exclusively? Just checking.

Pictures soon. It's 4 am and my wife would kill me if she knew I was up checking Dreamcast forums Will do it later when the sun is up.

[Anthony817]

Awesome you got yours so rapidly! Yeah, I'll bet Dreamshell is light years beter than the cd that comes with the SD readers. Dreamshell was made for these things, so it would be nice if somebody compared the cd that comes with these to Dreamshell.

So what option did you use for this? Did you do the paypal thing or what? Also, could you tell us how much shipping was for your region please?

[TuxTheWise]

Can DreamShell run scrambled executables or do I have to use unscrambled exclusively? Just checking.

Unscrambled only. But you can always get an unscrambler for your scrambled binary, so no harm done.

For people that wants to buy the adapter, check this DreamShell compatibility list: http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-1329.html.

Here are the uses for SD card (at least the ones I know):

1) Run homebrew games, they're very compatible with DreamShell. For commercial games, you'll have problems with compatibility and, the most important, problems streaming data on-the-fly. Very very few commercial games will run decent.
2) Rip GDs. It takes about 6 hours. You don't need the expensive BBA anymore, and you won't need 24 hours to rip with serial cable.
3) Backup/Transfer VMU files between DC and PC. No need for internet anymore.

[TuxTheWise]

What the fuck? 40 dollars for shipping to Brazil? Did I see it right?

Some of you guys should import like 20 or 30 and sell them on eBay o.o

[Anthony817]

I'll second that! Purchasing en masse and reselling them would be great if somebody had the cash.

[D--]

Well, I live in Beijing so I only have to pay what Taobao actually asks rather than what a Taobao agent tries to rape out of me ...

I bought mine from this seller. The price for two units plus express shipping (the only option) was 92 yuan, or about US $13.

Still haven't had a chance to try mine out. It's a busy week at work. I'll report back with my results on Friday when I have time. I did go buy some blank CDs to burn DreamShell and picked up an extra SD card and multi-card reader, so I'm all set to go as soon as I get home.

Can anyone here recommend any FOSS-licensed Dreamcast games or ports? I'm involved in the Beijing Linux User Group and this weekend's Coding For Fun event will be part of FOSS Gaming Month. I thought it would be great fun to take in the old Dreamcast to demo how it's still serving as a homebrew platform. Doing that off the SD card would be even cooler

[Anthony817]

Awesome to hear that you are from China! Do you think it would be possible if you could contact the person that makes these and see how many materials he still has, and how many more of these we can expect to be built please?

[Indiket]

Lot's of homebrew ports are GPL, so you could give it a shoot. For instance:
- Opentyrian, C-DOGS SDL, Bubbletrain, Crimson Fields, Ephifany... and so on!
Take a look here: http://www.dreamcast.es/downloads.php?cat_id=11

If you need any tech info (or normal info), just ask me (I did nearly all of these ports heh).

[TuxTheWise]

Well, I sent an e-mail to BuyFromTaoBao guys, and although it's not explicit on their page, they can send you stuff via regular e-mail. It's MUCH cheaper. For me it would be about 11 dollars (Brazil).

I also found this site:
http://www.taobaotrends.com
still "decoding" their English :p

[D--]

Awesome to hear that you are from China! Do you think it would be possible if you could contact the person that makes these and see how many materials he still has, and how many more of these we can expect to be built please?

I'm not from China originally, but it's where I live now.

I'll try to help you out by running through his inventory and telling you how to check that on Taobao.

He has two separate listings for SD card readers here and here. The first one has 12 left (26 sold) and the second has 12 left (20 sold) with a note that 2 people added it to their "planned purchase" list.

If you look at the auction information, you will see this.

一口价：35元
运费：平邮: 22.00元 快递: 22.00元 EMS: 22.00元
30天售出：20件 (已有2人评论)
付款方式：支付宝卡通 网银支付 找人代付 消费卡 网点支付 支付宝余额
我 要 买：件 (库存12件)

This translates to:

Price per item: 35 yuan
Shipping: Standard 22 yuan, Express 22 yuan, EMS 22 yuan
Quantity sold in last 30 days: 20 pieces (currently 2 more deciding)
Payment: (You can't use any of these anyway, but all Taobao auctions accept Alipay)
I want to buy: NN pieces (12 left in inventory)

So if you look at his other listing for a Dreamcast modded to have VGA out, S-Video out, a headphone jack and an internal SD card port (this one), you will see that he sold 13, 3 people are planning to buy one, and there are 8 left in the inventory.

For yuan conversion, you can Google the phrase "NN cny to usd" or "NN cny to eur" for whichever applies. This will let you know how much your Taobao agent is burning you ...

Hope this helps!

This guy sells a lot of DIY stuff. You can see all his products on his listing page. If he sells out and there is a sudden huge demand due to the publicity, I see no reason to think he wouldn't build more. You can monitor this page to see new additions.

A lot of people refer to Taobao as "China's eBay." This isn't very accurate, because Taobao is a storefront rather than an auction house. While it's sometimes possible to use its PM software to haggle over a price with the seller, these are very much fixed values that never go up or down with time. All you need to care about is how many pieces are left and the price.

Lot's of homebrew ports are GPL, so you could give it a shoot. For instance:
- Opentyrian, C-DOGS SDL, Bubbletrain, Crimson Fields, Ephifany... and so on!
Take a look here: http://www.dreamcast.es/downloads.php?cat_id=11

If you need any tech info (or normal info), just ask me (I did nearly all of these ports heh).

Thank you for this. I only got to look briefly using NinjaCloak.com because it seems the dreamcast.es server is on an IP range that's blocked in China. I'll have to set up an SSH tunnel later to get past the national firewall to explore the page and download anything.

Would I just ensure these binaries are unscrambled and boot them from the SD card? Or is there more to it where I would need to set up something to boot KOS and then the game?

I'm kind of out of touch. I haven't been too much into the DC dev scene since 2002-2003, and it seems like a lot has changed (lots of progress!)