Model 2 games on Dreamcast possible?

[CD AGES]

- It was more than just a simple menu that was redone on DC. The entire game got a visual facelift. Cutscenes were CGI instead of utilizing in-game graphics like arcade version. Striking and hit effects were entirely redone. New weapons were added (and to my knowledge only one from the arcade that did not make it in the DC port). Location map segments in Arcade version were removed entirely on the DC. Compare both versions side by side and the difference is rather clear. I don't recall Sega Model 2 software utilization even credited in the games end credits and yet I clearly recall mentioning of NAOMI.
-Most likely considering the game was ported using Win CE.
-Correct which is why I was confused with Dreamcastgaga previous comments.

I'm not saying Dreamcast wouldn't be able to handle a M2 production (Heck, even Sega pulled all the stops and made one fucking amazing port of Sega Rally on the PS2 for example.), but as its been stated, original source code would be needed.

VF2? Maybe?

[segata sanshiro]

And that reaffirms the idea even further.
The NAOMI architecture is very similar to Model 2 (and M3), making the visual update of a game very straight forward. I remember Toshihiro Nagoshi said that the Scud Race tech demo on DC was a very quick port of the M3 code, just to see if it works (no special DC geometry or shaders, etc).



The Dreamcast can very well run M2 games + extra texture resolution, lighting, effects, etc. at 60fps... So theoretically it can handle the memory overhead of an emulator replacing those extras and running original M2 roms.

Obviously this is a dream, but a very possible one. Lets gather more info. Lets try to remember who are the best Emulator programmers in the community.

Many years ago i worked with Heinrich Tillack (DCastle) on a DC tech demo (you might remember a cool looking outdoors level screenshots). He managed to run his custom version of the Irrlicht engine on the DC, no joke.
Also i still have a working build of a tech demo of DCshooter (completely poligonal SHMUP project).

My point is that there are very capable people out there, that can work with 3D on the Dreamcast.

[WedgeStratos]

I KNOW this is a hellacious necro, but I wanted to share some valuable information that could lead us to a path for Model 2 ports.
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php ... 359/page-4
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php ... ost-963797
https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php ... bly.39390/
https://github.com/cglmrfreeman/stfdisasm

Courtesy of biggestsonicfan on the Sonic Retro forums, an effort is being made to disassemble Sonic The Fighters, to create a 1:1 copy of the ROM in the same way as a certain 64-bit plumber. Anyone who spotted that knows that we eventually saw builds of that game playable on Windows and Linux without using the existing emulator plugins.

The focus is on STF right now, but we could see a future HOTD disasm, or even other games if the documentation is established. It's important to note that we still don't have a satisfactory way of emulating M2 games. ElSemi's emulator is great, but it hasn't been updated in years, is Windows-only, and is closed-source. Largely the efforts of debugging and disassembling these games is to improve MAME compatibility. One problem to note is that documentation on the i960 hardware of the M2 boards has basically been lost to time, which has made biggestsonicfan's life a bit harder.

I don't wish to get anyone's hopes up, but I just wanted to shed light on this, maybe to encourage the community to come forward and help if they know how. It could be years before we see the games be port-able, but if the foundation can be understood, it could pave the way for more disasms down the line.

[Ian Micheal]

With out the source code your not going to see it no way you could do a m2 emulator on dreamcast that would run at any framerate

I be shocked to see maro64 native port run at a playable framerate

[DreamcastUK]

It would be very interesting and likewise a model 3 considering some of the games were due out on the Dreamcast and the source code for the emulator is found here https://www.supermodel3.com/Download.html

[Roareye]

I'd love for Daytona USA 2 to finally get a console port, and DC could do it beautifully. Sadly, as with the majority of titles, we don't have the source code.

Sad that there's no good emulation of this game, and SEGA couldn't care less about bringing it into the current generation in any way