Crafti, Retro8/Pico-8 and Ganbare ports for Dreamcast

[gameblabla]

I've pushed a minor update to Retro8 to fix a game breaking bug with Celeste. Other than that, no huge changes. (i did merge other fixes but it's not enough for other games)

Sadly retro8 isn't seeing a lot of activity :/

[cloofoofoo]

I've pushed a minor update to Retro8 to fix a game breaking bug with Celeste. Other than that, no huge changes. (i did merge other fixes but it's not enough for other games)

Sadly retro8 isn't seeing a lot of activity :/

The virtua racing port would be too new for it?

[gameblabla]

The last mission

(This was back in 2015, i no longer have this Dell monitor nor this particular dreamcast for that matter, i use another one now).

I've ported this back in 2015 along with OpenTitus and Tailtale. Its performance was a bit lacking so i decided to update the DC port and provide new download links to this new version.
The only changelog is improved performance and the use of CDDA music instead of OGG.
I may provide a version with ADX for SD card adapter users if someone asks.

I plan on updating OpenTitus also but this version will require an external SD card adapter (even if you have a GDEMU) to go around the legal requirements of actually having the game files.

Download link : https://bafybeiddt3avurpt56xnoynrcvbwy4 ... ion-dc.zip
Source code : https://github.com/gameblabla/lastmission-dc



Falling Time

I have also updated my port of Falling Time with ADX streaming, some performance improvements and fixes. (meaning it will still work with music on the SD card adapter with Dreamshell)
There seems to be a strange issue if you only have one controller and try to plug it in the other slots (it still controls as if you were the first player). I'm not sure if this is intended behaviour by Kallistios and it seems to work fine on emulators. (i only have a single controller)

Download link : https://bafybeiddt3avurpt56xnoynrcvbwy4 ... amcast.zip

I've pushed a minor update to Retro8 to fix a game breaking bug with Celeste. Other than that, no huge changes. (i did merge other fixes but it's not enough for other games)

Sadly retro8 isn't seeing a lot of activity :/

The virtua racing port would be too new for it?

That one works in FAKE-08 i believe but due to toolchain issues with kallistios (mainly centered around C++ mutexes), it can't be ported to DC.
And retro8 sadly can't run it either.
Maybe it will be possible someday but not now.

[gameblabla]

OpenTitus

Here's OpenTitus for Sega Dreamcast, now updated for 2022 !
For those that don't know, Opentitus is an open source game engine for Titus the Fox and Moktar by Eirik Stople.
7 years ago i ported an earlier version to the Dreamcast but i was not too happy with the state of the port so decided to make a couple of improvements (and merges from other forks of it, thanks !).

Plenty of improvements compared to the last version but the gist of it is that it finally supports loading game data files from the external sd card (one of the few homebrew games to support that, mostly done to avoid legal issues), performance improvements (this should finally run smoothly), supports Moktar (the original game Titus the fox is based upon), Horizontal scrolling, pausing the game with start and minor improvements that make the game better.

Changelog :

show spoiler»

To play Titus the fox or Moktar, simply put the game files at the root of your FAT32 sd card (SD card adapter that plugs into the Serial port behind your Dreamcast) in titus/ and moktar/ respectively. Make sure it's plugged in before you boot the game.

You can also decide to rebuild the CDI (with Bootdreams or the toolchain and cdi4dc on Linux) with the game data inside and the game will load them without the need for an sd card. (This may be more preferable if you are using an ODE)

You can download it here :
https://bafybeiddt3avurpt56xnoynrcvbwy4 ... amcast.zip
Source code is here :
https://github.com/gameblabla/opentitus

I was initially wanted to release this with support for the Amiga MOD files but debugging this was hell... Maybe later.

[dubcity]

I've repacked some of your releases for ode users.

IP.BIN Changes: game name inside and changed product codes so they can get added to openmenu.
PVR jewel case cover has been added to root directory and will display for those using old gdmenu.

Crafti and Overheated use CD Audio so I am not sure if they will work on dreamshell. I know dreamshell just released an update that has better cd audio support. Ganbare has CDI+ISO inside. Delete the file you don't need. Also included is 256x256 png of cover. Use to add to openmenu or add to dreamshell.

Crafti (cd audio)
Product code: GBB003

Crafti.png (124.25 KiB) Viewed 5141 times

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/t2QhmALI#Sc8w7D3cah6p6-1fvjGPDXUgcBm7NE3b2jttoZFxKg0

Ganbare Natsuki-san (CDI+ISO)
Product Code: GBB001

Ganbare Natsuki San.png (157.27 KiB) Viewed 5141 times

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/JvQzHaKT#DkJnd1e8CQEQ6dzbQQ-Rt1YKdGvuLBhIZgJeTQfZXUU

Overheated (cd audio)
Product Code: GBB002

Overheated.png (91.03 KiB) Viewed 5141 times

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/Vio0zDSS#BCadsyxzzaYI0rbxZo5x-dYOIHOKpLNkKCtDgH0Fxq8

GD-ROM Users: If you already own these, do not download since the changes I've made don't apply to you. If you do not own these already, they can be burned and run on your drive.

[dubcity]

Falling Time

Falling Time.png (76.15 KiB) Viewed 4672 times

CDI+ISO

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/lupShLab#L-S7s6OcpJMv7wg0Wm-AAxV6Jv2DksCZJjym_evBe9o

The Last Mission

The Last Mission Remake.png (140.88 KiB) Viewed 4672 times

CDI (CD Audio)

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/MuwRBCqa#EDiGPaXZFsAf5b4IlahlLDNr_FRjuZo8KWjw85bn6D4

Titus the Fox

Titus The Fox.png (158.05 KiB) Viewed 4672 times

CDI

Code: Select all

https://mega.nz/file/Z6xh1RhB#2dUXl9O_Zx3zYZYoAM-_iq9YB_cPPrTAi8TtXz0efXo

Same as post above these are for ode users. CDR users can download from first post. These three games are small and do not have dummy files.

[gameblabla]

EasyRPG on Dreamcast



I started working on EasyRPG, an open source RPG Maker 2000/2003 interpreter.
For a while, the memory requirements and bugs in KOS prevented me from even considering a port of it.
What changed were recent patches (that were actually done for the GTA3 DC port but are also very useful for this) to reduce the memory consumption of KOS and related libraries which finally allow me to get further into RPG maker games.

I used Wadanohara for this video but as you can see, the game still suffers from memory allocation errors (not enough memory).
It does work fine on a 32MB Dreamcast (and possibly NAOMI as well) but for the time being, i just released a mostly untested alpha build of Ib running on EasyRPG and Dreamcast. (note that the binary build of the engine in there can run other supported games too, as long as they fit within the RAM of Dreamcast and don't require any RTP)

Ib for Dreamcast Alpha build here :

https://github.com/gameblabla/EasyRPG_D ... es/tag/1.0

This is now working on real hardware !

Skifree

I'm not sure if you guys saw the other thread but i also updated skifree to include support for HD resolutions with VGA cable.
This is the only game so far to support 960x960 (You need an OSSC or DCHDMI for that, it won't work on CRT monitors and most PC LCD monitors due to low refresh rate).
https://github.com/gameblabla/skifree_s ... es/tag/0.3

[gameblabla]

A quick update to state that EasyRPG is now fixed on real hardware after an extensive debugging session, thanks Falco Girgis and Ian for assistance !
It was caused by both aggressive compiler flags + a very bad issue with drawing code that was drawing framebuffer twice. (and making it slower)

[gameblabla]

https://github.com/gameblabla/retro8/releases/tag/0.2

I have released a minor performance update to Retro8
So basically, i use this trick :
https://github.com/maslevin/dreamcast-s ... aster/vqfb

Reason why you have to use this trick is because Dreamcast does not support non twiddled textures for 4bpp and 8bpp.
However, this isn't the case for VQ textures and by exploiting the codebook entries, it's possible to have a linear 8bpp framebuffer.
Doing so allows you to cut VRAM usage by half and save on memory bandwidth, which is potentially useful for Retro8.
Unfortunately, the gains turned out to be pretty minimal so i just posted the test binary on github for those that are curious.