*Important question for anyone with hardware knowledge of DC

[shanzenos]

So.. a friend recently suggested I rip apart my 56k Modem that came with my dreamcast and replace the parts with that of a broadband connection so I can play it online as if it were using the 200$ broadband adapter. He said it'd be a relatively simple job, I have a good friend who works with hardware and well beyond likely has the tools for this. Would it be possible, does anyone know?
And if so, are there any specific things worth noting about it?

[WildCard]

Its been talked about many times over the years, but as far as I know no one has ever actually done it.

BTW there are only two games still online that can use a broadband connection Q3 and PSO.

If your friend is able to successfully build a cheap broadband adapter for the DC he would be the hero of many many people.

[shanzenos]

Well, is there anything you know that could or couldn't work?
And if not that, perhaps any links to others asking the same?

[Aleron Ives]

The reason nobody has done it before is because it isn't that simple. The BBA contains special chips designed to give the DC Ethernet connectivity, and the only source of those chips is from genuine BBAs. You can't just use parts from an electronics store to build a BBA; it requires proprietary Sega hardware.

[shanzenos]

Okay, thanks. This is the answer I was looking for. I figured it wasn't that easy. Now.. I've heard another way is to run a spare phone wire into a computer and it will then use it's broadband, so long as it's hooked into a working modem with broadband cords.

[Aleron Ives]

You need a PC with a voice modem, PC software to accept incoming calls, and an OS that is friendly to the process (different methods are required to make the DC-PC link work, depending on the host OS). You can also buy a special Netopia router that accepts incoming calls, but none of these methods are as reliable as using a normal dial-up ISP. The Netopia method has gained some popularity, but some of the modem-only games require you to dial in multiple times before they connect successfully. Users who run DC-PC links also frequently encounter lag and disconnection problems online from having sub-optimal configurations. As such, none of these solutions are very user friendly, although they can be cheaper than buying a BBA.

[everynewday84]

; [the bba] requires proprietary Sega hardware.

Are you absolutely certain about this?

[BlueCrab]

; [the bba] requires proprietary Sega hardware.

Are you absolutely certain about this?

The BBA is made up of two major components. The first, the RTL8193C is a very common PCI ethernet controller. This is, of course, the chip that is responsible for doing the heavy lifting of communicating on the network. These (at least in the past) could be obtained relatively easily, or pulled off of PCI cards that used this chipset.

The second main component is a custom Sega part called the GAPS PCI Bridge. Basically, this takes the signaling from the Dreamcast's external port (on the G2 bus of the system) on one side and gives out a PCI-compatible signal on the other side.

There is currently no clones of the GAPS PCI Bridge available, although it is entirely possible that someone could design one with an FPGA or something else of the like, assuming they had the time, energy, patience, and drive to do so (and an FPGA capable enough to handle the demands put on the GAPS device) -- not to mention at least a BBA or two to sacrifice to actually study the darn thing and figure it all out.

Thus, at the current time, Ives statement is completely true -- you do require proprietary Sega hardware to create a BBA clone.

The LAN Adapter, however, is a much simpler device and one that has been cloned by at least a few people with relative ease. Of course, the LAN Adapter is pretty much useless, except for doing homebrew code, so there's little reason to even mention it here.

[everynewday84]

Sounds pretty easy. I'm going to run this by my stepdad, who is a retired electronics genius (The dude had his own electronics business until another electronics giant bought his business, and gave him a prestigious position at said electronics giant.). He has personally done something like this for me in the past, repairing parts of my guitar rig, by assembling/programming parts of his own. He's fixed shit for me that others told me was "beyond repair, you can't get those parts, they don't exist anymore" etc etc...

[Bob Dobbs]

Good luck. I am able to do both DC-PC Server and the Netopia. For Radkin, Spyro and I, Netopia has been 100% issue free with XDP, Q3 & PSO. The other games (4x4 Evo, Starlancer & Max Pool) are a battle to get a successful connection but once I'm on it's been solid. The DC-PC server method usually connects first try with 4x4 EVO & Max Pool but the latency is too great to allow Starlancer to successfully connect. The lack of performance does show up with this method compared to the Netopia method.

The Netopia was cheap for me as the telephone line simulator and Netopia Router costs were under $80.00 total. The DC-PC method is even cheaper being it was junk equipment I kept around that enabled me to do this along with the free software like Linux Ubuntu and VMware to bridge the call with the MS WinXP environment.

Spyro and Radkin use BBA's for their Q3 & PSO adventures. Thanks, Green Man for bringing the Netopia method to us!