The Dreamcast Technical Page

Welcome to the DCTP, a resource for people interested in programing and making their own Dreamcast games. The resource contains articles and features on various system hardware and software, as well as CE programing and technical information documents.

Links to other articles...

These are off site links to other resources on the Dreamcast. My thanks to those sites who have allowed this. If there's something that the DCTP has missed, please contact the webmaster by e-mail, or use the submissions form on the site.


Menu

• Dreamcast Fact Sheet
  - Discussion of the benefits of using the Microsoft Windows CE Toolkit for development. Includes a list of features on the advantages of Toolkit when porting over to Dreamcast from CE.
• DC Video Registers
  - Details the video registers for the Dreamcast (.ps file 53kb)
• Dreamcast Memory Layout
  - (text file) Thanks to DCDev
• DC Hardware Reset
  - (graphic example) Thanks to DCDev
• DC Serial Port diagram.
  - (text file) Thanks to DCDev
• DC Parallel Port
  - (text file) Thanks to DCDev
• CD ROM Port
  - (text file) Thanks to DCDev
  
• Windows CE Toolkit Platform Information
  - Some more benefits of using Windows CE with the Dreamcast. Quite a bit on some technical aspects as it relates to the Dreamcast
  
• Optimizing Dreamcast Microsoft Direct3D Performance
  - How to optimize graphics within the Dreamcast to increase the frame rate of the game. Very technical.

Files (As Zip Format)
All files require a unzipping utility like Winzip, and Adobe Acrobat to view.

• PowerVR DC Portal Techniques
  - (PDF file 389k)
• PowerVR 2DC Under WinCE
  - (PDF file 136k)
• SH-4 Hardware Manual V1.1
  - (PDF file 4.05 MEGs)
• SH-4 Programming Manual V1.2.1
  - (PDF file 934k)
• SH7750 32-Bit RISC MCU/MPU Series Hardware Manual Rev 2.0
  - (PDF file 3.51 MEGs)
• SH7750 Programming Manual Rev 1.0
  - (PDF file 1.29 MEGs)
• SH7750 Programming Manual Rev 2.0
  - (PDF file 1.22 MEG)

• Windows CE Technical Information
  - A brief listing of some of the technical features for Windows CE
  
• Application Development
  - A brief overview of the tools available for sale for Windows CE development
  
• Direct X and Window Media Technologies
  - Includes a discussion on the latest real-time and multimedia capabilities of Windows CE platforms and a comparison between the desktop and Windows CE interfaces and semantics. (Note: Very long article)
  
• Internet Programming with Windows CE
  - This includes a overview of Windows CE, hardware support, tools for CE, plus a overview of the 3 separate browsers for CE. Though not for the DC, lots of internet related information, which most of which should appear in the Dreamcast.
  
• Tools for CE Developing
  - A brief description of the tools offered by Microsoft for Windows CE Development.
  
• Ten Tips for Programming for Windows CE
  - Excellent article on getting the most from programming for the CE. A good source to avoid mistakes. No directly related Dreamcast information, but the techniques should work. VERY TECHNICAL. Includes some code examples. (Very long article)
  
• Windows 95 to Windows CE
  - A discussion of how to translate Win 95 programs to Windows CE. Includes the differences between APIs, Microsoft Foundation Class library, a systematic approach to porting applications, memory management, and CE Communications, among other things. (Very long article, highly technical)

• Developer Opportunities
  - An Interview with Windows CE Chief Harel Kodesh and Tools Manager Randy Kath - MSDN Interview - October 1998

• Reburning CDs
  - General guide.
• 20/20 Labs - A company that tests games for the Dreamcast on things like title's user interface, re-playability, difficulty and more.

VMS Hardware

• Serial to VM - lets you connect the Visual Memory to a standard RS-232 serial port on a PC or other systems. You can send and receive files as well. More information can be found on Sega Dreamcast VM
  • Readme File
  • Hardware build guide
  • Source Code (PC)
  • PC binary (Linux/i386 libc 6.1)
  • PC Binary (Linux/m68k libc 6.0)
  • Amiga binary
  You can also find older versions on the site as well.

VMS Download Files

GameSurge Mirror
These are files mirrored from other sites. My thanks to VirtualUnstaz

• Scroller Demo - Based on the tetris code by Marcus Comstedt.
  - DC binary (vmi file 1kb)
  - P.C. binary (vms file 4kb)
  - Source (HTM file)
  

• VMS data creator - This program reads and writes vmi files and icons, as well as read VMS files. More information can be found at VirtualUnstaz as well as a online version
  - vmi source (tgz file for unix, 11kb)
  - vmi source (dos/win zip file 17kb)
  - VMS (txt file. Linux executable)
  - VMS (solaris file 27kb)
  - VMS (dos/win exe file 187kb)

• LC86000 VMS C-compiler - "a c-compiler that produces assembler code suitable for marcus aslc86 assembler this compiler is written using a compiler generation toolkit called GENTLE and an ansi-c skeleton that was already there." (I'm not very technical, so I borrowed the description from VirtualUnstaz )
  - aslc86 assembler - Link to Dreamcast Programing
  - GENTLE - toolkit for compiler writers. Full information can be found at their website

Webmasters note: We are looking for technical articles not just on the Dreamcast, but other systems, arcade and pinball machines as well, either as a public domain (Which is put up on this site) or copyrighted (Link to that site) Hopefully, we can get a nice database going to help people with finding the information they need. If you can contribute, please feel free to E-mail shiva.