Hello, all.  I am (fairly) new to the list--I have been lurking for
the past week or two.  First off, do we have an official website and/or
FAQ?  I seem to recall seeing a message about an FTP site, but no mention
of a specific location.

On Wed, 1 Jan 1997, Anthony Treanor wrote:
> =09There doesn't seem to be a lot of info regarding how to actually
> get BSD running on my DC, this is fair enough since it's early days,
> but I want to play now damit!  [SNIP]
    It seems especially true now that the list has been mentioned on
Slashdot that some kind of definitive guide/FAQ for getting BSD up and
running needs to be made.  (Maybe it already exists and just needs to be
mentioned in more visible places?)  Ideally, this would take two forms:
(1) a prebuilt ISO or Nero image that anyone just casually interested can
quickly burn and use and (2) the raw source and directory tree (something
in cvs with the proper Makefiles) along with links to the proper
cross-compilers (conceptually, I understand cross-compilers, but have only
used cross-assemblers in the past for very small embedded systems).
    I do not want to sound pushy, but I am just observing holes in the
current way things are.  Of course, I would gladly volunteer to help out
with this (hey, I kind of have to at this point), but I feel that I will
be needing quite a lot of help traversing the (what I see as) very steep
learning curve, so I may not be the best person for this kind of thing. =20
(Or who knows--maybe that makes me a very good candidate for such an
endeavour?)
    Also, I saw, downloaded, and played around with a Linux image (on
http://www.dcemulation.com) that appears to be a version of Linux running
a framebuffer console.  It also seems to accept input from the gamepad
(Start is enter, ABXY seem to push the appropriate buttons--I do not have
a keyboard, so could not tell you if that works).  Does anyone know if
this is for-real, or just a hoax designed to look like Linux?  The source
does not seem to be available, but if it were, would it help out with the
BSD video and keyboard drivers?

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Salvador Fandi=F1o wrote:
> BTW I don't know if SEGA can see that there is a potential market for
> hobbyist willing to pay for hacking (NOT pirating) tools. It's a shame th=
at
> a powerful system like the DC ends been exclusively used for teenagers to
> play games.
>=20
> A long time ago, when the Amiga computer was the killer game platform, on=
e
> of its best-selling software titles was AMOS, not a game but a BASIC
> interpreter focused around game development that lots of hobbits use to m=
ake
> their own games.=20
    True, but there would seem to be a slight difference here.  When the
Amiga computer was manufactured and sold, it was done so at a profit (or,
at least, they hoped so).  Same thing with Apples and IBMs and Atari
computers and all that.  Most game machines (and I would think the
Dreamcast falls into this group) are sold at VERY little profit, or even
at a LOSS!  The theory is that the company designs a proprietary system,
then allows people to develop for it, but only if they enter a licensing
agreement.  The agreement ensures the hardware manufacturer gets a certain
percentage of profits from the sale of all the software.  The developer
tools end up being very expensive (so the hardware designers get back some
of the money lost on the sale of the hardware) and the lawyer-types make
it difficult to sell games that are not licensed, etc...
    I am not necessarily saying I *AGREE* with this--that's just the way
these companies operate.  Personally, I like the way Palm grabbed a huge
share of the market by making a SIMPLE hardware device and then opening
the software development kit to everyone and their brother, so that if a
licensed Palm product did not fulfill a need, any enterprising hacker
could write some code (which is why 80% of the Palm software out there are
games).  Of course, the simple hardware approach probably does not cut the
mustard in the 3D graphic, quadraphonic sound, multiplayer shoot-em-up
world of console games...but I can still *try* to live in my idealistic
little world.

Just my $0.02,
 -E