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Games Entertainment

Dreamcast Ethernet Adapter Released (Nearly) 85

Posted by michael from the geeks-bearing-gifts dept.
mattbee writes: "Looks like the Dreamcast is going to be the first games console to have ethernet access; both ebworld and Lik-Sang are taking pre-orders for the long-awaited modem replacement at $60 a pop, and they'll ship with new versions of the Internet software. But who cares about their dull ol' Web browser? :) This is great news for the people doing the Linux port, and the guerilla DC development community at large (see Jules' page for links galore). At the moment, you have to upload your code over the serial port which is a little... slow."
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Dreamcast Ethernet adapter released (nearly) More

Dreamcast Ethernet adapter released (nearly)

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  • The method people are using to boot CDRs takes advantage of a backdoor in the DC's BIOS, which was probably overlooked when they decided to start shipping the consoles.

    After you pop a disc into the DC, you can select "Play" from the console's main menu. If it's a real GDROM, the screen will go white with an accompanying chime sound, and the game will play. If it's a CDROM using the BIOS backdoor, the chime will sound, the screen will fade to black, the unit will do a soft reset, do its splash screen again, and then the game will play.

    The DC can definitely differentiate between a legit game and a burned disc, and it'd be a snap for them to disable CDROM booting. If you've been following the dcdev list, a guy named John Byrd from sega has confirmed that they're crippling the newer units.

  • http://www.sega-dreams.com/hardware/peripherals/et hernet/main.html http://dreamcast.ign.com/news/19906.html There, just the first 2 links that popped up in a search, both say the same thing. Look around more and I'm sure ou'll be able to find all the info you need. -lx
  • That's a ridicilous price, I have been waiting for this replacement so that it won't be a joke to play on the internet, plus I have cable. Now that it FINALLY comes out, its $60?? It'd be nice if I could've traded in my modem, at LEAST for a rebate!
  • That has dreams of buying this console and setting it up alongside a raid array for a cheap, fast, tiny kickass server?

    I'm hoping I'm not and that I can look forward to hosting a full-scale webpage on my "toy." Until that day arrives I've got to shake my maracas in Samba De Amigo!

    I love this console.
  • all 3 of my TiVos, ... all need to connect to a phone outlet.

    I have my TiVo connected without a phone line. It uses my DSL connection to pull daily updates over the internet [sonnik.com]....

  • Try www.ebworld.com for the mouse, or any large game retailer. Or any mall game retailer. Even Fry's (**shudder**) has the mouse and keyboard.
  • Typically they downmix things like video and audio to make them smaller, or yank them entirely. And from what I've seen, many of the rips require 700Mb CD's, not 650.

  • I'm a bit curious on what you mean when you said "Loading a CDR and a GD-ROM are two completely seperate things and obviously two pieces of code in the BIOS.....". If that's true, why would Sega have support in the Dreamcast for booting from CDR's in the first place? I can't see any legit reason for having CDR boot support in there at all.

    Now, I can see if they added programming to the boot code to detect CDR media and refuse to boot up...perhaps that's what you meant? At any rate, I've heard that GD-ROM discs hold somewhere around 1.2GB of data, and that pirates usually remote non-essential pieces of a game like FMV, music, sound effects, whatever, in order to fit the game on 650MB CD media (please, someone correct be if that's not true...). I really can't see the incentives behind wide-spread pirating of DC games if you lose most of the game in the process. So this all goes back to "Is Sega really loosing enough money to make this worth the effort?"

  • I have been following the DC hacking/cracking scene from the beginning, and I think it all started when UTOPIA released their boot CD and another guy released infos allowing to use the DC with a CD-R instead of a GDROM.

    Then it was easy. You had gcc for sha4 or you could find the Wince Dev kit for DC in warez.
  • If it runs Linux (as it does, we're told), then it should work fine as a IP-masquerading gateway. And the gateway should leave lots of room to play with other things - it only has to handle 1 MB/sec, max (seeing as how thats all DSL delivers). You can play games in the idle time and run Seti@home and Distributed.net, lots of things.

    The first part is your access link (xDSL or a cable modem). Roaring-Penguin has a solution for DSL that works (I'm using it) and I'm sure there are approaches for cable modems, too (I used cable modem briefly before getting fed-up with Time-Warner's service, but only with OS/2, not using Linux). However, I'm still working out the IP-masquerading part, so... if anyone has some accurate information... is it "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ipforward" or "echo 1 > proc/net/ip_forward" for Mandrake 7.0?

    If the Dreamcast works well as a "poor man's net edge router" then I'll be looking for one at some garage sale in a few months. Better yet, get two for full-on security!
  • Well, i guess this mean iraq can use dreamcasts instead of PS 2's [slashdot.org] for their nukes..
    imagine a beowolf cluster of these ;-)
  • well thank you for making it absolutely clear that you are not an expert and "don't know anything" yourself. If you had not included this warning I would have naturally assumed you were some sort of expert, straight from Sega, come to inform and entertain us all.
  • Exactly how "good" of a chipset is this, anyway? I highly doubt Sega is going to ship a $40 3Com when they can use a $2 Realtek and no one will know the difference.

    USB Ethernet is far, far overpriced. That's why no one uses it (at least no one I met).

    You have a good point about the online stores vs. retail, though. Every manufacturer does this kind of thing. I remember right before I got my ATI Rage 128 for $60, ATI sent me an offer to trade up my existing ATI card and get the ATI Rage 128 for "only" $130 ($150 retail). I figured ATI must have been on crack.

    Still, console retail and PC retail seem to be two different beasts. The only time I notice console drops is when the item isn't selling well.
  • That seems awfully steep. Even if it's a proprietary adapter, $60 is more than even the high profile 3Com cards. One of the reasons Nintendo is much more successful with their peripherals than other companies in general is the fact that Nintendo will often include them with a game and either eat the cost or include it in the game's price. If Sega licensed a hot FPS and released their adapter with it (a la Starfox 64, etc.), even at a slightly higher price for the game the adapter would probably become more widespread, benefitting both Sega and third parties in the end. Maybe I'm wrong because this has to do with "Internet", but the highest barrier for most of these peripherals is the initial cost and the fact that they'll have limited use (e.g. 1 out of 5 games will be applicable and the PSX2 will be in the closet in 3 years).

    Just a rhetorical question with no stats to back it up, but: if Nintendo were not to include the Rumble Pak with Starfox, how many Paks would they have sold separate as opposed to the extras that were purchased as a result of the existence of Starfox's included one?
  • That's Dreamcast, not PSX2.
  • Well, think about it for a minute. Everybody and their mother killed each other so little Jimmy could get a PSX2 for Christmas. Couple that with the fact that the US release was barely more than a month ago, and you have your answer.

    I'd say: give it a little time. Your question will be much more appropriate if this situation of little/no PSX2 hacks exists six months from now.
  • If I said Quake III, I'd get a bunch of

    "Why does everybody love QIII when [insert other FPS here] is soooo much better????"

    I wanted to keep the post on topic since I don't really care what FPS Sega would decide to license.
  • This bothered me when Nintendo released the N64 in 1996. I had the A/V hookups, but I knew a lot of people who didn't. I also know that those things cost about a dollar and Nintendo has some gall to charge $25 for it.
  • What do you think that little cover on the bottom was for?

    But in actuality, the NES in Japan really was more than just a console. However, half (or more) of what Japan saw the US (or anywhere else for that matter) never did. It's a little better today for other video game companies, but Nintendo still has this "RPGs go against our quality-control" mentality.
  • All good points, I dunno. I hear the Dreamcast is exceptionally easy to program for. Maybe that played a role. The Dreamcast was cheaper at release, if I recall correctly. And the Dreamcast kinda had that flag of being the "first" console to be PC-like (first in quotations since that's highly opinionated) in features and processing power.

    Finally, there probably are a few hacker projects so far, but they're probably either not complete enough or the news of their existence is killed by all the "PSX2 shortage" articles.

    We'll see, I guess.
  • If you have large multi-part code you can actualy just burn it to CD and it works well, you basicaly follow the same procedure as making the Linux kernel CD. This has been possible for a long time, and is part of what those warez kiddies lached onto to be able to copy their games. If only they would have been less greedy and focused their efforts towards helping the development of the Linux port we might have something by now. But I guess we are better off without them, and we'll have a nice linux port to be pround of, and with linux's awsome network support maybe companies will use it insted of that lame WinCE networking they are currently forced to use.
  • Yea, but since sony is so giving and all there are so many developers making drivers too right? Nope, as a mater of a fact unless thye purchase and official multi thousand dollar sony PS2 dev unit they arent allowed to make any software for the PS2, so it's unlikely that you will see these items working untill sony gets the burr out of their ass.
  • One step closer to a totally wired home. How long until you have to fight with your intelli-fridge for a chance to use the dreamcast?

    Really though, these are exciting times we live in ... it is so cool that we get a chance to play with this kind of stuff.
  • >>On the other hand, while it makes things nice for the Linux port, it's good for the NetBSD port as well...

    Glad someone said it.
  • ...and now we're all one step closer to being able to set our toaster to "dark" from work. All we need is a couple million MORE IP addresses in the world.

    Look out IPv6, here we come!!!
  • the dreamcast has 4 USB ports, they are right in the front... you can plugy the control pads into them.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • A hot FPS? Uh.. Quake III? Possibly? -nt-
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • If you think $60 for the DC ethernet adapter is bad, Sega charged $80 in Japan for the VGA box, which is probably $75 more than what it cost them to make it, since the DC has native VGA support. The VGA box just gives you the necessary connection.

    I dunno how much Sega sold the VGA box stateside, but you can buy 3rd party ones on the cheap (and some of them are actually superior to the Sega one as far as features go). Maybe we can get some good third party ethernet adapters? Who knows.

  • WinCE doesn't have anything to do with the VMUs. Heck, AFAIK WinCE doesn't have anything to do with the Dreamcast, either. I guess MS decided the WinCE brand was more consumer-friendly than DirectX.
  • Every console has always been a blank slate as far as programming goes. You get the dev kits from Nintendo/Sony/Sega/etc. and you go to town.

    In the console world 'operating system' can sometimes be synonymous with 'development system.' For example the leap in graphics quality with the release of Virtua Fighter 2 for the Sega Saturn was credited to a new "OS" for the Saturn.

  • It's all hype. With the exception of the system software that runs if there's no CD present, all software is loaded off the CD. I don't see whats so hard to understand, there's no OS working here in the traditional PC sense, these are all self contained programs that have full control of the Dreamcast hardware.

    And WinCE (read Direct X) sure as heck hasn't been apart of any good Dreamcast games. The two WinCE games I own, Sega Rally 2 and Worms Armageddon, are pretty sub-par and could've been several orders of magnitude better if they had use Sega's own development libraries.

  • I believe that the dreamcast loads the Operating system off of the "host" CD to give the game developers more flexability, whereas all(most) of the other consoles have them built in a la firmware. So that's how they got linux running on the dreamcast, and now that it's got ethernet it's only a matter of time before we start slashdotting them. I'm not sure how the other newer consoles go as far as how they handle OSes.

    Except, that is, for the X-box, which uses a "stripped down version of windows 2000" or something like that, but those linux porters are a clever bunch. The x-box is esentially a PC(it even has a HD). For the sheer irony i'm sure that they'll get linux running off of it somehow, even if it is entirely useless. I have no idea how the PS2 works.

  • .... is why I always hear about the DC hackers, but haven't heard about any PS2 hackers. Is it just because the DC has been around longer, or is it just more hacker-friendly? I'm not an expert on the DC or PS2, so I'm just wondering. Also it seems to me that there might be some interesting going-ons dealing with the DC in that I know it uses Windows CE for the memory card VMU dealies, which might mean there are some Windows CE-ish things inside the DC itself. As I said I don't know anything myself, I'm asking...

  • Well yeah I realize that and did mention it in my original post, but I'm still kind of surprised that there hasn't been at least a couple of hardcore hacker types out there who fought little Jimmy's mother to get a PS2 to toy with it. As I said I don't really know the technical differences between the DC and PS2, but it seems like at least a few hacker-types would have fought for a PS2.... I seem to remember DC hacks coming up within a month of the DC coming out.

  • The N64 does not come with an RF modulator or associated cable to hook it up. Thats an extra $25 that they fail to mention. Not everyone is hooking their N64 to a brand new 32" tv.
  • Doesn't that require two nic's?
  • Run Dreamcast Linux on this puppy & the possibilities are endless.

    SMB Mount my Linux file server & have access to my complete MP3 library.

  • Well... Sort of..
    The net effect is the same, but the way I interpret the information from Sega is that the complete "Operating System" is loaded from the CD when a game boots. So, there is nothing on the system that enables the ethernet (or modem).
    The older games will have the older Sega OS, which has support for the modem, but uses TCP/IP for game communication.
    These games would use the same communications procedures, but they don't recognize the new hardware (ethernet).
    The newer games will have the ethernet hardware driver built in.
    As we all know, the ethernet card has been demo'd for about a year now... So, I'll cross my fingers and hope that Sega had the foresight to include ethernet drivers in their relatively new 2K1 sports series (especially NFL 2K1).
  • Are those USB ports with funky connectors?


    Refrag
  • The dreamcast serial port can do upto 1.5 mbps.. this is what I'm using to develop at home:

    (and I highly reccomend this to any dc hackers)

    http://www.doubledutch.fsbusiness.co.uk/sdindex. ht m

  • Well, most people these days do have a newer TV. I imagine including the RF modulator with their consoles would raise the price for the rest of us.

    Josh Sisk
  • Can you play your Saturn games on your Dreamcast? I DIDN'T THINK SO!! :-)

    I dont really understand why this is such a big selling point to people, except cash-strapped parents. I mean, I don't buy a Next Gen system to play my old games (and if I do want to play them, it stands to reason if I have old games, I have a system to play them on already). I guess it's nice to save shelf space... but that's really the only advantage I see.

    Josh Sisk

  • Neat. Anyone know how to do this for a ReplayTV?

    BTW, why do you need 3 Tivos? Man, I thought *I* liked TV! :)
  • The 60 bucks is justified. It's made from the finest Corrinthian plastic availible. Sega: Machines for the distingished gentleman.
  • Somehow managed to get a hold of a PS2 today and you know what... the internet capability of the Dreamcast may win it more supporters after all. The graphics on the PS2 (it's selling point), are great but nothing I haven't seen on the Dreamcast already. The DVD is the main reason to own the system (both for movies and the extra room for games).

    How about a world where PS2 and Dreamcast live in perfect harmony?

  • I dunno if it would really be possible to tell right now (since its not out yet)...but since the Dreamcast speaks TCP/IP, it would be possible to put one of these behind an IPNAT box, right? I don't really see why the games wouldn't work...but after having ICQ barf from my firewall, I don't think I'm the best to be talking about IPNAT rules.

    If not...grr. I really don't want to keep using my old dialup conenction on it.

    *drool*
    DSL + Dreamcast :)
  • I can turn my dreamcast into a DNS server. You know how hard it is to enter a zone file with that damn controller!!!

    :-)
  • "Hi, why hasn't my Dremcast broadband adapter shipped?" "Oh, looks like that was pushed back to May 5th" (read: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!) WTF! Good Job Sega!!
  • I'm glad to see that this was obvious to the manufacturer. Thanks for pointing it out. Sorry I didn't already know.

    How easy USB would make the aspect of just getting the PS2 physically connected to a PC. I've never yet gotten a PS1 connected. Just haven't figured out how, can't find the right "introductory" material, and partly just disgusted that all the development tools are for windows. Plus, maybe just not sufficiently motivated to put extraordinary effort into it.
  • I work at Software Etc (which is the coolest job :)) and I noticed that the store is also taking reserves on the broadband adapter.
    And if my store takes them, that means that nearly every store is now taking them.
    So run to your nearest store and put that money down!
  • Though, it seems like something that probably makes entirely too much sense. Personally, I'll be jackin in through a Linksys BEFSR41 (PPPoE capable 4 port switch).
  • Well I was pretty disappointed when I took my PS2 home and discovered there was no way to network it. Then I looked at how much I used my DC online... really, never. I have Quake 3 for it but never bothered to go online with it (I figured I'd get clobbered by those who have DC mice and keyboards... I don't know where to get the mouse). No big deal. Online gaming wasn't one of my favourite aspects of gaming in general anyway, and besides, there are up to four players on each system and they can all be in the same room!

    I still like the DC better for games at the moment, but I heard that Sony released new devkits that allow debugging of the VU0 and VU1 (among other things) which will allow much better use of all three processors. Hopefully developers will make good use of this, but we'll definitely have to wait a while to see any vast improvements due to development cycle time.

    I do, however, love SSX, even though I disliked games such as Tony Hawk et al.

    Funny though, the game I play most is Final Fantasy 9 for the original PSX (albiet using my PS2).

  • Hmm, haven't heard of Fry's. I'll look on EBWorld but there are no Electronic Boutiques around here. As a rule I never order anything online, no matter how much cheaper it is, since it's a lot more annoying to return it, and if I buy it in person, I get it right away. Which is more fun.

  • NC? (Score:1)

    by mike260 ( 224212 )
    Sega should:
    1) Replace the modem with the NIC
    2) Put in a network-bootable boot ROM
    3) Rip out the GDROM drive to save cash
    4) Add a keyboard and mouse
    5) Add a VGA box, and enable higher-resolution support on the graphics hardware
    6) Bundle it up in 10-packs, along with the SH4 Linux port and a PC distro to run the server.

    Hey presto! You too can have a 50 workstation lab for $10,000! The hardware is strong enough for many purposes - the display hardware can do a pretty good version of OpenGL with only a few holes in functionality. The audio hardware is good and the CPU is pretty sweet.
  • It is subsidised, but (unlike the PSX2) not very heavily. It also has much, much better price/performance than stock PC hardware.
  • I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. Ethernet is Ethernet is Ethernet. They shouldn't be doing anything to proprietarize it.

    If they've really got it together, it will have out-of-box support for PPPoE for all those DSL users. Of course, if you're using a soft router, you don't have to worry about PPPoE support... all you'll have to do is set it to DHCP, or manually assign it a static address appropriate for your home LAN.

    ~Philly
  • I've heard rumors that this was happening since the day after the utopia boot cd was released. Its a bunch of bull. Its natural for people to assume that Sega will "fix" the DC so it won't be able to play cdrs. Fact is, it would cost Sega more to revamp the design and production than what is being lost on pirated games. Also, have you ever played a burnt DC game side by side with the original? There is a considerable difference with load/seek times. To nerds within the DC scene that isn't a big deal. For your average 14 year old with the attention span of a gnat it is a big deal. Truth is that there is a difference between the two and the originals are better than their burnt counterparts. Sega cares about pirated games, but they're not going to waste any more money than they have to.
  • I must take this moment to insert my $.02

    Roms and fan translation patches help remedy Nintendo's dumb marketing.

    *Goes back to playing Tenchi Muyo! on a SNES emulator (full English translation)*
  • I assume there will be no difficulty in setting up a DC w/ broadband adaptor as a MASQ client inside of a Linux firewall. If so, then I'd better run that second LAN drop out to the living room. :)
  • Hah, who needs Toast anyway? Just making sure that the coffee's black as my soul when I get home is all I'll ever need...
  • Bitmaster's ethernet card. [nbci.com] its currently on the workbench, but its an easier way to get ethernet in dclinux, since you can use almost any ne2k clone.

    DCGrendel's DCGrendel's Site [8k.com] E-Mail [mailto]
  • The zip drive addon for the dreamcast (still possibly forthcoming. is it marketable?) has two usb ports on it.
  • Good point, I realized my oversight 3.6927 seconds after I hit the submit button. Shh don't tell anyone!
  • If it runs Linux (as it does, we're told), then it should work fine as a IP-masquerading gateway

    Might be tough given that you can fit it with either the modem or the ethernet adaptor into its expansion port! And I might be wrong but the `serial' port (not really a serial port, you need a bit of bridge circuitry to connect it to a PC) only goes at 3-4K / second, hardly lightning fast.
  • Hey presto! You too can have a 50 workstation lab for $10,000!

    Except that the street price of $150 is subsidised by the fact that Sega expect to get money off you buying their licensed games. I'm not sure how much the Dreamcast would cost (much more than double, if you compare it to similar-spec PC hardware) if they weren't trying to account for games purchases.
  • Well, I've got the Wega in the bedroom, and there I've got my hacked first Tivo (60 hours; long before it was possible to add anything other than a 30GB drive to the unit). Due to my viewing habits, I bought another Tivo (30 hours; unhacked, waiting for a purchase of an 80GB drive, and now waiting for the gold SA 2.0 rollout, so I can take it to 120+ hours). With two Tivos, I could timeshift everything I cared to watch (except for one show, which conflicts with two others on simultaneously).

    Last weekend, I bought a 56", 16:9 HDTV for the living room to replace my aging 32" TV, a new progressive-scan DVD player (Toshiba 6200) to replace my perfectly good but nonprogressive Sony 7700 (moving to the bedroom; the old A120 can't play some discs), and am awaiting delivery of my Panasonic TU-HDS20 HD/OTA/DirecTV STB. I moved the non-hacked Tivo into the living room for use with the new set, but realized that as our viewing shifted from the bedroom to the living room (along with the gaming: DC and PS2), we had the same need for a second Tivo.

    Rather than leaving ourselves Tivo-less in the bedroom, we went to Fry's Christmas Eve and picked up a new Sony Tivo (our first; the other two are Philips units) to use as the second living room unit. Both living room units will be getting 80GB drive additions after the 2.0 upgrade.

    Just to add insult to injury, I'm expecting FedEx to drop off my Philips Pronto TSU2000 (I bought the H/K Take Control last week, but should have gone with my gut and gotten the Pronto. I guess I'll be using the Take Control in the bedroom) and my Monster Power 3500 power conditioner tomorrow.

    Yes, I live and work in Silicon Valley, in the high-tech industry, and I'm in no danger of being laid off. :)

    After 2.0's out, I may take this old Libretto CT70, buy another WaveLAN card for it, and run one of the Tivos into it for net updates. Or my old P3-500 (replaced with a Thunderbird Athlon 900MHz a few months back), so I can run both Tivos into it. I've been meaning to play around with digital convergence a bit, and having the P3 in the living room would give me an excuse to do so.
  • I have a PS2 and will probably buy a Dreamcast as well, as they are both great systems.

    However, I think the Dreamcast may have a run for its money in the PS2 ethernet adaptor given these facts:

    1) PS2 will be broadband only.
    2) PS2 ethernet adaptor will come with a HD.

    For the first point, I think that developers not hampered by having to support the latency and bandwith of an analog modem might be able to come up with some interesting game features that make use of the improved baseline (though probably more on the bandwith side, as even DSL latency can of course be really bad if you get a remote server!)

    For the second point, one of the things I do like about PC games and online access is the ability to download new mods and levels for games. Having a HD means you do noy have to download them every time you want to play! It'll be really interesting to see how Sony manages HD file maangement, though I'm pretty sure it'll be similar to how they handle memory cards now.

    And, of course, the PS2 will have the Star Wars MMRP game...
  • Yeah, but what about EA sports games? I own a dreamcast, but am going ot be purchasing a Sony just for the EA games. I enjoy playing soccer or football against my friends in my front room, etc. I will always play the mass-multiplayers on my computer.

    For the real parties, gotta have a console , etc. For the virtual parties.. (ie. mass multiplayer online) .. gota have a PC. ;-) anyway, thats myh opinion. I have been pretty disapointed with the DC. Maybe the PS2 will be just as big of a disapointment.

    Cheers




    --------------------
    Would you like a Python based alternative to PHP/ASP/JSP?
  • There are currently no games on the market that use USB to ethernet adapters for connectivity - the only games that are multi-machine/multiplayer use the firewire ports and firewire hubs. No PSX2 game has any sort of online support today - the driver support for anything but a specific USB device (other than keyboard+mouse) is pretty much of a nightmare - it took quite a while to get that support in the linux kernel, and Sony hasn't been making motions in that directions, so I doubt that developers are going to undertake the task of writing USB drivers for various devices themselves.

    Supposedly Unreal Tournament is pretty nice with the above setup, and there are a couple other games that support firewire links coming out soon as well.

    I own both a Dreamcast and PSX2, and by far, the better machine now game and connection wise is the Dreamcast. You can surf the internet and download stuff with a dreamcast, and right now the Dreamcast game lineup puts the PSX2 one to shame. Oh well, give the PS2 a year, and we'll see what progress has been made.

    BBK
  • ...is how much would it actually cost to put an Ethernet jack into these devices? I mean, if I can buy Ethernet cards for less than five dollars, surely it'll cost the OEMs a fraction of that cost. Throw in some DHCP or something and you got instant Ethernet capability. Maybe only 2% of the population will use it, but what's worse: incurring a $1 (est.) extra cost per unit or the daunting task of trading in all those units when the nation (world) goes Ethernet in a few years?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Maybe only 2% of the population will use it, but what's worse: incurring a $1 (est.) extra cost per unit or the daunting task of trading in all those units when the nation (world) goes Ethernet in a few years?

    If you make 3 million consoles, how much money have you saved by saving only $2 per console?

    By the time the world goes Ethernet in a few years, the PS2 will be today's equivalent of the NES. You'll be lining up for the PS4, so it will be irrelevant.

    --
  • Now even more people will be able to trade my Ryo Sazaki UFO Catcher dolls online!

    Yu Suzuki

  • Recent stories on this got me to wondering if we'll see the fruits of their development efforts? Maybe ethernet adapters, USB, etc.

    I vote for USB above all else. This gets you ethernet, ability to connect multi consoles together, conect to your PC, lots of joysticks, mice, keyboards.
  • It seems to me that if one of these next generation game consoles had a USB port, it would open up a whole world of possibilities.

    Cheapo mice, keyboards, joysticks. Easy ethernet hacks. Modems. Cheapo cables to connect two or more consoles together. Easy to connect to your PC for development. Seems to me this should be an area of focus for the manufacturer or a third party.
  • What I was thinking was that if the console had USB, it could have built in support for limited things, such as connecting two consoles together. Or USB could be the mechanism by which controllers are connected to the console.

    Where all the generality comes in is when someone ports a different OS to the console. If the basic USB hardware is there, then everything else under the sun is a matter of software.

    Of course, various games could come with or support extra USB things, and include their own drivers directly in the game itself. Need one of those steering wheels? Or gas pedal? Or data glove? Or who knows what? Specific games could include their own "driver" support directly into the game -- as long as the basic USB hookup was already there.
  • Well, if you consider the cost of manufacturing a custom plastic shell for it to fit neatly into the box (nobody's gonna buy it if the circuitry and wiring is exposed), and that it IS a proprietary device, AND that the average pricing on a *good* NIC runs from $30-$40, or a USB NIC running anywhere upwards from $50, then tacking on an extra $10 for a device like this isn't that exhorbitant...

    Besides, the $60 is more than likely a MSRP, as opposed to the actual retail... When they make enough to justify lowering the wholesale pricing, then the retailers will inevitably drop their prices as well... More than likely too, the wholesale pricing will be considerably lower...

    How often do you see on sega.com's online store, pricing that is lower than retail? Never... The DC is running around the average pricing of $149, but does not reflect sales that some stores hold, out of box specials, or pre-owned system sales...

  • Re:What I've been wondering... (Score:3)

    by Graymalkin ( 13732 ) on Monday December 25, 2000 @11:33PM (#1420956)
    An aspect of the PS2 hacking is that it uses a completely new CPU design with little in common with any other processor in major production. The DC on the otherhand uses a slightly modified SH-4 chip which is a line of widely documented processors. There's already been work done porting Linux to the SuperH line.

  • Re:This is what I like to see (Score:3)

    by .@. ( 21735 ) on Monday December 25, 2000 @11:12PM (#1420957) Homepage
    True. But we're still a long way off. Both my digital cable boxes, all 3 of my TiVos, and my HDTV converter/DirecTV tuner all need to connect to a phone outlet. Thankfully, most of them are capable of negotiating shared phoneline use correctly.

    Unless and until there's a fundamental shift in thinking, and the default connectivity option in the home is wired or wireless Ethernet (or some similar layer 2 protocol, with either TCP/IP or some form of TCP/IP encapsulation), and until those same homes have adequate home-wide network security coupled with "grandmother-simple" plug-and-play configuration, analog phone connections will continue to reign.

    In terms of Joe Sixpack acceptance and preparedness for fully-networked appliances, we're standing in a place similar to the early 1940's with the transition from radio to television -- it's coming, but it's a long way off, and there's going to be a lot of growing pains along the path.

    Things like this add-on, and recent work replacing the default TiVo modem dial-in with straight Ethernet access (both by subverting the existing PPP config, and by building an ISA slot onto the unit and adding a regular ISA Ethernet card), demonstrate that there's a small segment of society that wants and is capable of taking advantage of such advances. But right now, that segment is EXTREMELY small.

  • The all-important link from the Jules' page... (Score:3)

    by blackwizard ( 62282 ) on Monday December 25, 2000 @11:02PM (#1420958)
    is here [ign.com] ... for those of you who don't want to go through the linked page (which has some sort of script that makes my machine have a heart attack).

    It doesn't have much information, though. I just want to know if I can use it behind an IP masquerading linux box. (Or any other NAT router for that matter.) I ordered one anyway. =)

  • Re:Yeah, but nobody uses those... (Score:3)

    by Kingfox ( 149377 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2000 @12:43PM (#1420959) Homepage Journal
    Major price advantage? You're talking about the difference between a $300 product and a $150 product in the same line of conversation as someone talking about multiple TiVOs. Not to mention broadband rates.... I don't think the extra hundred and a half is going to break the bank for the type of person that this article's aimed at.

    One thing that hasn't been addressed in some time, that I'd like to know about, what happened to the Dreamcast hard drive? The Dreamcast memory card, even the 4x released by Sega, can't adequately hold enough to make broadband a worthwhile endeavor in my mind. Any progress being made in getting a nice large hard drive option for the Dreamcast?

  • ethernet adapter is cool, but... (Score:4)

    by Lx ( 12170 ) on Tuesday December 26, 2000 @01:48AM (#1420960)
    It would have been nice if Sega had thought about it a little more beforehand. See, the network layer isn't transparent to developers - you have to actually write seperate code and include drivers for both a modem *and* an ethernet card in your game if you want to support both, instead of just making your game TCP/IP capable. So all those Dreamcast modem-capable games you have now aren't going to work with it. Just a little word of caution.

    On the other hand, while it makes things nice for the Linux port, it's good for the NetBSD port as well...

    -lx

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