Atomiswave games to DC...CAN IT BE POSSIBLE?

[Xaeroxcore]

Hello everyone!

i was wondering, may be in 2020 there are tools to make it happen, converting Atomiswave games to DC, because both systems share the same architecture. What do you guys think?

 

[accel99]

Hello everyone!

i was wondering, may be in 2020 there are tools to make it happen, converting Atomiswave games to DC, because both systems share the same architecture. What do you guys think?

I remember metallic saying conversion is possible (maybe even doable)as the specs seem to be exactly the same but theres no interest for this to happen. Something along those lines.

 

[Arcadia]

Are there any Atomiswave exclusives worth playing? I'm unfamiliar with most of the titles, except for the SNK games who are also on other home consoles like PS2 and Xbox.

 

[MetalliC]

i was wondering, may be in 2020 there are tools to make it happen, converting Atomiswave games to DC, because both systems share the same architecture. What do you guys think?

tools - no, there will be required manual research and rework of every game's code by skilled enough person.

 

[Xaeroxcore]

And what about porting PSP games to DC? somebody have already done it with 4X4 Jam...could it be replicated with more complex PSP titles?

 

[FamilyGuy]

And what about porting PSP games to DC? somebody have already done it with 4X4 Jam...could it be replicated with more complex PSP titles?

For 4x4 I think they had access to the source code.

 

[dark]

Atomiswave has some neat games, they'd all be great additions to the dreamcast library. Ports of most of the fighters exist, mostly for the PS2, but they'd be very complimentary to the existing DC fighters library.

I don't think any of the racing games received home releases - some might think they are a bit generic, but I think the racers are quite good for hardware at the level of the dreamcast.

Dolphin Blue is regarded as a cult classic and is also fabulous for the hardware, I don't think that received a home port.

Someone "ported" the atomiswave library to the naomi. These days with the gdemu, it must be even more possible that they could be modified to run on a DC.

 

[Anthony817]

I oftentimes asked myself this. There really is not much of any hardware limiting factor, so in theory it should be vastly more possible than trying to get Naomi or Naomi 2 games working.

On the OG Xbox the 128mb memory mod allows it to play arcade games from the Chihiro, The Xbox equivalent of the Naomi. So this should be infinitely more feasible on paper.

 

[dark]

Let's just brute force it, flash the atomiswave bios to a chip compatible with the connections on the DC's motherboard, then connect the atomiswave cartridge port to the DC gdrom connection port with some kind of ribbon cable. At that point we've basically got ourselves an atomiswave, right???

 

[MetalliC]

then connect the atomiswave cartridge port to the DC gdrom connection port with some kind of ribbon cable. At that point we've basically got ourselves an atomiswave, right???

no, you missed ROMEO ASICs, AW mobo is kidof:
G1/ATA bus <-> ROMEO 1 <-> cartridge

Maple bus <-> ROMEO 2 <-> inputs/outputs
G2 bus <-------^^^

some of games uses additional "Expansion I/O" cartridge, with one more ROMEO IC.

 

[dark]

Okay, let's introduce 'Romeo'



This chip is found on the Atomiswave motherboard, tied directly into the HOLLY chipset G1 bus. All implementations of emulation for the Atomiswave ignore that this chip exists. It is not fully known all the roles this chip plays, but it does initialize cartridges and manage file system requests to the game cartridge.

ATOMISWAVE, the story of Romeo and Juliet

The time has finally come to start sharing details on what I've been working on for the Atomiswave! Earlier I posted about the project to read AW carts, it was this project that really spurred my interest in the Atomiswave. Being a long time Dreamcast fan, discovering an entire new set of games...

www.arcade-projects.com

It can't be that important if emulators don't emulate it but are still able to load the roms?

If it is important, surely Brizzo must be able to help us since he has reverse engineered it

 

[MetalliC]

It can't be that important if emulators don't emulate it but are still able to load the roms?

I suppose you're not really understanding what you talking about, all Atomiswave emulators emulate it, for example in case of MAME it is https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/machine/awboard.cpp

If it is important, surely Brizzo must be able to help us since he has reverse engineered it

do you have specific questions ? as you may see in that message - we was working together on AW research task.

 

[accel99]

I suppose you're not really understanding what you talking about, all Atomiswave emulators emulate it, for example in case of MAME it is https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/machine/awboard.cpp


do you have specific questions ? as you may see in that message - we was working together on AW research task.

So those asics would somehow need to be simulated to even read the carts? So how does naomi conversion get past that? What about maybe software solution inserted in the memory at boot up or something?
Ill just ask directly,So even if you some how get past this are atomiswave to dc conversion even possible? Also, Atomiswave is always listed to have 8 mb ram of sound ram compared to dc 2 mb.

 

[MetalliC]

So those asics would somehow need to be simulated to even read the carts? So how does naomi conversion get past that? What about maybe software solution inserted in the memory at boot up or something?
Ill just ask directly,So even if you some how get past this are atomiswave to dc conversion even possible?

it is slightly easier in case of NAOMI, because game medias is similar in general, they are both ROM boards (or DIMM board),

as of porting in general, there should be done such tasks:
- cartridge simulation. should be found routines which do cart data access and replaced with calls to Dreamcast GD-drive read syscalls. this expected to be hardest task, especially in term of making fast enough sound or video data streaming.
- players inputs. expected to be easy enough task, since at logical level ROMEO works almost the same as regular Dreamcast controller but with shuffled buttons order, and this order should be patched/fixed.
- coin inputs. they are read from MMIO at G2 bus area (8bit mode). these should be patched and "routed" to data read from Maple access routines above, or patch games to enable "free play" mode and not require coin inputs.
- SRAM access. Atomiswave have battery backed 128KByte SRAM inststead of DC's flash ROM, and used to store game settings, play stats, high scores, etc. this probably should be fully removed / patched out, because DC have no such NV memory.
- flash ROM (BIOS) access. some of games do checks if BIOS area are really flash ROM (sending there CFI/JEDEC commands), mainly for protection reasons. this should be located and disabled/patched too.

Also, Atomiswave is always listed to have 8 mb ram of sound ram compared to dc 2 mb.

this is obviously wrong, anyone interested may google for Atomiswave PCB photos, read AICA RAM chip part number, google its datasheet where will be said it is 2MByte, same as regular Dreamcast.
this is typical internet curse - at some point was spread incorrect information and then was copy&pasted everywhere. happens quite often these days.

 

[accel99]

it is slightly easier in case of NAOMI, because game medias is similar in general, they are both ROM boards (or DIMM board),

as of porting in general, there should be done such tasks:
- cartridge simulation. should be found routines which do cart data access and replaced with calls to Dreamcast GD-drive read syscalls. this expected to be hardest task, especially in term of making fast enough sound or video data streaming.
- players inputs. expected to be easy enough task, since at logical level ROMEO works almost the same as regular Dreamcast controller but with shuffled buttons order, and this order should be patched/fixed.
- coin inputs. they are read from MMIO at G2 bus area (8bit mode). these should be patched and "routed" to data read from Maple access routines above, or patch games to enable "free play" mode and not require coin inputs.
- SRAM access. Atomiswave have battery backed 128KByte SRAM inststead of DC's flash ROM, and used to store game settings, play stats, high scores, etc. this probably should be fully removed / patched out, because DC have no such NV memory.
- flash ROM (BIOS) access. some of games do checks if BIOS area are really flash ROM (sending there CFI/JEDEC commands), mainly for protection reasons. this should be located and disabled/patched too.


this is obviously wrong, anyone interested may google for Atomiswave PCB photos, read AICA RAM chip part number, google its datasheet where will be said it is 2MByte, same as regular Dreamcast.
this is typical internet curse - at some point was spread incorrect information and then was copy&pasted everywhere. happens quite often these days.

Hmm sounds kind of the work done on dreamshell , emulating gdrom calls for use with the sd card adaptor to load their patched/customized isos.

Well at least thanks to you we know its possible. Shame theres no interest in it.

 

[megavolt85]

Atomiswave has some neat games, they'd all be great additions to the dreamcast library.

you are damn right
I think I would start with metal slug 6

 

[cast128dreamsa]

what games can be ported ??dolphin blue ???I mean rendering full 3d games like faster than speed?really possible?

 

[megavolt85]

what games can be ported ??

all

 

[Anthony817]

I am interested in seeing Faster Than Speed ported, which is a Fast and Furious knockoff game. Such a graphically impressive game, and more on par with what we would expect had the system lasted until 2004. Some great games that really push the hardware to the limits are on the Atomiswave, Excited at the prospect of all new gaming experiences on the console 20 years later.

 

[cast128dreamsa]

it's like we gonna get a dreamcast with life till 2006 2005...fatswr than speed looks gorgeous and officially there isn't a game like this