How is your Dreamcast gaming going on?

[CRTGAMER]

GD-ROM reads outer track to inner track, opposite of regular disc readers. Posted an elaboration of this and how different sized discs will have different pit sizes which do affect how a laser needs to adjust how it reads in the Pressed vs CD-R Guide.

I can't confirm that things were written from outside-to-inside. You wouldn't have a link to that, would you? I'd love to read about it!

I know that the same was rumored about Gamecube discs, but it isn't true. I also know that there were CD-based games released on Dreamcast, like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which worked swimmingly in a PC, including reading all the file system data.

PM sent to your Query in order to get the thread back to Dreamcast Gaming.

[marurun]

I have done some investigating and I can find nothing save some random forum posts (with no backing information) indicating the discs read from the outside. I know there were rumors the Xbox did a quick backwards read for copy protection, but I do not think this is something the Dreamcast does.

Now, what you do see a lot is claims that data reads faster at the outside of the disc. That's pretty normal and verifiable. The Dreamcast drive is a standard CAV drive, meaning the spindle spins at a set speed and that data on the outside edge of the disc passes under the laser faster and is thus read at a faster rate. All computer CD drives faster than 12x use some form of CAV. Those 52x CD drives? Those only read 52x at the outermost edge of the disk. The inside of the CD will read as slow as 12x or 16x.

[isiolia]

I have done some investigating and I can find nothing save some random forum posts (with no backing information) indicating the discs read from the outside. I know there were rumors the Xbox did a quick backwards read for copy protection, but I do not think this is something the Dreamcast does.

I've seen claims (including in Anantech's analysis of the hardware) that the original Xbox wrote data from the outside in for CAV speed reasons.

'course, it doesn't necessarily mean it's completely reverse either. 360 discs (originally) had a 1GB partition on the inner ring (which later got freed up). So it could be more of a "puts most accessed data where the drive can access it fastest" type deal.

Far as I know, the main thing confirmed for the Dreamcast is that it's similarly partitioned, and if so, pushing common data to the outer rings for faster read speeds would hardly be unique.

[Sarge]

Oh, yeah, I can totally buy that. Many devs back in the day would do that with video data, just so they could take advantage of the higher data rate.

[Jagosaurus]

Meaning with the last dying Dreamcast, we will lose the option of playing Dreamcast games. This means we will lose a piece of gaming history and future generations will hear about Dreamcast games (or later!) but will not be able to experience them (unlike video and audio that can transfer to other mediums).

Let's not forget about ODE (optical drive emulators) such as...

The GDEMU


and the USB GDROM


Unlike other ODEs, these are very plug and play. No soldering required. Play your games via SD, USB drive, USB HDD.

Unlike the DC SD card readers that use the serial port, compatibility is extremely high with the ODEs. Via the USB GDROM site:
"- 100% compatible (about 600 games was tested by DC community)"

These will be necessary to continue using actually hardware in the coming years.

[TSTR]

You can future proof the console, but that controller will always suck.

[alienjesus]

You can future proof the console, but that controller will always suck.

The man speaks the truth. Could be worse though, it could be an XBox controller.

[Jagosaurus]

You can future proof the console, but that controller will always suck.

The man speaks the truth. Could be worse though, it could be an XBox controller.

I honestly like the DC controller. It does suffer badly in the FPS titles which (all?) luckily support KB&M.

Common! The oXbox S Controller is awesome.

[isiolia]

Common! The oXbox S Controller is awesome.

The black/white buttons are still a little awkward, but overall, yeah, it's a solid controller. Easily better overall than the Dreamcast one.

[alienjesus]

The positioning of the start and select buttons on the Xbox controller S is criminal!