I was thinking to port owr first PC project to Dreamcast. The reason is that there is a solid community with alot of experience and free SDK. But the question is - is it worth it? I was wondering how many units of DC is still out there? Do their owners buy games for it? I was going to contact SEGA to ask all that questions but I couldn't find contact information. Could you please help me to find contacte info for developers in SEGA? Also I would like to get links on developing resources for Dreamcast. Thank you.

The dreamcast scene is almost dead.

Many of the lead programmers have lost intrest in their projects or have become infactuated with the xbox.

Porting to it probally only good as a learning experience.

For example:
dreamsnes hasnt been updated in over a year.

Many of the emulators havent been finished (the genesis comes to mind)

The last big homebrew project for it feet of fury has been released over a year ago.

The forums on sbiffy.com are dying/dead.

Its better to look into xbox dev.

Dreamcast still lives with a few minor releases(burps?) in Japan every blue moon, but Sega is no longer in the market of selling offical dev-kits nor making Dreamcasts.

You won't be able to use you free kit to make a game that you can sell, since making a bootable disc still requires Sega's IP and selling a game that requires a user to find a pirated bootdisc won't exactly win the hearts of your consumers.

If your game is free, I could see doing DC development is a learning experience, but it's unlikely you'll be able to produce a game for profit anytime in the future.

If you want to get into homebrew console development to make money, then don't bother. There's not a market for new Dreamcast games, and the PS2 and Xbox require special hardware that the vast majority of users don't have. If you just want to port a game for fun and to learn, then the Dreamcast is a good console for it.

EDIT:

Quote: You won't be able to use you free kit to make a game that you can sell, since making a bootable disc still requires Sega's IP and selling a game that requires a user to find a pirated bootdisc won't exactly win the hearts of your consumers.

Not entirely true. It's possible to write a game for the DC without using any of Sega's IP. You can even make a self-booting CD from scratch. And it's 100% legal to sell a game for the DC (or any console) as long as you don't use any unlicensed IP. The only problem is that there is no market for homebrew commercial games, so you'd been spending many, many hours for very little money.

See http://www.feetoffury.com/ for an example of a commercial homebrew game.

[Edited by - Evil Bachus on April 7, 2005 11:04:48 PM]

Thansk you guys, but would you mind to help me with contact information for SEGA? I want to talk to them personaly, and then we'll see the truth about DC and it's market.
Thanks!

Quote: Original post by Evil Bachus
Not entirely true. It's possible to write a game for the DC without using any of Sega's IP. You can even make a self-booting CD from scratch. And it's 100% legal to sell a game for the DC (or any console) as long as you don't use any unlicensed IP. The only problem is that there is no market for homebrew commercial games, so you'd been spending many, many hours for very little money.

I have to admit, I haven't been paying attention to the scene.

Was someone able to make a boot disc without using sega's IP? I was under the impression that the original IP.bin was still pirated.

Sega Europe's contact number is +44 (020) 8995 3399 - lose the first zero when dialing from outside the UK.

Quote: Original post by Binomine

Quote: Original post by Evil Bachus
Not entirely true. It's possible to write a game for the DC without using any of Sega's IP. You can even make a self-booting CD from scratch. And it's 100% legal to sell a game for the DC (or any console) as long as you don't use any unlicensed IP. The only problem is that there is no market for homebrew commercial games, so you'd been spending many, many hours for very little money.

I have to admit, I haven't been paying attention to the scene.

Was someone able to make a boot disc without using sega's IP? I was under the impression that the original IP.bin was still pirated.

there are two versions running around. the unofficial homebrew and Sega's IP.bin.
hooray for reverse engineering [smile]
unfortunately, it led to the DC's downfall [sad]

Quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes
unfortunately, it led to the DC's downfall [sad]

That and the lack of advertising from Sega [sad]

Quote: Original post by Alpha_ProgDes

there are two versions running around. the unofficial homebrew and Sega's IP.bin.
hooray for reverse engineering [smile]
unfortunately, it led to the DC's downfall [sad]

What - reverse engineering? Why do you think it led to downfall of that system?