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History of nullDC

3K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  burncloud 
#1 ·
Being new to Dreamcast emulation, I was wondering where it all started (as far as nullDC is concerned. I've noticed that emulator-zone doesn't include this phenominal emulator and I thought that that was a little strange. As well, I'm also surprized that there isn't a dedicated site for it. Why is that nullDC is only available through forum posts? Why isn't there a dedicated site for this fantastic emulator? I'm sure its popularity would increase if it got some webspace.

Let me know where it started... who were the masterminds behind it, and why it doesn't have a dedicated site. (Forum based d/l seem a tad shady for the layman emu enthusiast IMO).

Anyways, I'm interested.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Being new to Dreamcast emulation, I was wondering where it all started (as far as nullDC is concerned. I've noticed that emulator-zone doesn't include this phenominal emulator and I thought that that was a little strange. As well, I'm also surprized that there isn't a dedicated site for it. Why is that nullDC is only available through forum posts? Why isn't there a dedicated site for this fantastic emulator? I'm sure its popularity would increase if it got some webspace.
Short answer : because im lazy.
Long answer : I am lazy to learn php/sql, and varius people that suposely whould make the site (that includes, but is not limited to, plot,CKemu,Falcon4Ever and GiGaHeRz) got bored and/or lazy on the way.Just ask em ;p

Let me know where it started... who were the masterminds behind it, and why it doesn't have a dedicated site. (Forum based d/l seem a tad shady for the layman emu enthusiast IMO).

Anyways, I'm interested.
I started working on dreamcast emulation back on 2003 (right after i finished working on a gameboy emulator ;p).As i didnt know much about the dreamcast hardware back then i studied the the dcemu (link) dreamcast emulator and submited some fixes.A few months later ,using the knowledge i gained from that work, i wrote a dreamcast emu on C#/.net2beta (DC4Ever/dc4e) which was able to run some (very) simple dreamcast homebrew demos (bins - cant find link for src).After many many months i got it to boot some more advanced stuff (KOS demos).Thats when i joined #emudev on efnet and met ZeZu (~ 6/2005).He provided some dreamcast docs and gave me his 3d plugin (from icarus) for testing.He eventualy joined the project and sugested to rewrite it on C/C++.After that progress had been very fast for the first few weeks (Crazy Taxi was working in less than two weeks, bios was working on 3 weeks) but later development slowed down a lot.I started a rewrite/cleanup @ Fall 2005 witch got finished around the summer of 2006.The name was decided on 30/10/2005 ("nullDC".Not NullDC , nUllDC,nuLLDC etc).PsyMan joined the team a week later (he does most of the testing/support/misc and was the olny beta tester for a long long long long time ;) ty psy <3 ).Since then only incremeantal changes have been done (like improving dynarec, stability, etc).drkpvr,sdlaica and ImageReader were all writen on the last few months before the first release (drkpvr is the internal name for nullPVR, ImgReader has been renamed to nullGDR, and sdlaica to nullAICA).


Phew .. lots of text.Well i hope that covers (some of) it.I reserve the right to edit this post later :p
 
#6 ·
Short answer : because im lazy.
Long answer : I am lazy to learn php/sql, and varius people that suposely whould make the site (that includes, but is not limited to, plot,CKemu,Falcon4Ever and GiGaHeRz) got bored and/or lazy on the way.Just ask em ;p



I started working on dreamcast emulation back on 2003 (right after i finished working on a gameboy emulator ;p).As i didnt know much about the dreamcast hardware back then i studied the the dcemu (link) dreamcast emulator and submited some fixes.A few months later ,using the knowledge i gained from that work, i wrote a dreamcast emu on C#/.net2beta (DC4Ever/dc4e) which was able to run some (very) simple dreamcast homebrew demos (bins - cant find link for src).After many many months i got it to boot some more advanced stuff (KOS demos).Thats when i joined #emudev on efnet and met ZeZu (~ 6/2005).He provided some dreamcast docs and gave me his 3d plugin (from icarus) for testing.He eventualy joined the project and sugested to rewrite it on C/C++.After that progress had been very fast for the first few weeks (Crazy Taxi was working in less than two weeks, bios was working on 3 weeks) but later development slowed down a lot.I started a rewrite/cleanup @ Fall 2005 witch got finished around the summer of 2006.The name was decided on 30/10/2005 ("nullDC".Not NullDC , nUllDC,nuLLDC etc).PsyMan joined the team a week later (he does most of the testing/support/misc and was the olny beta tester for a long long long long time ;) ty psy <3 ).Since then only incremeantal changes have been done (like improving dynarec, stability, etc).drkpvr,sdlaica and ImageReader were all writen on the last few months before the first release (drkpvr is the internal name for nullPVR, ImgReader has been renamed to nullGDR, and sdlaica to nullAICA).


Phew .. lots of text.Well i hope that covers (some of) it.I reserve the right to edit this post later :p
I have a lot of respect for people that write emulators. I'm learning to program at university, I'm in my second year. But I wouldn't even know where to start with such a large project - I suppose you need a fair amount of research behind it, and a lot of dedication.
 
#8 ·
Well, plot,CKemu,Falcon4Ever and GiGaHeRz... i'm building one right now; as a thanks to those who contributed.

For reference, whats legal, as far as hardware emulation is concerned? Hosting a site in north america with hardware emulation isn't illegal is it? As for the Bios and the information regarding the pseudo-legal procuration of .cdi files, what are the rules concerning that?
 
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