Re: [linuxsh-dev] custom Dreamcast parallel port

On Friday 28 May 2004 13:10, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> sorry for the mass mail but my google searching has netted me nothing :(
>
> i've been looking at all the custom hardware hacks people have done with
> their dreamcasts and what many of them do is use the parallel port, as can
> be seen in the following pic:
> http://home.b00.itscom.net/ikehara/dc/pictures/p0206n002.jpeg
>
> i havent been able to find any directions on how to build this but since
> many places mention the modem, i imagine they used the connector off the
> modem board and just soldered the wires into that ... does anyone out there
> know of a place with some good directions on how to build this myself ? 
> i'd rather work off something that someone has done before (and thus proven
> to work) than just break it myself and have to buy another one :)
> -mike
>

For a little while in 2002 I was perhaps the most active Dreamcast linux 
kernel hacker - writing a device driver or two and even a filesystem for the 
VMU device (though I was standing on the shoulders of giants). Change of job 
etc meant all that had to stop and there were a few others still going, but 
my assessment is that the DC hacking scence - both Linux and homebrew stuff 
generally - has more or less died in the last six months.

My impression is that there are still a few hardy souls hacking away at NetBSD 
though. But by and large the DC is finished even for hobbyist hackers like 
myself.

A pity, but that's the way it goes - certainly no commercial support was ever 
likely and the prohibitive cost of the nic for the DC meant serious 
developers were always going to be thin on the ground.

Adrian