I did it! -OR- The 3DO homebrewer's thread

Homebrew and Mods (For Software & Hardware)
User avatar
Gir Draxa
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 243
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: USA (occasionally Thailand)
Contact:

Post by Gir Draxa » Sun Mar 18, 2007 3:59 am

Since I'm doing some magazine scanning, figured these images might be of intrest:

Image
Image

Drax
CEO of The (in search of a home) CD-i & 3DO Collectives

Just slightly behind at being ahead of our time!

User avatar
pitsunami
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 342
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:55 pm
Location: GREECE

Post by pitsunami » Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:55 am

:!: :!: :!: Oh this is an auction i lost about two years ago because my 56k internet had problem... :cry: i think it was a bigger set,i need one very badly!

Windows Killer
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 98
Joined: Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:33 pm
Location: Germany
Contact:

Post by Windows Killer » Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:37 pm

Mobius wrote:Otherwise, WindowsKiller, can you PM me some contact info?
Sorry, I missed. What contact info are you looking for? :?

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Sun Mar 18, 2007 6:07 pm

Oh, I was just interested in the SDK, but Madroms hooked me up. Thanks, though!

User avatar
3DOKid
3DO ZONE ADMIN
Posts: 4683
Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:21 pm
Location: Cambridgeshire, UK
Contact:

Post by 3DOKid » Sun Mar 18, 2007 10:59 pm

Content library? Is this the stuff 3DO would give developers to aid them make games. Also the reason why so many "explosions" on the 3DO look the same?

triffid_98
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:48 pm

Post by triffid_98 » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:59 pm

No fair posting unobtainium Drax! I'm sure homebrew devs would love to get their hands on the content library (there are 2 volumes IIRC), but I've never seen one for sale.

triffid_98
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:48 pm

Post by triffid_98 » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:15 pm

Is the flash cart out yet? From what I've read the sticking point of homebrew on the Jag was that the proms to build actual carts are prohibitably expensive these days (ref:http://www.scatologic.com/), and the lack of any good emus.

3DO development has issues too, but they are arguably fixable now that the encryption key has been broken (ref:http://www.oldergamers.com).
T2KFreeker wrote:Well, it is nice to see that these things actually still inspire people to do this kind of work. Over at JSII, there is a "Playground" for learning these kinds of things where programmers try and teach other people that are interrested to code for the Jaguar. Perhaps something like this would be ideal here? Especially if we are all serious about coding and getting games really going for the 3DO.

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:21 pm

Unfortunately, Oldergames.com hasn't been updated in a year and a half, so we're all a little skeptical over whether the encryption really has been broken.

User avatar
BryWI
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 1334
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:16 pm
Location: Kenosha, WI, USA
Contact:

Post by BryWI » Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:50 pm

it has been broken, the creator of icebreaker 2 got back an encrypted disc that plays on a normal 3do.

Madroms

Post by Madroms » Tue Mar 20, 2007 11:23 pm

Guy from http://thdo-homebrew.narod.ru/ said he can encrypt your binaries so he probably broke the encryption (or got the tool to do so).

This is the same guy you made 3DO commander, great tool for browsinf your 3DO Cd and extracting the contents.
[I put the last version (0.99) on my page]

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:11 am

Do the disks work under FreeDo?

I thought there was a version of FreeDo that played unencrypted demo (version 1.6.2 or 1.7)? I just did a search (http://www.retrogames.com/cgi-bin/wwwth ... =flat&sb=2) and found that 1.7 WIP plays unencrypted betas.

I think MESS is the next 'big' step in homebrew for the 3DO, once it fully supports the 3DO.

It should be possible to patch the BIOS to cicumvent the protection, and being able to debug 3DO programs will be very helpful.

The Older Games releases may provide clues on getting around the encryption. From reading through the information on the encryption, menmonic seemed to indicate that code could be 'injected' into the system to defeat the protection..

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:55 am

There is a version of FreeDO that plays unencrypted ISOs, and I was able to get demos running on it. Unfortunately, there's some kind of bug in FreeDO that prevents it from reading input on my system and I can't actually play anything (it does this weird thing when I try to configure the controls where it cycles through every field as if I'm holding down the Tab key). So without a working version of FreeDO or a testing station, I haven't been able to make any further progress.

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Sat Jul 07, 2007 6:42 pm

Mobius wrote:There is a version of FreeDO that plays unencrypted ISOs, and I was able to get demos running on it. Unfortunately, there's some kind of bug in FreeDO that prevents it from reading input on my system and I can't actually play anything (it does this weird thing when I try to configure the controls where it cycles through every field as if I'm holding down the Tab key). So without a working version of FreeDO or a testing station, I haven't been able to make any further progress.
Did you use the latest MPW?

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Sat Jul 07, 2007 7:00 pm

The problem is with FreeDO, not anything I wrote. Controller configuration just doesn't work on my PC.

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Sat Jul 07, 2007 8:56 pm

Mobius wrote:The problem is with FreeDO, not anything I wrote. Controller configuration just doesn't work on my PC.
I meant Macintosh Programmer's Workshop.

I tried 3.5 (the latest), and it was able to compile the examples.

What program did you use to build the CD?

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:19 pm

Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, I used 3.5 and was able to compile the examples, no problem.

I also used MPW for creating the CD-ROM image. If you're using the SDK, there's a "laytool" in the "cdrommaster" folder. I just followed the instructions in the "Preparing Simple cdrom.image Files" document (DevDocs/ppgfldr/smmfldr/cdmfldr/03CDM003.html). That creates a raw ISO you can load with FreeDO or burn to play on a testing station.

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Sun Jul 08, 2007 9:07 pm

Mobius wrote:Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, I used 3.5 and was able to compile the examples, no problem.

I also used MPW for creating the CD-ROM image. If you're using the SDK, there's a "laytool" in the "cdrommaster" folder. I just followed the instructions in the "Preparing Simple cdrom.image Files" document (DevDocs/ppgfldr/smmfldr/cdmfldr/03CDM003.html). That creates a raw ISO you can load with FreeDO or burn to play on a testing station.
Is cdrom.zip on the InfinityDev ftp a valid CD?

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:05 pm

Indeed, it is. It's the one Gir Draxa burned and ran on a testing station. (Video on page 2.)

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Sun Jul 08, 2007 10:53 pm

Mobius wrote:Indeed, it is. It's the one Gir Draxa burned and ran on a testing station. (Video on page 2.)
Awesome job in getting this working.

I initially tested the file in what I thought was 1.7 WIP, turned out I had 1.8. Once I switched to 1.7 it worked fine.

I'll have to dig into this more over the next week or two. This is exciting.

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:31 am

So, I may be getting a tester's station soon... That could make things very interesting! :)

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:48 am

I just stumbled on the patched 3DO FZ-10 bios, I wonder how hard it would be to swap out the bios?

Mobius

Post by Mobius » Thu Jul 19, 2007 4:04 am

cdoty wrote:I just stumbled on the patched 3DO FZ-10 bios, I wonder how hard it would be to swap out the bios?
Probably not too difficult with an EPROM writer... If you have one. Which I don't. :)

I'd like to get a hold of that patched BIOS, though. It'd be nice to use with FreeDO.

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:15 am

Did you noticed the printf's in the program are displayed in the debug.fz10.mes file on the C:\ drive? (The names probably changes based on the bios used, I'm guessing). Printf debugging, it doesn't get much better than that.

I'm using Freedo 1.9, a patched FZ-10 bios and, the cdrom.image you posted.

There's a lot of information in there, and a ram dump is saved as debug.fz10.ram.

Now if it was only possible to compile it on the PC... The sdk almost looks like a version of the ARM SDT. I'm not sure how you'd build the cd, unless you built it once on the mac, and use CompilFS to change the program file.

User avatar
3DO Experience
3DO ZONE ADMIN
Posts: 3686
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:47 am
Location: U.S.A.

Post by 3DO Experience » Thu Aug 02, 2007 2:30 am

This is prob a little late in the game but I believe I have some 3DO developer stuff somewhere. Never used it as I don't have a MAC. It might be something you guys already are using but if I can dig it out I could upload the contents somewhere.
"Wait. You don't have a bag of charcoal in your gaming room???"

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:37 am

3DO Experience wrote:This is prob a little late in the game but I believe I have some 3DO developer stuff somewhere. Never used it as I don't have a MAC. It might be something you guys already are using but if I can dig it out I could upload the contents somewhere.
If you're talking about the portfolio and devkit stuff, they're already posted.

User avatar
3DO Experience
3DO ZONE ADMIN
Posts: 3686
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:47 am
Location: U.S.A.

Post by 3DO Experience » Thu Aug 02, 2007 4:40 am

I'll have to dig them up sometime, but my personal list that has more than the webpage has it listed as 3DO DevKit (US-MAC)
"Wait. You don't have a bag of charcoal in your gaming room???"

User avatar
3DO Experience
3DO ZONE ADMIN
Posts: 3686
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:47 am
Location: U.S.A.

Post by 3DO Experience » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:54 am

In honor of finally being able to sign 3DO discs this thread is hereby resurrected.

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:56 pm

I'm in the process of trying to get the Arm ADS 1.2/SDT 2.11a/2.50 compilers working on Windows. The ADS will compile and link the Bounce example, but can't create an aif formatted file. The SDT versions take the same command line options, so they're probably close to the 3DO version, but they choke on the header files.

My next attempt is to use the cfront compiler flag, and see if that fixes the header file issue. If not, it might be possible to use the linker from the SDT with the compilers from the ADS.

Assuming all of that works, the only thing left is to figure out the exact function of the modbin file, from the 3DO dev kit. It only changes 6 bytes, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

User avatar
MakillaGorilla
3DO ZERO USER
Posts: 48
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 7:31 pm
Location: Newark, DE - USA

Post by MakillaGorilla » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:10 pm

This is so beyond my spectrum of understanding its insane, but I still understand enough to glean that you sir, have impressive talents in this field. Keep it up! Any more work on this subject brings us closer to some serious homebrews or other unique goodies!
'Did that guy just say he thinks rings are cool!?!?'

Most Desired Games:
-Out of This World (longbox) -Alone in the Dark (longbox) -Lucienne's Quest (longbox) -Killing Time (longbox) -Robinson's Requiem (longbox) -Strahl (longbox) -Dragon Lore (longbox) -Star Control II (longbox) -Sailor Moon (JPN) -Doctor Hauzer (JPN) -Montana Jones (JPN)

cdoty
Bringer of game signing
Posts: 112
Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:42 pm
Location: Houston, TX
Contact:

Post by cdoty » Tue Jul 10, 2012 6:32 am

MakillaGorilla wrote:This is so beyond my spectrum of understanding its insane, but I still understand enough to glean that you sir, have impressive talents in this field. Keep it up! Any more work on this subject brings us closer to some serious homebrews or other unique goodies!
I released a demo that will boot on all 3DOs, and a toolkit to allow anyone to do the same. I need to put the files back online though:

http://3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=1761
Visit RasterSoft on facebook or visit the website.

Post Reply