CD Encryption via Skunkboard

[CD Encryption via Skunkboard]

Hey folks!

 

I just had an idea. As sending data is much easier and more relieable using the skunkboard, wouldn't it be a great idea to port over the cd encryption tools to use the skunkboard?

Afterall usb data transfer is much more relieable and comfortable than using the parallel port or serial link as current tools require it.

So this is just a suggestion to somebody who has a bit of experience with the skunkboard and cd encryption code already. :-)

Maybe Matthias BJL based cd encryption can be adapted?

 

Regards, Lars.

[Skunkboard and booting unencrypted cds?]

I tried to load a binary for cartspace $802000 that should boot unencrypted cds. The upload itself seemed fine.

But one thing I can not yet figure out is, how do I boot the cart instead of the CD unit?

 

Is this whole idea of using the skunkboard to run unencrypted cds possible?

[Nonfunctional CD unit]

After some more checking I think I have resolved the problems.

I believe it really was a problem of the motor being stuck at first (fixed with the screwdriver trick). And later it was a problem of the disc not being pressed down by the lid (as I didn't close it to see if things were fine).

Yes, the Playstation and other cd systems I own usually have some sort of mechanism to make sure the cd has some "grip".

In case of a playstation I own it's some plastic parts on the spindle itself and when they break, you have the same problem as I saw it on the Jag.

 

I think what I saw with turning backwards was also caused by this.. Imagine the disc not really having grip. Turning at the wrong speed (maybe too fast) and the drive trying to slow it down, but it slightly starts to hover and is out of control. Actually I guess I was lucky that the discs didn't fly through the room.

 

So for anybody who tries to operate the drive without lid, remember that the grip of the spindle and disc isn't so good and the disc can easily get out of control.

 

The problem I had with CDR games I tried to play was simply due to the age of the discs. After like 8 years they seem to be problematic due to the nature of the Jaguar format. While data discs on PC are maybe still readable (although even they tend to have problems), the audio discs of the Jag are less likely to work if you have bad luck. That was the case for me. So creating backups of your CDR games for yourself might be a good idea for the future.

 

Mastered CDs seem to work fine.

 

Regards, Lars.

[Nonfunctional CD unit]

Hello Folks!

 

I decided it's time to fix my broken JagCD units too...

So I ordered a new transport and laser unit.

For the one unit the problem seems to be the disc "platter" is stuck (slight scratchy sound when I turn it and it moves slighly harder than it should).

I tried the screwdriver pulling up trick.

 

Now there is another thing, maybe somebody here can verify. I have the open JagCD unit and bridged the lid check mechanism...

So I put a disc into the unit and turned it on. It started to boot, the disc was spinning... and all of a sudden weird scratching noises came, the disc even started spinning the wrong way. Is this always happening?

 

I noticed it doesn't happen when I put the lid onto it. So I figured, maybe this just happened because the disc wasn't pressed down.

 

Now with the lid attached and closed, it boots normal cds again. But no encrypted homebrew, which it used to back when it was fine.

So I wonder, is it now "fixed" or am I just lucky that it reads some discs again?

 

Any info is highly appreciated.

 

Regards, Lars.

[The "I got my Skunkboard!" Thread]

I recieved my skunkboard a little while ago. It's really an amazing product!

 

I just recently wrote a little blog entry on it on my website.

 

Btw, Peter where did you get the logo in such a high res that you could print it and put it onto the cart?

[is there a compatibilty list for project tempest/virt. jaguar emu's (PC)]

just curious as to if there is as i am having some problems runnig a few rom games

 

like astreroid 2000/gorf 2000 (doesn't run on virt. jaguar and project tempest keeps asking for a download address)

 

hyper force only shows a couple of screens then goes black

 

 

Asteroids 2000?

And where did you get a copy of Gorf 2000. Im rather curious to know.

 

Im also rather curious as to why you are attempting to run illegal images of my

games?

Game that are NOT AUTHORIZED to run from an emulator....btw

 

To be honest, I do believe it's actually the early version of Gorf that was released at some point and also bundled with the BJL rom, that he is referring to.

Most people who "collect" roms seem to be outside of the jag scene and have no idea what the roms actually are.

So wrong naming is common. I have seen that with some of my programs in the past.

 

Although I know how it feels. I hate to see it happen with my work too.

[Skunkboard Revision 2 Orders Thread]

Same here. At first I didn't get a reservation e-mail. I was worried, so I asked and recieved the confirmation e-mail.

 

While I can't speak for Tursi, and I don't know the whole situation, I do know what it means to release a product.

I do believe Tursi and KSkunk set up the preorder page and the ordering system for a good reason.

I think it is amazing how many orders they can process in such a short time.

Keep in mind that they do it all as their HOBBY. Not as a fulltime job and not for a living.

 

Reading that there are preorder numbers of over 160... Some maybe even with mutiple boards...

It must be a LOAD of work to manage that in such a short time.

 

I just recently sent my payment and can't wait to get my hands on the board to finally get some code done again.

I had to switch to Project Tempest for a while, but it just doesn't replace a real Jag.

It leaves a lot of work, due to the differences to the real hardware.

So, can't wait

 

Keep up the good work, folks.

[Skunkboard Revision 2 Orders Thread]

I'm ready and waiting

[Skunkboard rev 2]

BIOS is in final test.

 

Assuming no emergencies arise, I will publish the update for Rev 1 boards and we will start programming the Rev 2 boards. Once we hit critical mass on programmed boards, we will start contacting people on the reservation list. This may yet take a couple of weeks, but it's close.

 

That's really great! I am very much looking forward to it.

[Controller paint wearing off]

On my Pro Controller the paint is slowly wearing off, but that was after years and lots of hours using it.

[HalMock FurBall Video on Youtube]

Thanks.

 

Yes, in Eerievale you'll control the character in a similar way.

[HalMock FurBall Video on Youtube]

Hello!

 

I finally managed to get a video on my adventure game "HalMock FurBall" created and uploaded on Youtube.

It's a demo game I designed in 2007 in a team of three people in just two and a half weeks. It's kind of a proof of concept using an early PC based version of the Eerievale Adventure Engine.

Most people here probably don't know about this game and maybe don't even care as it's just a PC game.

But in a way it is kind of Jag related as it is showing progress of the eerievale engine and shows even by the time of 2007 it was far enough to create a fun little game with it. Also I really like the cartoon setting and the character.

Opinions and feedback on the game are very welcome, as I'd love to develop this into a full game one day.

You can also download the demo on my Website and check it out yourself.

 

Youtube Video: HalMock FurBall

 

Regards, Lars.

[Skunkboard rev 2]

Eh?

 

You'd rather travel BETWEEN locations converting code to CD tracks, padding and slowly burning a CD and wasting even a little money for EVERY test and with no debugging?

 

This makes NO sense at all.

 

I fully agree. I had to go that way with the early versions of the Eerievale engine... it is hardly possible to develop a game that way.

No matter how patient you are. Unless of course you don't need debugging or testing at all.

Every slightest change of code took about 10-15 Minutes to verify and a wasted CDR when I had to go that way. Let alone the unrelieablity of the JagCD.

It wasn't any fun at all and the results took forever. You are better of getting the cheapest notebook you can find on ebay. These days you can easily find cheap notebooks on ebay for like 100-200 euro for a centrino 1.5GHz or so. They may not be fast by todays standards, but fast enough for anything you need as a jag coder. Even a Pentium one would be fine. So really any notebook is a better choice.

That is a much better way to go.

[Skunkboard rev 2]

I don't think such a feature has much to do with the skunkboard itself.

In case of the alpine loader, it's a CD program that loads tracks into the alpine memory. But if you know how the skunkboard works you can always program it yourself. Unless there is a hardware limitation, but I don't know which. Maybe that you can't run commercial games, but that should be fine as you want free binaries, which would work when written to support it.

 

At least that's what I think.

[Help Wanted section on my website...]

Hey folks!

 

I just wanted to let you know that my website now has a help wanted section. You can find the button in the right bar on the site.

 

If you have some skills that you think may be useful for a future Jag project of mine, be sure to check out that section from time to time.

You might be able to help me out and help bringing a jag game to life.

 

As of now, I am really looking for a mod musician. And actually I am always looking for musicians in general, as that's my weak spot.

But in the future you may as well find other positions in that list... Even for testers at some point.

 

Regards, Lars.

[Would a Starcraft port be possible on the JagCD?]

What I meant was, retro games are popular with PLAYERS, not just developers.

 

The Wii's Virtual Console proves it all. Some people even claim it's the reason to own a Wii and what is played most.

There is no way to argue about the fact that a lot of people prefer games the way they were in the 80/90s over todays games, which mostly impress with graphics rather than gameplay.

Of course there are always exceptions.

[Skunkboard rev 2]

Well, I was just dreaming ahead if you want to call it that way. With 8MB on the skunkboard it would be amazing if it could be used to develop 8MB games and release them as regular carts even for those who don't have a skunkboard. Given the demand now, it would take long to get a skunkboard to the whole jag community I think. So creating games that run only on the skunkboard reaches only very limited people, as it of course is with every new hardware.

 

So if you could maybe keep this possibility open for the future or allow a software update to make this possible at some point, it would be amazing.

I'm also thinking if a bankswitching cart was to be made, it could maybe use cheaper rom chips to make new cart releases cheaper.

Again just dreaming aloud. I am not a hardware developer, so I really don't know how realistic that is.

 

Okay folks... back to topic

[Skunkboard rev 2]

Tursi & kskunk, just wanted to say this here again.

Thanks a lot for your amazing work!!

I have been waiting for something like this for many years now. I believe your efforts will really boost jaguar development another step and help many people getting started or progress faster using todays hardware.

 

Amazing work!

[Skunkboard rev 2]

Oh one thing that came to my mind. How will it work with 8 MB? will that be bankswitching and will be code be available for that?

 

Also on a more technical and maybe inspiring question... Do you think it would be possible for the jag to have 6MB or even 8MB Bankswitching carts?

So in theory one could write a game to use the full 8MB of the skunkboard for one game and release it on cart?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to put pressure on anybody. Just asking did this idea occur to anybody yet and would it technically be possible or practical?

Or would production costs be too big to release a game that way if the board design was there?

 

Just dreaming a bit

[Skunkboard rev 2]

This is amazing! Exactly what I have been waiting for!

Reserved mine too.

[Would a Starcraft port be possible on the JagCD?]

it´s much better to create a uniqe new game with the same effort of time and resources.

 

IMHO, the chance that a Jag programmer has a really unique idea is close to zero, since there are so few of them and even nearly every PC game published today is just a re-implementation of games done dozens if not hundred times before

 

Now that's really an insult to every creative mind out there!

Of course this may be your opionion and of course that's fine for you.

I know what you might mean, in the way that there are so many games and it's hard to come up with something new.

Still if everybody shared that opionion the whole human race would still be living in caves.

I just can't understand that way of thinking.

I do believe that creativity, skill and good ideas will always create amazing game experiences.

With all the people living on our planet, of course every idea we can think of has been there already.

Still the personal perspective and creativity of one can make it into something amazing.

 

Also PC games are probably the worst example there is. Is there any system with less innovation in commercial succesful games?

With so many great ideas and genres being left behind by the PC industry these days, just because they won't sell expensive 3d hardware...

I really don't think so. It's not about innovation. It's about making money. Just about that these days.

Nobody is going to spend a few million dollars on something that sounds like a neat innovative idea.

 

And isn't exactly that the important advantage a hobby developer has?

There is nobody who says no to our ideas and stops making our visions come true.

A great idea doesn't require a fortune to be created.

 

What do you think why retro games are so popular?

 

There are many examples of amazing games with rather simple, but amazing ideas.

I do believe that many people in the Jaguar community would second that.

[Would a Starcraft port be possible on the JagCD?]

Well, I hope you do that. I myself would like to get into some jag programming eventually. For now, it will have to wait, but learning C is still on my list.

 

Learning assembler would be a better choice if you want to get far on the Jag.

[Would a Starcraft port be possible on the JagCD?]

I don't think Starcraft would be well suited for the Jag.

 

Even if other technial aspects weren't a problem the resolution always is...

320x240 is just a little small to get good oversight in a game like starcraft. Whenever I play it I wish it had a 1024x768 mode or higher

 

Besides the playstation had some C&C ports, that were playable but by far not as enjoyable as the pc version.

That's just a genre that needs a mouse and high resolution display and best a lot of ram (for the time) and a harddrive.

 

Now that starcraft is even a lot newer than C&C, I see more problems arising there... Regarding specs.

And playing it without a mouse and lower res is just impossible, given the much higher game speed than C&C had.

 

Also I highly doubt anybody at blizzard will have the time or interest to reply to a hobby developer asking about porting one of their games.

 

Besides why would anybody even bother? You can pick up starcraft for like 5 euro and play it on any pc you might find in the average home these days.

[Late Christmas/New Years present for the community]

Hey folks!

 

Thanks to all of you for the kind reactions to me posting again lately on this forum a bit.

I want to give a late Christmas or New Years present (if you find that more appropriate) to the community.

With special thanks to ovalbugman, who did the cinepak conversion on this, I can now finally offer the Eerievale trailer as cinepak video for the Jaguar.

He really did an excellent job and it looks much better quality wise than what I did in the past with cinepak.

 

So my part of this is rather offering it for download and having the idea of turning it into cinepak in the first place.

You can download it freely on my website in the files section. It's unencrypted as of now. Enjoy!

 

Happy New Year everybody and I hope the new year will bring some amazing new food for our beloved 64-bit kitty.

 

Kindest Regards, Lars.

[Looking for Skunkboard]

Cool! Anything to help Starcat get farther along in the development of the Jaguar point-and-click horror adventure; EERIEVALE! - although I understand it will be a JaguarCF release... I hope SCPCD & Zero get that item completed.

 

I am not making any promises I can't keep, but the main reason I said, it would be JagCF only, is due to relieablity problems I have had with JagCD.

I will make a JagCF version when the hardware gets available, but who knows what else will happen at the end, when the game is actually finished. Only time can tell.

 

The concept has changed a bit and requires a lot less memory now. It's no longer myst-like (I hope nobody is disspointed). It's more like the lucas arts or sierra (gabriel knight for example) games. Which is a much better way I think.

First person games just end up being sterile and "dead", unless you have a fortune to spend on rendering photorealistic environments with lots of characters. But that's beyond anything hobby developers can do.

However, as the lucas arts games are a personal favorite of mine, I came to the conclusion, that these games are just timeless gems.

No matter if you played them ten or fifteen years ago or in another ten years, the games will always be as much fun as they used to be.

Even though graphics are old, the game remains as much fun to play. And I do think that's because of great game design and visuals that are part of the concept and not ruining the fun by looking ugly once they are outdated. It just doesn't matter, these game aren't just about visual, but gameplay.

 

So, no promise, but maybe just maybe it will consume less memory than originally estimated and it might open new possibilties.

With the features of the skunkboard, development would speed up for sure. hey, I could finally do proper debugging and reload data from PC on the fly to test environments. That would really rock!