Lobotomy
Dreamcast Enjoyer
A long time ago, in a KallistiOS version far, far, away, once existed a Dreamcast build of SRB2 1.09.4 FinalDemo.
This was an unfinshed proof-of-concept port, made by Alam, that lived alongside the PSP, Xbox ports, as a neat side-feature of the SRB2 source code release. It had very low quality sound effects, no music playback, and ran horribly. Despite this, a good lot of people have some nostalgia for this unique version of the game. Over time, and many KOS and GCC updates, it became impossible to build this with the modern Dreamcast toolchain.
Not anymore.
Today, I'm publishing a (very WIP) repo that not only allows the game to build in a modern DC dev environment, but I have also made use of the AICA SPU, and its audio memory, which frees up a considerable amount of main system memory. Sound effects are no longer loaded or processed from the srb2.srb wad, and now live in a dedicated folder, as does music. That extra RAM is important for hardware accelerating the game.
Yes, music. The thing the original most notably never had. Enjoy nice, high quality 44.1khz sound effects and music, straight to your abused and battered ears. Suffer no more.
As this is a work-in-progress, you'll find some missing sounds, missing music, or that some sounds load on-the-fly, causing a short stall. Still working on that. I intend for each map to precache only the sound effects it uses, at load-time. You are also likely to experience music stream fighting, as one is beginning before the previous one ends. Also gotta fix that.
gitlab.com
...
But wait, there's more!
Call within the next five minutes, and you will receive not one, but TWO versions of SRB2! Introducing, version 2.0.7:
This one has a ways to go, but I'm going to make the same use of the AICA API that I did in 1.09.4. That said, this codebase is 8 years newer than 1.09.4, and is packed with many new features, stages, engine tweaks, etc. It's probably a better base to work with.
I've done just enough work to this, to get the game to run. It currently hitches every single time it needs to cache an audio wadlump, which it does on-the-fly. I will fix this later. Right now, I'm just glad it works enough to crash in GFZ2.
gitlab.com
I plan on attempting a port of 2.1 as well. That's going to be a bit more of a beast, but it's also much further down the line than my current plans. I want at least feature parity between 1.09.4 and 2.0.7, before I start something like that.
Long term, when I find a version of the game I can settle for, I'm going to start grabbing code from later versions of the game and incorporate them into this, do some of my own tweaks, and give it a layer of polish exclusive to the Sega Dreamcast. I want to add a bit of variety and extra features that make this version special.
FAQ:
Q; Why SRB2 2.2 Music in my sacred FinalDemo?
A: 2.2 music is what I had on-hand to convert (from OGG), and frankly, I like it better. I have enough disc space to one day let you select whatever version of the music you want, and/or I could add RNG to it and have it pick a random rendition of a track when the stage loads. Putting the original music in the game is a matter of using wav2adpcm and replacing the corresponding file in the music directory, so you're more than welcome to do that at your leisure.
Q: Why X choice of sound effects?
A: Because I wanted to. The Dreamcast pipelines 44.1khz audio, and I wanted sounds with quality to match. Also I used the Sonic Adventure jump sound, because this is a Dreamcast port.
Q: Will you supply a .cdi?
A: Probably, when I get to a point where I can consider this a release. In the meantime, I'm changing this far too often to do that, but you're always welcome to build the game using the instructions in the readme.
News:
2.0.7 now has the same audio subsystem as 1.09.4. I'll put that in this branchuntil I'm ready to merge it. Never mind, I merged it.
This was an unfinshed proof-of-concept port, made by Alam, that lived alongside the PSP, Xbox ports, as a neat side-feature of the SRB2 source code release. It had very low quality sound effects, no music playback, and ran horribly. Despite this, a good lot of people have some nostalgia for this unique version of the game. Over time, and many KOS and GCC updates, it became impossible to build this with the modern Dreamcast toolchain.
Not anymore.
Today, I'm publishing a (very WIP) repo that not only allows the game to build in a modern DC dev environment, but I have also made use of the AICA SPU, and its audio memory, which frees up a considerable amount of main system memory. Sound effects are no longer loaded or processed from the srb2.srb wad, and now live in a dedicated folder, as does music. That extra RAM is important for hardware accelerating the game.
Yes, music. The thing the original most notably never had. Enjoy nice, high quality 44.1khz sound effects and music, straight to your abused and battered ears. Suffer no more.
As this is a work-in-progress, you'll find some missing sounds, missing music, or that some sounds load on-the-fly, causing a short stall. Still working on that. I intend for each map to precache only the sound effects it uses, at load-time. You are also likely to experience music stream fighting, as one is beginning before the previous one ends. Also gotta fix that.
Lobotomy / SRB2DC-1094 · GitLab
Sonic Robo Blast 2 v1.09.4 FinalDemo, Enhanced Dreamcast Port. Uses KallistiOS AICA API for sound effects and music.
gitlab.com
...
But wait, there's more!
Call within the next five minutes, and you will receive not one, but TWO versions of SRB2! Introducing, version 2.0.7:
I've done just enough work to this, to get the game to run. It currently hitches every single time it needs to cache an audio wadlump, which it does on-the-fly. I will fix this later. Right now, I'm just glad it works enough to crash in GFZ2.
Lobotomy / SRB2DC-207 · GitLab
SEGA Dreamcast port of Sonic Robo Blast 2 v2.0.7. This project is in its inaugural phase, and currently runs out of memory halfway through Greenflower Zone...
gitlab.com
I plan on attempting a port of 2.1 as well. That's going to be a bit more of a beast, but it's also much further down the line than my current plans. I want at least feature parity between 1.09.4 and 2.0.7, before I start something like that.
Long term, when I find a version of the game I can settle for, I'm going to start grabbing code from later versions of the game and incorporate them into this, do some of my own tweaks, and give it a layer of polish exclusive to the Sega Dreamcast. I want to add a bit of variety and extra features that make this version special.
FAQ:
Q; Why SRB2 2.2 Music in my sacred FinalDemo?
A: 2.2 music is what I had on-hand to convert (from OGG), and frankly, I like it better. I have enough disc space to one day let you select whatever version of the music you want, and/or I could add RNG to it and have it pick a random rendition of a track when the stage loads. Putting the original music in the game is a matter of using wav2adpcm and replacing the corresponding file in the music directory, so you're more than welcome to do that at your leisure.
Q: Why X choice of sound effects?
A: Because I wanted to. The Dreamcast pipelines 44.1khz audio, and I wanted sounds with quality to match. Also I used the Sonic Adventure jump sound, because this is a Dreamcast port.
Q: Will you supply a .cdi?
A: Probably, when I get to a point where I can consider this a release. In the meantime, I'm changing this far too often to do that, but you're always welcome to build the game using the instructions in the readme.
News:
2.0.7 now has the same audio subsystem as 1.09.4. I'll put that in this branch
Last edited:
