Bleemcast

[Shibathedog]

thats the exact version im talking about

[raise_herb_laid]

I heard somewhere that all the different color versions of the beta are really the same version; including the blue version. The only difference is the serial number for the DC it's supposed to work on (those Bleemcast guys were protective of their betas). I think the only shot at a better Bleemcast is by directly ripping one of the real versions (Tk3, GT2, or MGS) with a coders cable and hacking it to work on every game.

[StriderSkorpion]

The problem with the official bleemcast discs are that they use some form of copy protection. Someone tried to crack it, but I'm not sure if they were successfull. I've also read that the different beta colors are the same thing. I have problems running the bleemcast image as it reboots the DC everytime I run it. I did find a way to use it over the BBA. What I did was send a menu loader and executed it, I then executed the BBA disc 1st_read.bin and finally sent and executed the descrambled bleemast 1st_read.bin. In fact, I have zip file that could be used as an SBI with Selfboot Inducer. Haven't test if it'd work yet, though.

[BobRedthorp]

I have all three originals and they only run the game they are intended for:

 

Blue: Tekken 3

 

Purple: Metal Gear Solid

 

Green: Gran Turismo 2

 

At least these are the only ones which where available here in the UK, I do have some other Betas which are called Orange and Yellow, but I can't seem to get them to work, I don't think they have actually been ripped prop, but you can still buy them new anyway

[raise_herb_laid]

I have a lot of experience burning bootable DC stuff. If that 1stread.bin is really decoded I could definitely get it to work.

[StriderSkorpion]

Well, the 1st_read.bin was developed using the GCC tools. I figured this out by trying to descramble the binary and it worked. I'm thinking of putting the bleemcast beta on an emulation CD and see if that works. I probably could get the image working using bin2boot, though I'd rather have more emulators on it.

[raise_herb_laid]

If it does work the 1stread.bin could (in theory) be hacked to play more games than just the one it was intended for.

[raise_herb_laid]

...that is if the same process were performed using one of the official Bleemcast disks.

[BobRedthorp]

If it does work the 1stread.bin could (in theory) be hacked to play more games than just the one it was intended for.

I dont think if you haked the discs intended for 1 game would play all games as each one has obviously been enhanced to use the commands each game has, and since they are from different developers, they would prolly be different.

[raise_herb_laid]

I dont think if you haked the discs intended for 1 game would play all games as each one has obviously been enhanced to use the commands each game has, and since they are from different developers, they would prolly be different.

 

You may be right but let me point out - bleemcast was planned and programmed as a multi-game emulator right up untill just before its release. The decision to make bleemcast a single game emulator was last minute to compensate for all the lost money from being sued by Sony so many times. The 'game specific' code was a last minute add-on. It's possible that the code could be removed or even if left in that doesn't mean other games might not still work.

[BobRedthorp]

Hmm, maybe, but I doubt it, cos if they where after a fast way to make money, a version which would play loads of games flawlessly would sell more fast, plus the thing which backs up my theory is the fact that the beta we all know about plays some games better than oher and some not at all.

 

If I had a so called ripped version of one of the colour ones I explained above I would send it to you to see if you had any luck, but I only have the other's which don't appear to do anything I think they may be fakes, dunno though

 

Here is a quote from a text doc in the bleemcast! archive archive:

 

This is most of the conversation between myself "Me" and the person I got these from "Betatester"

Of course this are not the real nicks we use, I changed that to hide our identities.

 

These betas are VERY real. They are not locked down to 1 game. They are betas to test all Playstation games.

Now here is the tricky part, each beta tester was given different color coded Dreamcasts.

The betas has something in the code at will look in the rom on the specified dreamcast. The discs will

ONLY work on that machine and no other. Some how this code needs to be removed so that it is usable on any dreamcast.

Only other thing missing is an audio.nra which is the audio track to make the cd selfbootable. It should be the

same track this is used in the Echelon Selfboot Kit but in Nero Burning Rom audio format.

 

 

[03:49] <Me> what did ya'll have to use to burn it anyways?

[03:50] <Betatester> I've never really looked at how it works, before.  It looks like it's cutting the first 37376 bytes off the data part of the image, then appending something (That Rand gave us...  Included) to the beginning in it's place

[03:50] <Betatester> Just Nero, and some program that Rand gave us.  I think he made it.

[03:50] <Betatester> It looks like all it does is cuts up a binary file, though

[03:51] <Me> ok

[04:30] <Betatester> Well, each one was encoded to only work on that specific DC

[04:30] <Betatester> However, if you mean the burning process, no, it was the same for them all.

[05:16] <Me> i mean different color dc's got different builds

[05:24] <Betatester> Well, I'm really not sure if they were different builds or not.  I'm thinking that he might have done some kind of encoding on them, AFTER he did the builds, to make it work on the individual DC's.  But, I don't know that for sure.  He might have had the encoding done during the build itself, in which case they would be different builds for each color

 

The versions included in the archive are:

 

Blue

Green

Orange

Purple

Yellow

 

I've never even heard of a Green, Yellow and Orange

Edited March 30, 2004 by BobRedthorp