I've been on a Sega.com tangent, and one of the results was splitting up the North American Dreamcast web browsers (because spoilers: Sega.com worked on a couple). So I had the Redream emulator set up in the background, went off to do some things, and when I came back... neat and I said to myself again: "we should document that" With the Dreamcast, Sega got worried about damaging televisions and monitors, so developers were required to put up a screensaver if nothing was moving for long periods of time. Most were boring and just darkened the screen (which is the approach more modern consoles take), but some were a bit more creative, as seen here in Web Browser 2.0 (which might have a few). I've mentioned this all before - it's buried somewhere and I'm too lazy to dig it up. We have an official set of rules and regulations in the form of the Sega Dreamcast Software Creation Standards. If your game didn't meet some of these thresholds, Sega wouldn't let it be published... except when they published it anyway, because these standards weren't always enforced. There's a shortened version here. I thought it would be fun if Sega Retro documented which games missed the mark. Or at least, some of the marks, because the regulations can be really dry and I'm not sure anyone cares. But it would be nice to at least document the screensavers, because some of them are pretty. So I'm thinking of inventing "COMPLIANCE" sub-pages on Sega Retro. This would cover all those weird situations in games that aren't really "hidden content", but you might not usually see, like Dreamcast screensavers, or how a game responds with no controllers plugged in, or whether you can start a game without pressing the start button. This would also apply to non-Sega platforms: things like, what happens when you put a Game Boy Color-only cartridge in an original Game Boy? Nintendo demanded a warning screen. Every game has a different warning screen, and I uploaded all(?) of the Sega ones years ago... but they're sitting around unused because I didn't have a place to put them. NEC Retro already has already solved part of the problem with its "compatibility" sub-pages. We don't have software guidelines for the PC Engine and friends so maybe these should be left as-is until we do (unless someone thinks otherwise?) This is the most I've thought about this. Any similarly stuff out there we ought to be covering?
The Dreamcast Sega IP screen actually isn't built into the system, it's a separate binary called IP.bin which is what games begin execution with. This screen is actually setup per game, and it's part of compliance that you show the big SEGA logo and the "licensed and yadda yadda" stuff. BUT, in the lower right corner of the screen, you are allowed to put whatever kind of image you'd like, and quite a few games and SDKs will use this area to display non-standard images. The best known examples are windows CE games, as they display a custom windows CE logo, but games like Mortal Kombat would edit this custom logo area to create unique boot logos, like so: The vast, vast, vaaaaast majority of Dreamcast software just uses the normal default IP.bin, but a handful of official games like the above Mortal Kombat Gold use custom screens. No clue if there's a list out there of all the games which use custom screens on the dreamcast.
That looks like a bug (well, kinda) - the "disc" image is meant for the CD player. https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?posts/1037677/ 0GDTEX.PVR. Such a memorable name that I had to Google search my own post to find it.
It's not a bug and is intentional. That is not the same disc image as the image in the CD player. The image in the ip.bin must be of a very specific format and 320 by 90 pixels big. The image in the boot screen there is intentionally padded to the right with white space to make the CD-image center, it's a much larger image in aspect ratio than the disc image you are talking about. It is also not external, it is baked into IP.bin directly, within the binary. It's not a texture that is loaded. The disc image you are talking about is 16-bit direct color at 5-6-5 color depth. The image in IP.bin is 7-bit color depth indexed for 128 maximum colors. EDIT: The image format is known as "MR" and was created solely for the boot screen, info on it here: https://dreamcast.wiki/MR_image
Sega Retro:Todo/Compliance here's a list of "things". As you can see, not all of them are thrilling. This is a rough first draft - do feel free to make it better
I recall Sega Retro hosting a document which had some compliance rules for the Mega Drive. If I remember games required: A SEGA screen A title screen Text reading something along the lines of "Press start button" A menu to select between playing the game and options or multiplayer or similar A demo mode with blinking text denoting that it's a demo Games in a paused state need blinking text denoting it's paused Sonic, funnily enough, fails to meet most of these but that's mostly due to their rushed nature.
What's funnier is that Sonic 1 is SUPPOSED to have the PSB text on its title screen but it doesn't show up due to a bug.
this is a great idea Todo/Compliance has different types of compliance in a single example table at the bottom. that might just be for straight example purposes but, seeing them all in a single table might get visually chunky. wonder if we could split them up into smaller tables.... something like.... Warning screens, Inputs, Video, Audio, Gameplay, and BIOS? oh and we should totally have the definition for what each compliance type actually is available in mouseover text baked into the template
There's a Sega Saturn compliance document that is out there which is gold. It includes stuff about how your game should function, like the A and C buttons should traditionally be buttons that "accept" in menus, and the B button should traditionally be the "cancel" button. I forget the exact verbiage offhand, but they say that the A button in games should be like an options or submenu button, and that B and C should be the primary gameplay buttons. Really neat and enlightening to read, I'll go through and try to figure out which saturn manual it's in and get some exerts.
Having an attract mode (demo) made sense in life before YouTube, instruction manuals get lost or damaged pretty easily. Not that Sega or game publishers endorse it, but it's also much better for the secondhand market, or for borrowing/sharing with your friends.
This one and the Dreamcast standards document I already posted are my main reference material - I don't think we have similar material for other consoles (outside of more technical stuff like "the ROM header must look like this"). That being said, there's a few "REQUIRED COMPLIANCE ITEMS" in that Saturn document that are missing on the wiki, like "you must use A, B and C". I wonder if that rule had existed for a while, i.e. the reason Sonic is a one-button game, but either A, B or C can be used, is because it was mandated.
While looking for boot code for an attempt at recreating Sonic 1's source code again, I found some rules for Genesis games using XBAND on page 154-157 here Games cannot use true RNG and outcomes must be replicable to prevent desynchronization between clients. RNG functions can only be ticked for 1 frame, do not run it multiple times. SRAM should only be accessed when necessary, leaving stray SRAM access commands could cause desyncing. DMA's must be completed in a single V-Blank, no large DMA operations that would require multiple V-Blanks. Don't poll player controllers asynchronously, both controllers should be polled at the same time. It's also recommended to poll controllers at V-Blank in the event of lag. Make sure V-Blanks execute predictably. The same document also has general guidelines on page 169: No sexual content (Lame) Do not depict ethnic, racial, nationalist stereotypes No excessive violence No heavy language Do not glamourize drugs, alcohol, or tobacco No political messaging No content outwardly depicting hatred towards ethnic, racial, or national groups. No copyright infringement It then notes that the document can cover absolutely every scenario but you should just use common sense, and Sega will likely point out if they think anything's problematic with your game. It then continues with the game's start up sequence The SEGA logo should be displayed in the middle of the screen, with the code provided by Sega. Check if the player 1 controller is connected, if not than it should loop through the order of Sega logo, title screen, demo, back to Sega logo If start is pressed then it should go to the title screen. The title sequence must then play with the text "PRESS START BUTTON" however the player should be able to use any button to advance the menu, funnily enough. You should display copyright markings on the title screen. The title screen should enter demo mode after 5-10 seconds if start is not pressed. If the sound driver was not enabled it needs to be enabled in the demo mode. If start is pressed during the demo, it should return to the title screen. If start is not pressed during the demo, then after 10-20 seconds, it should return to the Sega screen. Games should always have a start menu unless it takes away from gameplay Options on the start menu should be selected with the D-pad and then entered with start. The menu should generally follow the order of "1 PLAYER START", "2 PLAYER START", "OPTIONS" If no 2nd controller is connected then the cursor should not be able to select 2 PLAYER START, and it should be indicated by making the text a different colour. To exit the options screen the player must either highlight "EXIT" and press A/B/C or they can just press start from any selection in the menu. Password screens must use a clear font, no fancy stuff. Passwords must be manoeuvred with the D-Pad and enter a character with C button. When finished with a password the player must hit an END character. To delete a character, the player must hold C, move the cursor back, and replace the character. If a password is incorrect do not delete it. Cursor movement should loop around upon reaching either end. When the reset button is hit, do not clear high scores, options, or the password. During gameplay the start button must serve as pause. And during 2 player simultaneous player, player 2 must also be able to pause. During a pause state, all sound effects should stop, but background music should play. It goes on and on, so I'll encourage you guys to read it yourself. But I'm glad to have tracked down the Genesis' guidelines.
No political messaging is kinda funny since Eternal Champions has a character named "Senator" who fights in Washington DC whose every move is politics based, i.e. a move where he stabs you with a campaign pin, or a move like sub-zero's freeze where he holds you up by tossing red tape at you, or a taunt where he goes "Citizen!" as an insult, lol. His stage is based on Bill Clinton famously eating burgers while jogging during his early months of the presidency, taking place at a burger king-like location with secret service all over, and his stage fatality is knocking you onto the washington monument, lol. Even within x-band supported games, NBA Jam TE had Bill and Hillary Clinton as playable characters.
Quite topical considering the Black Myth: Wukong review "guidelines" that were recently publicised. Don't get political and criticise dictatorships!
These look like guidelines set by Catapult specifically for XBAND, as opposed to compliance "you must do this or we won't let you sell your game" items mandated by Sega. Tons and tons of games stop the background music when paused (such as Sonic!) (in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Sega recommended the opposite of Catapult in this regard). Although it would be fun if Catapult managed to break their own guidelines. I don't think Sega of America cared too much about politics, given they seemingly gave a seal of quality to Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill, with Bill Clinton on the cover. Sega of Japan certainly didn't care.
It's funny to see all these guidelines written down. I think I just assumed all of these were just gaming conventions that just evolved organically over time, rather than being mandated.
You guys are thinking more about political references. I'm pretty sure those guidelines were talking about explicit political statements.
