(I did a lot of research on the topic, but since i'm not a developer, i may be wrong about a lot of things.)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/dnce21/html/dxinwince.asp -- This article is very outdated, but a part of it got my attention.
"The Dreamcast console does not actually ship with Windows CE built in. The operating system, DirectX, and the game itself are built as one image and stored on the GD-ROM. When the GD-ROM is placed in the Dreamcast console, the boot ROM loads the bootstrap code, which then loads the Windows CE operating system. This way, there are no versioning issues. You ship the version of Windows CE your game was developed on with your game, so there is no need to worry if the user has the correct version installed or not."
If that's true, then it is possible to develop a Dreamcast game using the most recent DirectX/WindowsCE If yes, what would be the licensing fees for it (aside from the $3 USD for each product made, thanks to the runtime licensing fees)
(Sightly off-topic, but... when you develop a game for the Windows CE and port it to the Dreamcast, is there any diference between the original Windows CE the PC game ran on, and the Windows CE copy that's copied along the ported game in the GD/CD (I know you need to optimize the game code to extract the dreamcast's potential, but i have never heard about needed changes in the OS itself...))
WinCE 5.0/DirectX 9-based Dreamcast game?
AnswerFinder
MasterG152
Microsoft doesn't actually ship versions of Windows CE (now Windows Mobile) to consumers. They ship them to OEMs who tweak them to the particualar hardware configuration. So unless SEGA took the latest Windows CE and released a dreamcast version (I'm guessing thats a *very* low probability) then the answer is no.
bljacobs
But i'm not talking about Microsoft shipping the Windows CE directly to the consumer... From what i understood, developing a game for the Dreamcast using Windows CE should be this way:
1) Download the DirectX 9.0 SDK, the eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 SP4, and the Windows CE 5.0: Standard SDK, then make the game.
2) Purchase some Windows CE runtime licenses from Microsoft. My only doubt is... Do you need to register yourself as an OEM or something like that in order to be eligible to buy the runtime licenses
3) Burn both the game and the Windows CE in various discs (number of discs used = number of runtime licenses bought). According to the article mentioned in my previous post, you just ship the version of Windows CE your game was developed on with your game. The boot ROM would then do the rest (booting only the necessary parts of the code, not loading, for example, the usual Windows interface (Start menu, Windows Explorer, etc)).
4) Distribute.
Of course, that article is very outdated, so maybe the Dreamcast wouldn't recognize the Windows CE 5.0 as a Windows CE (remember, Dreamcast was developed with WinCE 2.1 in mind!). If that would be the case, i imagined two work-arounds.
1) Get a Dreamcast Coder's Cable. I don't know how it works, but i'm sure it can be used to test programs. To alter Windows CE itself, i think you would only need the Emulation Edition, since unlike most devices, the Dreamcast already has Windows CE support, meaning, you don't need to alter the device itself, which would require the Development Tools.
2) Use the outdated version. Not too viable, since i doubt Microsoft still offer Windows CE 2.1 licenses.
If i'm entirely correct, the only licensing fees someone would pay for developing a Dreamcast game would be the runtimes one. Can someone confirm, or point out all the flaws in my logic Thanks in advance.