Windows CE Dreamcast Community Edition (wince-dc)

(github.com)

85 points | by msephton 8 hours ago

5 comments

  • unleaded 1 hour ago
    I'm guessing this is a vibe coded shell + some apps over the CE kernel? Never seen any version of CE that looked like that.

    it might be dumb but it really breaks my heart seeing cool hack projects like these being vibe coded. Like they've thrown away some opportunity or something i can't really articulate why

    i think even the icons are drawn by claude which explains why they look so strange https://github.com/maximqaxd/wince-dc/blob/c929784ba13226cc3...

    • StilesCrisis 24 minutes ago
      Yeah, I skimmed the code, it's all vibes all the way down. I wanted a slice of history, I got slop.
  • russdill 6 hours ago
    "One cmake invocation goes from source to a bootable disc.gdi. No Platform Builder, no SDK install, no CD key." It's like the new emdash.
    • RobKohr 6 hours ago
      AI loves to sell the words they are saying like a QVC salesperson with a knife set.

      It doesn't just cut cans, it cuts tomatos too. You would think you have to sharpen it, but you don't.

      Not just this, but that.

      Sounds nothing like a normal succenct engineer.

      • danudey 5 hours ago
        I had Claude do a "short, succinct summary" of two bugs I found in someone else's Python code: one was missing parentheses around subtraction (x = a - b - c instead of x = a - (b - c)) and one was `SomeException("asdf")` instead of `raise SomeException("asdf")`.

        Both explanations were a paragraph of text, each about six lines long, which I replaced with a single sentence each.

        • throwitaway222 2 hours ago
          When it spits out 4 pages of explanations, when I'm asking it what's better postgres locks or redis locks (two dbs I already have in my project), I sometimes tell it to keep it shorter than a few sentences. We don't need an essay for every decision.
  • TazeTSchnitzel 5 hours ago
    If you're going to throw AI at the problem, couldn't you get it to port the real Windows CE shell ?
    • tangenter 5 hours ago
      You’ve nailed the core of the smoking gun.
      • nvr219 5 hours ago
        I've got the shape of it.
        • danudey 5 hours ago
          I now have the full picture.
    • jockm 57 minutes ago
      I am guessing because the version of Windows CE (the Dreamcast SDK version) didn't have the source to it; and for whatever reason they didn't want to find that source. Copyright reasons perhaps?
  • 0x0 3 hours ago
    I find it's a shame the article is absolutely littered with AI-isms, again, like another cool hack project the other day here on HN. It is incredibly jarring to read a line like "No Platform Builder, no SDK install, no CD key.".

    Sounds like a cool project but I find it a bit offensive that the article author doesn't value the article reader's time enough to edit the AI-isms out.

    On the other hand, trying to point this out usually results in downvotes, so maybe it's useless to complain about this trend?

  • 486sx33 5 hours ago
    I actually love this because the entire time I owned a Dreamcast I used to look at the windows CE logo on the front and think, does it have windows CE in ROM? How can I boot it?
    • ThrowawayB7 4 hours ago
      Windows CE isn't in ROM, the binaries are loaded from GD-ROM disc for games that chose to use it. And booting it wouldn't do you much good anyway since there's no graphical or text shell. It's intended to launch straight into the game.
    • toast0 2 hours ago
      Adding on to everyone else. Games that did run wince included the wince logo on the dreamcast splash screen.
    • pjmlp 4 hours ago
      There were some Microsoft Systems Journal issues with articles on how to program for Dreamcast, the non NDA part of it.

      Here is one of such articles, take it while still exists,

      https://jacobfilipp.com/MSJ/directx.html

      The sibling comment already has the other info, everything was bundled together.

    • crims0n 2 hours ago
      Same, especially because at the time of Dreamcasts’s release - Windows CE was everywhere in the handhelds and PDA market.