Katana SDK

Dreamcast SDK

Katana SDK (Dreamcast SDK for SEGA Library) was the official SEGA development kit for the Dreamcast console that came with Dreamcast development units. The Dreamcast SDK had a number of libraries and APIs that many developers used in their games. The SDK evolved together with the console, and earlier versions of the SDK had fewer features or targeted different hardware. Updates to the SDK continued after the Dreamcast's release, and some releases were as late as 2001.

The Dreamcast SDK consisted of several subsystems:

The Shinobi library set interfaced with the CPU, cache and memory.

The Kamui API (low level) and the Ninja library (high level) provided access to graphics.

The Manatee and Audio64 subsystems interfaced with sound hardware.

Over the years there have been multiple SDK leaks, including parts of older revisions' source code. For modding purposes, we should focus on the Ninja library, which is used by the Sonic Adventure games.

Common Ninja Types and Structs

To be continued...