I Need Some Advice About My Next Gaming Console :)

[Chip]

If you can find one get your DC chipped as well, some games are stupid money but the chips are very rare now for decent one.

Mod chips are not necessary. Patched ISOs will run just fine on a bone-stock Dreamcast.

 

[RyokoSparda]

If you can find one get your DC chipped as well, some games are stupid money but the chips are very rare now for decent one.

Mod chips are not necessary. Patched ISOs will run just fine on a bone-stock Dreamcast.

Yeah but if you find a nice chip you can have the best of both worlds and never have to worry about anything working ornot, everything will work perfect, I hate them and all there region locks and protection it's about time companies stopped it.

 

[waffles]

If you can find one get your DC chipped as well, some games are stupid money but the chips are very rare now for decent one.

Mod chips are not necessary. Patched ISOs will run just fine on a bone-stock Dreamcast.

Yeah but if you find a nice chip you can have the best of both worlds and never have to worry about anything working ornot, everything will work perfect, I hate them and all there region locks and protection it's about time companies stopped it.

I think a import game burned to a CD would work fine, if not a boot disk (like utopia) should do the trick.

 

[purple_goat]

^what everyone else said + dynamite cop and cosmic smash

 

[nubie]

I think that a soft-modded xbox is the best for homebrew and emu because of the LAN and HDD, although the DC is very very close.

I have both and the DC is great except for the lack of networking (I know it is available, but it isn't cheap and there isn't any local storage to speak of.)

I use VGA and the Dreamcast supports 640x480 VGA natively (even in games that "don't support" it you can use a switch to turn it off until their config loads, and then switch it back to play the game in VGA.)

Add to that the fact that PSX to DC and mouse/kb to DC converters are $20-$30 or more apiece, whereas the Xbox is really a PC and the adapters are <$4.

I dunno, DC is mighty tempting. My only real reason for purchasing one is Bleemcast and Vigilante8 Second Offense. Bleemcast official on VGA with Gran Turismo 2 is an experience, and bleemcast Beta burned to a CD will play Ridge Racer 4 (not perfectly).

I had to mod my Xbox to display VGA though, and build an external sync-stripper for some of my PC monitors, although I think all of my projectors would take Sync-on-Green.

Tough decision, but my 80GB vga-modded Xbox on my Lan with XBMC is a capable beast. Try to get one that won't load disks anymore for cheap/free from an acquaintance, then get it to load Splinter Cell so you can softmod it.

 

[RyokoSparda]

80gig? why so small can't get much on that, I agree a modded xbox is a good thing to have but I personally don't think it is a vital machine to own as far as it's original games go, I mean it's no classic and I don't think it will ever truely be seen as a vital retro console to own.

Not sure why tho :huh: I spose maybe because the majority of AAA titles on the thing where sequels to games from other systems.

 

[jakshep2]

You should look around car boot sales. I got a Dreamcast with all the leads, 3 controllers and a game for £2 a little while ago off one.

lol I got one with a controller, a VMU, and 3 games (chu chu rocket, MSR, and some other one) for £3.

 

[TwoHeadedBoy]

80gig? why so small can't get much on that, I agree a modded xbox is a good thing to have but I personally don't think it is a vital machine to own as far as it's original games go, I mean it's no classic and I don't think it will ever truely be seen as a vital retro console to own.

Not sure why tho :huh: I spose maybe because the majority of AAA titles on the thing where sequels to games from other systems.

That's a shame really, there's a fair few great games on it. I reckon in about ten years it will be regarded as the Jaguar or 3DO is regarded now - not much going for it at first glance, but dig in and you'll be glad you did, that sort of thing. Anyone played Kung Fu Chaos? That's a game that needs to be played by more people, and it's only on Xbox!

 

[nubie]

80gig? why so small can't get much on that, I agree a modded xbox is a good thing to have but I personally don't think it is a vital machine to own as far as it's original games go, I mean it's no classic and I don't think it will ever truely be seen as a vital retro console to own.
80Gig because I bought a 160gig for it and it didn't support locking for use with a softmod, so I used the 160gig in my external enclosure and used the 80gig out of it in the xBox . This was a couple years ago, so I am fine with that. I played most of my games on the DVD drive, and I played my media over my network. I was mostly concerned with trying to get Win95 on it, and I did get it running (on dosbox that is B))

Not sure why tho :huh: I spose maybe because the majority of AAA titles on the thing where sequels to games from other systems.

And what is wrong with ports? I just think that as far as hacking and user apps, as well as media front-end use you get the most out of an Xbox as compared to any other system.

I never had an Amiga though, so maybe I would go for one of those instead .

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi all

I recommend you get a Neo Geo Pocket colour next B)

I actually plan to buy one

I never had an Amiga though, so maybe I would go for one of those instead .

SAM440ep + AmigaOS 4.1, here I come !

Back to topic now...I finally have everything working: a brand new DC (the first one I ordered was faulty), 2 new official controllers, a new VMU, and Crazy Taxi It seems to be a wonderful console so far, and there are so many great games for it !

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[nubie]

Back to topic now...I finally have everything working: a brand new DC (the first one I ordered was faulty), 2 new official controllers, a new VMU, and Crazy Taxi It seems to be a wonderful console so far, and there are so many great games for it !

Bye, Magic Sam

How are you liking the controller? I can't stand it personally. I think mine are used though. (I bought a pair of 3rd party ones, one didn't work at all and the other was cracked, I got the guy to send me 2 original controllers by paying the difference.)

The VMU is insane, download the ISO of VMU games/saves, it is really cool, and even has a VMU emulator built in. It is called a "potatoe" processor I think, and you can dev for it.

Mine came with crazy taxi as well, I think I tried to play it once.

Quick question, what was wrong with your first one? The one I get had a bad ground on the A/V port, once I opened it up and soldered down the port it was fine.

Get a VGA monitor (preferably CRT or a no-scaling LCD) and play on the VGA cable, the quality is just amazing.

I have the demo disc with Sonic and DOA on it, pretty neat, but I think Sonic should have stayed 2D, even if the visuals are 3D (like crash bandicoot). I probably would like it if I had the full game though. (I am torn, the PC port might let me play in stereoscopic 3D )

 

[Magic Sam]

How are you liking the controller? I can't stand it personally. I think mine are used though.

I like it a lot personally, I'm not a big fan of the joystick though...
QUOTE

The VMU is insane, download the ISO of VMU games/saves, it is really cool, and even has a VMU emulator built in. It is called a "potatoe" processor I think, and you can dev for it.

The VMU was indeed a very good idea, too bad future consoles didn't feature a similar concept
QUOTE

Mine came with crazy taxi as well, I think I tried to play it once.

You should give this game another go, it's a lot of fun ! My best rank atm is 21st, class C licence...
QUOTE

Quick question, what was wrong with your first one? The one I get had a bad ground on the A/V port, once I opened it up and soldered down the port it was fine.

It kept on rebooting. I had to clean the console when I received it and I'm afraid I accidentally touched the lens with a cloth, which may explain the problem...
QUOTE

Get a VGA monitor (preferably CRT or a no-scaling LCD) and play on the VGA cable, the quality is just amazing.

I actually plugged the DC on my regular CRT TV set and the display is OK in 60Hz. I will eventually try it on the VGA monitor I have in the garage, thanks for the tip
QUOTE

I have the demo disc with Sonic and DOA on it, pretty neat, but I think Sonic should have stayed 2D, even if the visuals are 3D (like crash bandicoot). I probably would like it if I had the full game though. (I am torn, the PC port might let me play in stereoscopic 3D )

What bothers me with Sonic Adventure 1 (demo version) is that sometimes you collide at high speed with some wall or stuff and you just go through it, fall into the sea and lose a life <_<

 

[TwoHeadedBoy]

[/quote]What bothers me with Sonic Adventure 1 (demo version) is that sometimes you collide at high speed with some wall or stuff and you just go through it, fall into the sea and lose a life <_<
[/quote]


Well, they sort of fixed that in the full version. Instead of going through, you just stop dead in your tracks, and you have to build your speed up all over again until the camera takes over and does everything for you. Stupid game, really, but I still like it.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

I just gave homebrew on DC a go, and it didn't work

I have downloaded Alice Dreams here, which is in *.cdi format ...

Under Linux I used the cdi2iso command: cdi2iso aliced3.cdi aliced3.iso

I burnt the ISO file with GnomeBaker, but the CD didn't boot on my DC, and is unreadable on Linux ...

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks & bye, Magic Sam

 

[Chip]

Have you successfully burnt any game discs with that method?

The Dreamcast is very picky about reading discs. Only certain programs with certain settings will make a readable disc, and you generally have to burn at a very low speed (2x or 4x) for the burn to take. I always used Alcohol 120% to burn DC images. I don't know what would be the equivalent for Linux.

It is also possible the disc you downloaded is not self-bootable. If so, you need to acquire a Utopia boot disc. I can't give you a direct link, but they should be available in the Usual Locations.

 

[Magic Sam]

Have you successfully burnt any game discs with that method?

No, never. It was my first attempt at running homebrew games on a DC ...
QUOTE

The Dreamcast is very picky about reading discs. Only certain programs with certain settings will make a readable disc, and you generally have to burn at a very low speed (2x or 4x) for the burn to take. I always used Alcohol 120% to burn DC images. I don't know what would be the equivalent for Linux.


Ok, I will try to burn the disc at a lower speed next time.
QUOTE

It is also possible the disc you downloaded is not self-bootable. If so, you need to acquire a Utopia boot disc. I can't give you a direct link, but they should be available in the Usual Locations.


I found some tutorials about self-bootable disc, let's see if it works

Thanks for your help

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Squirrel61]

Hi,

I just gave homebrew on DC a go, and it didn't work

I have downloaded Alice Dreams here, which is in *.cdi format ...

Under Linux I used the cdi2iso command: cdi2iso aliced3.cdi aliced3.iso

I burnt the ISO file with GnomeBaker, but the CD didn't boot on my DC, and is unreadable on Linux ...

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks & bye, Magic Sam


First, on the download page there are full instructions how to burn the cdi using Discjuggler and Alcohol120%, but that's only useful if you're running Windows, which you aren't. If the problem occurs more often, you could consider installing a basic Windows dual-boot on your PC for burning purposes only

But if you download the Chankast file slightly below the cdi image, you get a full ISO image, pre-converted (it's part of the zip)! The Chankast overhead is only small (about 1MB) so that shouldn't be a big deal.

Btw. there are also guides on burning DC cd's with linux, however it seems to be more complex than with windows.

 

[Squirrel61]

Another advice for burning Dreamcast Iso's I found in another forum (you still need Windows, though): Mount the image of the game with Daemon Tools and then just copy it disc-to-disc from the virtual one to your burner with your favourite Nero burning program. Maybe this can be done with Linux too. I did a quick search but couldn't find a way to mount cdi images in Linux but maybe someone else knows a way out.

"Infected" by the enthousiasm in this thread, I also decided to buy a DC. It arrived this week (cost me nearly €6 including 2 controllers and a VMU with dead batteries but excluding shipping) and I'm currently exploring it. Built myself a composite video adapter by soldering two plugs (for video and audio) to the TV modulator, since that's all I have atm. Currently it's hooked to one of those USB video capture thingies on my laptop and the picture is hurting my eyes. But I'm waiting for a VGA/S-Video box so I can hook it up to the TFT I dedicated to games consoles.

I use VGA and the Dreamcast supports 640x480 VGA natively (even in games that "don't support" it you can use a switch to turn it off until their config loads, and then switch it back to play the game in VGA.)

What exactly do you mean with this? Are there games that produce no display when your DC is connected to a VGA cable or box? And this switch, is it a soft switch or a hard switch?

Btw. I found some great sites for DC iso's but I guess it's not allowed to publish them here. But so far I've been able to find almost any game ever made and a lot of great homebrew.

Does anyone know about a working DAT for OfflineList? I've been searching, but all I could find was a DAT with only 40 games or so and it wasn't updatable.

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

About my homebrew issue on Dreamcast, I found this tutorial, does it seem worth trying ?

And you were all right about Shenmue, this game is a masterpiece I didn't know that the Dreamcast was capable of such gorgeous visual effects: real time weather, shadows, reflections, lightning, beautiful textures...it almost didn't age. The music is superb, the gameplay is really nice, the story has a lot of depth, and the game as a whole is just one of the best I have ever played in my life :wub:

I'm looking for Charlie the biker in Dobuita atm, do any of you know him personally ?

Bye, Magic Sam

 

[Squirrel61]

Hi,

About my homebrew issue on Dreamcast, I found this tutorial, does it seem worth trying ?

And you were all right about Shenmue, this game is a masterpiece I didn't know that the Dreamcast was capable of such gorgeous visual effects: real time weather, shadows, reflections, lightning, beautiful textures...it almost didn't age. The music is superb, the gameplay is really nice, the story has a lot of depth, and the game as a whole is just one of the best I have ever played in my life :wub:

I'm looking for Charlie the biker in Dobuita atm, do any of you know him personally ?

Bye, Magic Sam


Indeed it's really incredible what the Dreamcast already could do, considering the year it first hit the market. I can't understand why it died so fast, Sega's marketing must've been really bad

In the mean time, I've spent my DC a VGA box and I love it!

I understand you're still struggling with the burning of bootable cd's. If you have an old computer to spare, I'd advice you to install Windows to it, or install it dual-boot on a better computer. It seems most guides and burning utilities are aimed at Windows and by bowing for the enemy, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches.

I've also found a site which, besides the usual iso games, also hosts a prebuilt iso of a working Linux for the DC, a lot of utilities (mainly for Windows) and some pre-bleemed PSX games. If you're interested, PM me.