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[IrishNinja]

my DC (+ castlevania) haul from racketboy came in yesterday!!

dude even tossed in a Super Game Boy (which i needed) for the fuck of it! so happy. now if only my modded DC would get back over here soon, haha...

 

[sixteen-bit]

Nice haul. What else did you get besides what's readily visible?

P.S. X68000 Castlevania is a badass game.

 

[Teknoman]

my DC (+ castlevania) haul from racketboy came in yesterday!!

dude even tossed in a Super Game Boy (which i needed) for the fuck of it! so happy. now if only my modded DC would get back over here soon, haha...

Dynamite Cop! Is Gigawing any good?


Also btw still need Space Channel 5?

 

[IrishNinja]

Nice haul. What else did you get besides what's readily visible?.

those were the bigger games of the haul, mostly common stuff after that:

Power Stone 2
Castlevania Chronicles
Dynamite Cop
Guilty Gear X
Giga Wing
Ready 2 Rumble round 2
red controller
controller adapter thing (allows PSX/saturn controllers on DC)
house of the dead 2
bust a move 4
black controller
quake 3
black VMU
tremor pack
rayman 2
unreal tourney
PSO v 2
Sega GT rally
blue stinger
grandia 2
saturn model 2 pad
ready 2 rumble
WWF royal rumble
Donald Duck
Fighting Force 2
virtua striker 2
Pen Pen
Bomberman Online
tennis 2k
hydro thunder
Virtua fighter 3
performance card
sega marine fishing
ecco
world series 2k2
NFL 2k

i missed Ikaruga but just found it for a good price elsewhere ($30), and another lucky dude in our group caught a boxed agetec stick, it was quite the haul! tried to get Jojo's for Mzo as well but no dice there, stuff went fast...one guy caught Illbleed for $15, shit was crazy.

Dynamite Cop! Is Gigawing any good?

Also btw still need Space Channel 5?

i was so happy with Dynamite! and yeah, Giga's awesome if you dig SHMUPs; ive already got Rez, Mars Matrix, Bangai-O, Radirgy, Sturmwind etc so it was high on my list.

and thanks man, i found a cheap SC5 but i should track down part 2 one day!

 

[SuperSonic593]

So I've got a Hanzo, and I've tested it and know it works great with one of my TVs that's got VGA input. The trouble is, I need to keep my DC in the living room, and that TV (Sony w802a) doesn't take VGA input. So I picked this up off of Monoprice (VGA & R/L Stereo Audio to HDMI Converter w/ DC Adapter) but I'm having some issues with it.

First and foremost, the video signal randomly cuts out every 10-45 seconds, which alone makes it unusable. But additionally, the audio quality when the signal is working is pretty terrible.

Does anyone else have experience with this particular VGA to HDMI converter from Monoprice? Have you experienced the intermittent blackout issue I'm seeing? Mainly I can't tell whether it's a faulty unit or if I just need to find a different converter altogether.

I did test the converter with the VGA output from a PC laptop, and that worked with no issues. And like I said, the Hanzo works just fine on a TV with native VGA...

Alternatively, if you've had a great experience with a sub-$50 converter, feel free to recommend it.

Just to give an update: I got it working now, and it looks great! I returned my monoprice VGA-to-HDMI adapter for a replacement on the off chance that it was indeed faulty (the person on chat support was incredibly helpful and made the process super painless), and I also upgraded to significanltly higher quality (i.e., much better shielded) VGA & audio cables. Not sure which of those was the winning factor (though my gut says it was the cables), but it's working great now. If you're having similar trouble to what I described, hopefully trying some of these troubleshooting steps will help.

Other interesting sidenote: after confirming with Sega GT that the setup was working, I immediately tested out my European copy of Shenmue 2 (and used the Utopia Boot Disc v2 to load it on my US DC). Disappointingly, after the disc swap I got sound but no picture. After a bit more web research, I tried using an Action Replay CDX as the boot disc instead of Utopia. And it worked like a charm! My uneducated guess is that it was a PAL/NTSC thing and that the Action Replay is forcing it into 60Hz mode, whereas Utopia was keeping it at 50Hz. In any case, if you're having that particular problem, you should try this solution.

 

[ShowDog]

I have 5 Dreamcasts and I swear every one of them is a piece of shit. Between the lasers weakening (one of mine was toast by the time NBA2K1 came out) to the temperamental nature of GD-Roms most of my games either fail to boot or randomly cease operating while playing.

Perfect example: I popped Grandia 2 in to play the final boss for the first time in a decade and beat him only for the game to crash to a black screen 1 minute into the ending.

There doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it, some systems play some game but not others.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Sometimes it's a case of the door close switch just not making contact. If everything on the inside sounds like it's functioning correctly (i.e. it's not a case of the motor wearing out over time or something), and if you're just getting random reboots to the system menu all the time, try padding the mechanisms under the lid so that the switch makes contact more easily.

 

[IrishNinja]

Other interesting sidenote: after confirming with Sega GT that the setup was working, I immediately tested out my European copy of Shenmue 2 (and used the Utopia Boot Disc v2 to load it on my US DC). Disappointingly, after the disc swap I got sound but no picture. After a bit more web research, I tried using an Action Replay CDX as the boot disc instead of Utopia. And it worked like a charm! My uneducated guess is that it was a PAL/NTSC thing and that the Action Replay is forcing it into 60Hz mode, whereas Utopia was keeping it at 50Hz. In any case, if you're having that particular problem, you should try this solution.

just a heads-up since i ran into this before modding mine: some disc loaders (most utopia ones i tried) don't display in VGA, but the sound means they're working so theoretically if you swap a VGA compatible game in you should have no issues with it, even if it's not ideal.

 

[Komo]

I felt pretty gutted when I found out my DC laser couldn't read Sonic Adventure, and was struggling to read a recently opened, factory sealed game.
I haven't quite had the same passion since, especially considering they're unbelievably rare where I live.

Great system though.

 

[Persona7]

I felt pretty gutted when I found out my DC laser couldn't read Sonic Adventure, and was struggling to read a recently opened, factory sealed game.
I haven't quite had the same passion since, especially considering they're unbelievably rare where I live.

Great system though.

You can probably find a replacement lens if you are up to it.

 

[IrishNinja]

have you checked craigslist? there's several for about $30 near me, DC's really aren't rare online either.

 

[IrishNinja]

also: grabbed the import of Project Justice: Rival Schools for about $20, damn glad to find it for that price! sadly the import of Giga Wing 2 is higher. cashing out my ebay bucks in about a week towards Cosmic Smash, that pretty much does it for most of my higher wants, stuff like Samba de Amigo v2000 can be had for much better prices thankfully...it really is mostly the Capcom stuff that shot up in this scene, so many of the great titles i replaced cost less than half of what they did at retail, but you could already see some of them slowly jumping up too.

 

[Dre_G_Writer]

I came in this thread just to read about dynamite cop. Best 3D beat em up even to this day son.

 

[Persona7]

I came in this thread just to read about dynamite cop. Best 3D beat em up even to this day son.

yeah, I love it. I still have the DLC pack on my VMU.

 

[IrishNinja]

^there was a DLC pack for that one too?! i really gotta get into that Dream Explorer program soon

 

[Persona7]

^there was a DLC pack for that one too?! i really gotta get into that Dream Explorer program soon

Yes, I can't remember if I downloaded it through my dreamcast or got it off a dreamcast magazine disk. I know for sure it is available on the first or second volume disk.

It is on blue swirl and other places on the internet, as well.

 

[SuperSonic593]

just a heads-up since i ran into this before modding mine: some disc loaders (most utopia ones i tried) don't display in VGA, but the sound means they're working so theoretically if you swap a VGA compatible game in you should have no issues with it, even if it's not ideal.

Oh yeah, that's a great point that I forgot to mention. The early Utopia discs didn't support VGA at all, but later ones (maybe 1.2 or 1.3 onward?) did in the way you describe: the spinning reindeer graphic won't show up over VGA (you'll just get a blank screen), but once the disc loads you can swap discs just fine. The weird thing in my case was the disc swap worked fine, but then Shenmue 2 itself only loaded with sound and no video.

Conveniently, the Action Replay CDX showed up correctly over VGA and it loaded the PAL game with no problems. So pretty much better all the way around. I've also read people had similar success with DC-X, but I haven't tried it.

I came in this thread just to read about dynamite cop. Best 3D beat em up even to this day son.

You know, this is one of the few games I never picked up. I feel like I remember the reviews for it being pretty harsh, and I wasn't super excited about beat 'em ups at the time. But I wouldn't mind trying it out today.

 

[Kokonoe]

Just purchased a SVideo cable by Retro Bit. Can't wait.

PS: You can use PS2/PS3 power cords on the Dreamcast. The more you know.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Just purchased a SVideo cable by Retro Bit. Can't wait.

PS: You can use PS2/PS3 power cords on the Dreamcast. The more you know.

and Xbox, and 3DO, and Saturn, and Playstation, etc.

 

[televator]

Gotta love no power bricks.

 

[Mengy]

I felt pretty gutted when I found out my DC laser couldn't read Sonic Adventure, and was struggling to read a recently opened, factory sealed game.
I haven't quite had the same passion since, especially considering they're unbelievably rare where I live.

Great system though.

This is why I'm slowly ripping my entire DC collection to my PC. My DC is a launch day box, with a shit ton of hours on it, so I'd be lying to myself if I said it will last forever. The laser will go eventually, or the drive motor, or something else. It's inevitable. For now I'm playing what I can with Null-DC on the PC (and liking it a lot so far) and keeping the DC itself at rest as much as possible. At least until I get everything ripped. After that, at least I'll have versions of my games that Null-DC or some future emulator can play.

I'm terrified my DC will die first and then I'll have to buy some expensive used unit whose life is just as limited.

 

[n64coder]

Is anyone following dknute's work on GDEMU? Basically it's a drive replacement for the Dreamcast. He just announced a few days ago that he's ready to produce units for sale. The units will go for 100 euros. I just placed myself on the order list and it looks like the list is now closed. He did say not to despair because he's looking into options to mass produce them.

I want one because it'll be cool to have my games on an SD card and not have to hear the load noise of the CD drive. Hopefully the loading times are also faster.

 

[general_garcia]

Bah. My Dreamcast sounds odd and is now randomly crashing. It's been a prolonged death, but I'm presuming it'll be gone in the next few months.

As somebody that has no interest in downloading anything dodgy in that regard, is there a quick and easy way to backup your Dreamcast games/bios to a PC nowadays? Or is a serial cable and/or custom device still required?

 

[televator]

Is anyone following dknute's work on GDEMU? Basically it's a drive replacement for the Dreamcast. He just announced a few days ago that he's ready to produce units for sale. The units will go for 100 euros. I just placed myself on the order list and it looks like the list is now closed. He did say not to despair because he's looking into options to mass produce them.

I want one because it'll be cool to have my games on an SD card and not have to hear the load noise of the CD drive. Hopefully the loading times are also faster.

Hah! I always thought a direct sd drive replacement for the DC should be a thing to happen, but I thought the idea was too far fetched. GD ROM is too unique, too loud, and failing drives are far too common, but no way is that eternally devoted and active Dc community going to come with such a dream device... Televator, that's crazy talk! Today, I happilly eat crow. Thanks for sharing! I will immediately buy one of these so hard once these are back in production.

I hope this will have a trickle effect so that you can replace failed drives for other platforms. Sega CDs are notoriosly touchy and ancient in design.

 

[n64coder]

I will immediately buy one of these so hard once these are back in production.

There might be a second option. I recall reading over at assemblergames about a Russian developer working on a board. He also was developing a board for the PS1.

Found the thread

 

[televator]

There might be a second option. I recall reading over at assemblergames about a Russian developer working on a board. He also was developing a board for the PS1.

Found the thread

Shiiiiiiiieeeeeeet, son! This is the future, and I love it.

 

[kunonabi]

My haul from Japan:



I actually didn't find much of what I was looking for in terms of DC releases but oh well.

 

[sixteen-bit]

There might be a second option. I recall reading over at assemblergames about a Russian developer working on a board. He also was developing a board for the PS1.

Found the thread

Would something like that help the Neo Geo CD, or would load times still be hampered by its notoriously low cache?

 

[Teknoman]

My haul from Japan:



I actually didn't find much of what I was looking for in terms of DC releases but oh well.

Amano art on a Capcom game?

 

[koopas]

Amano art on a Capcom game?

Yeah what the heck are those games? Multiple versions of the same game?

 

[sixteen-bit]

Yeah what the heck are those games? Multiple versions of the same game?

It's an episodic RPG series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_Gate

 

[n64coder]

Would something like that help the Neo Geo CD, or would load times still be hampered by its notoriously low cache?

I would think it would help but too be honest, I don't know. It would be nice if someone could investigate the use of a drive emulator for the Neo Geo CD but I guess there's low demand since people would just get a consolized MVS and one of those 60-in-1 cartridge.

 

[Persona7]

Are they really going to update the dreamshell software soon? I haven't used my SD adapter in a while.

 

[IrishNinja]

my baby's comin' home! it's been nearly a month but now my DC has:

- (as i'm told) a possibly saturn-like opening to change the internal battery without soldering
- region-free bios chip, even plays GD-ROMs if i'm crazy and get into betas
- VGA box modded for RGB switch & SCART out

meanwhile i've added nearly a whole other shelf of DC titles, cannot wait to break some of these in.

It's an episodic RPG series
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_Gate

ive been curious about this one since Segata got into it here years ago, never looked into fan translations but given how long ive waited on Segagaga i'd be shocked if it had one

 

[dark10x]

Is it still cheaper to just get Blue Stinger JP version? I know its not expensive or anything, but i've read that the majority of the game is in english regardless of the version you pick up.

I actually prefer the JP version. The US version uses a different camera system that was supposed to be an improvement but I felt that it actually detracted from the game. The JP version uses lots of crazy camera angles, which a lot of people didn't like, but I feel it gives the game a more unique feel.

I felt pretty gutted when I found out my DC laser couldn't read Sonic Adventure, and was struggling to read a recently opened, factory sealed game.
I haven't quite had the same passion since, especially considering they're unbelievably rare where I live.

Great system though.

Sonic Adventure isn't a good test. The early SA discs were all messed up and seemingly only usable on specific systems. Most of the newer Dreamcast systems simply cannot read the launch copies of SA. Also, DC had laser issues throughout its life with brand new games often failing to work straight away. It was always finicky like that. I have four DC systems and all of them have had issues like that with certain discs.

 

[Acquiescence]

Sorry if this has been addressed a gajillion times in this thread already, but I've been playing a fair bit on my Dreamcast lately, and while I'm enjoying the games, they really do look like ass on my HD set. Been using a standard AV cable setup ever since I've gotten the television years ago, but I've been looking into this VGA adapter business, and I want to know this - is it worth investing in one? I've got my eye on this one to be specific and was wondering if anyone can vouch for it and if that is a reasonable price to pay or not. Also, does S-video make much of an improvement? The S-video component on my cable renders my screen black and white only, and I don't know if it's my television's fault or if something is awry with the cable itself. If it doesn't make much of a difference using it through the VGA box then I won't bother buying another one and will just continue using the yellow component instead.

Thanks in advance.

 

[ZealousD]

Sorry if this has been addressed a gajillion times in this thread already, but I've been playing a fair bit on my Dreamcast lately, and while I'm enjoying the games, they really do look like ass on my HD set. Been using a standard AV cable setup ever since I've gotten the television years ago, but I've been looking into this VGA adapter business, and I want to know this - is it worth investing in one? I've got my eye on this one to be specific and was wondering if anyone can vouch for it and if that is a reasonable price to pay or not. Also, does S-video make much of an improvement? The S-video component on my cable renders my screen black and white only, and I don't know if it's my television's fault or if something is awry with the cable itself. If it doesn't make much of a difference using it through the VGA box then I won't bother buying another one and will just continue using the yellow component instead.

Thanks in advance.

Any s-video cable that has a yellow composite output on it as well is straight up terrible. If you want an s-video cable for anything, make sure it's dedicated. S-video is certainly an improvement over composite, but VGA is better because it can get you 480p for those games that support it.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

I can't vouch for that particular model, but I can vouch for VGA. It works with (almost) every game and it's a definite improvement over the standard cables.

 

[Teknoman]

I actually prefer the JP version. The US version uses a different camera system that was supposed to be an improvement but I felt that it actually detracted from the game. The JP version uses lots of crazy camera angles, which a lot of people didn't like, but I feel it gives the game a more unique feel.

As in Silent Hill style angles at some points? The JP version is completely in English though right?

 

[Acquiescence]

Any s-video cable that has a yellow composite output on it as well is straight up terrible. If you want an s-video cable for anything, make sure it's dedicated. S-video is certainly an improvement over composite, but VGA is better because it can get you 480p for those games that support it.

I can't find any dedicated s-video cables compatible with the Dreamcast - they always come with the yellow, white and red outputs. If I use a VGA adapter, will it even make much of a difference whether I connect a yellow composite to it or not? Or is VGA box + s-video absolutely the way to go?

I can't vouch for that particular model, but I can vouch for VGA. It works with (almost) every game and it's a definite improvement over the standard cables.

Thanks for your impressions!

 

[Kokonoe]

Wow. Absolutely stunned. I can't even begin to describe how good this S-Video cable by Retro Bit is. Everything is so freaking crisp. Looks gorgeous in Capcom VS SNK 2!

 

[ZealousD]

I can't find any dedicated s-video cables compatible with the Dreamcast - they always come with the yellow, white and red outputs.

There's some on eBay. Though these cables won't help you if you are going the VGA box route.

If I use a VGA adapter, will it even make much of a difference whether I connect a yellow composite to it or not? Or is VGA box + s-video absolutely the way to go?

I think you misunderstand. You plug the VGA box into the Dreamcast and then plug a VGA cable from your TV/Monitor into the VGA box. There's an S-Video plug on the VGA box but that's for the games that doesn't support VGA output, iirc.

Hookups are only as good as your weakest link. Plugging composite into anything means you're going to get composite quality. The quality comes from the cable itself, not whatever you are plugging the cable into.

 

[Acquiescence]

There's some on eBay. Though these cables won't help you if you are going the VGA box route.



I think you misunderstand. You plug the VGA box into the Dreamcast and then plug a VGA cable from your TV/Monitor into the VGA box. There's an S-Video plug on the VGA box but that's for the games that doesn't support VGA output, iirc.

Hookups are only as good as your weakest link. Plugging composite into anything means you're going to get composite quality. The quality comes from the cable itself, not whatever you are plugging the cable into.

It says in the product information for the VGA adapter that it is AV compatible, and one of the customer reviews seems to mention it as well. This is all a bit confusing. Oh well, I've ordered the adapter anyway, so if it doesn't work out I'll just return it and get a refund. Thanks for your help.

 

[ZealousD]

It says in the product information for the VGA adapter that it is AV compatible, and one of the customer reviews seems to mention it as well. This is all a bit confusing. Oh well, I've ordered the adapter anyway, so if it doesn't work out I'll just return it and get a refund. Thanks for your help.

Right. I think that is probably for the games that don't support VGA output. If you don't use a VGA cable, you will get zero benefit from the VGA box. Its an adapter, not a processor.

 

[Acquiescence]

Right. I think that is probably for the games that don't support VGA output. If you don't use a VGA cable, you will get zero benefit from the VGA box. Its an adapter, not a processor.

Okay, I get you. I thought using the box would upscale to HD no matter what output was used; guess I was way off base there. Can I just buy a cheap VGA cable to use with this adapter then? Something like this?.

 

[kick51]

can't wait till demul can handle Zombie Revenge at 60fps

 

[Seik]

can't wait till demul can handle Zombie Revenge at 60fps

NullDC can, right?

I mean, it's been a while since I gave a shot to Zombie Revenge, but I remember it running well.

 

[ZealousD]

Okay, I get you. I thought using the box would upscale to HD no matter what output was used; guess I was way off base there. Can I just buy a cheap VGA cable to use with this adapter then? Something like this?.

Yeah, the VGA box is not an upscaler. You aren't going to get HD from a Dreamcast or the VGA box, just progressive scan. And yeah, I think any standard VGA cable should work.

 

[BlazeHedgehog]

NullDC can, right?

I mean, it's been a while since I gave a shot to Zombie Revenge, but I remember it running well.

The last time I tried Zombie Revenge on NullDC, it always crashed when you finished the first level.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I'm upgrading my video cables across all of my consoles at the moment, and I've hit that problem area of DC games that are VGA incompatible. Trying to run Bangai-O on my Retro-bit brand VGA box gives me this:

Despite tricking the box into booting the game (starting in composite mode, then switching to VGA mode as the game loads), the box tries to treat the signal as if it's a 31khz/480p source and not the 15khz/240p source that it actually is, resulting in the picture above.

So I'm looking for a VGA box that can properly handle 31khz and 15khz sources and not fuck with the image. No upconverting or linedoubling or whatever; just a plain RGBHV output at whatever res the game natively runs at. From what I gather, either the Hanzo or Kuro would do the job. Where's the best place to pick one of those up at the moment?