It's cheaper in the US than here where I live, but for the price the quality is OK. I notice several vertical lines depending of the background color, but that's it. VGA for DC was for monitors no tvs, so it is a compromised solution nowdays,
Just snagged a complete copy of Shenmue on eBay for $44 shipped. I'm pretty psyched about it, based on the other prices I've seen. Now I just need to figure out how to get this thing connected to my receiver.
much love to gaffer gunsmithx - looks like my disc drive's shot, couldv'e been worse. im talking to a guy on craigslist to get one off of him...do you guys know if the label on the bottom can be trusted for revisions? ie, he & i (mines the black sports one) both seem to have a VA1, roommate has a VA2 with a 2 on said sticker, just wondering how reliable this is
It's cheaper in the US than here where I live, but for the price the quality is OK. I notice several vertical lines depending of the background color, but that's it. VGA for DC was for monitors no tvs, so it is a compromised solution nowdays,
does the dreamcast version of shenmue 2 use bloom lighting in night cutscenes? been a long time since I played DC ver, playing through on XB now and it looks really nice.
So I decided to start up Shenmue, and it was working fine for about an hour... then the screen went black mid-cutscene. I rebooted the system and now the system won't read discs... and now I'm furious. I had an issue with my last Dreamcast not reading my first copy of Shenmue I bought a few years ago, turns out the first disc didn't work at all, even though it looked pristine... discs 2 and 3 worked fine. I did the open the system and turn the screw method near the disc drive, and that caused no discs to work at all. So I bought a second system and a second game, and now I'm back to square one.
Kill me. Someone, I just want to play this game and the forces of nature don't want me to.
So I decided to start up Shenmue, and it was working fine for about an hour... then the screen went black mid-cutscene. I rebooted the system and now the system won't read discs... and now I'm furious. I had an issue with my last Dreamcast not reading my first copy of Shenmue I bought a few years ago, turns out the first disc didn't work at all, even though it looked pristine... discs 2 and 3 worked fine. I did the open the system and turn the screw method near the disc drive, and that caused no discs to work at all. So I bought a second system and a second game, and now I'm back to square one.
Kill me. Someone, I just want to play this game and the forces of nature don't want me to.
Does the console turn off idling at the menu options? If so, check and make sure the fan in connected properly. Other than that - tweak the laser again? :/
Just paid for the repair of my Virtua Fighter 3 board and I'm eagerly awaiting its return. Would be fun to do a comparison between the arcade version and the Dreamcast version, especially since to date I think the only comparison is in glorious 240p
Well, my dreamcast is dead. The disc drive, anyway. I noticed some odd behavior as of late, and even though I tried to take it easy, it still gave it up. Inevitable, I'm sure, but disappointing.
Instead of buying a replacement and dealing with the same issue down the line, I was considering modifying it to play game isos, bypassing the disc drive. I've heard of the old SD in the serial port trick, which I've got some reservations about due to compatibility (it appears that quite a few of my favorite games wouldn't work properly), but I also remember reading about replacing the entire disc drive with an SD adapter, and also hooking up HDDs to the system.
Does anyone know what the best option is? I'd like to be able to do this fairly easily, so something like assembling my own board from scratch is out of the question, but I can do something like remove the drive easily enough if necessary. I'm not too worried about price, so sending it away to be done by a professional is fine with me, too.
Really, any advice would be great-- I'm not too familiar with this side of dreamcast mods, and a lot of the info I looked up was fairly outdated (or the services no longer provided/parts manufactured).
If anyone has reservations about this type of thing due to the ease of downloading isos and such, I've got a decent collection of games that I'm more interested in preserving than anything else.
Edit: apologies in advance if there's already info in this thread about it, too. I almost made a new one, but I did a search and decided to ask here.
Seems like a lot of Dreamcasts are dying lately, sadly. I'm interested in going down the GDEmu route before my GD-ROM drive dies, but I don't know how much time I have left given that I've already had to adjust the potentiometer.
So, not sure if anyone can help, but this seems like the best place to ask:
I just got Samba De Amigo with the Maracas, and i'm dying to play the downloadable songs that they offered at one time. If there is any way to get them, what is the easiest way to do so?
So, not sure if anyone can help, but this seems like the best place to ask:
I just got Samba De Amigo with the Maracas, and i'm dying to play the downloadable songs that they offered at one time. If there is any way to get them, what is the easiest way to do so?
Dream Explorer should have them. It's a website with official VMU downloads collected together onto a CDR you can burn & then load on the dreamcast itself to copy over to your own VMU. Pretty handy for this sort of thing!
Congrats on the maracas too! Samba De Amigo 2000 is well worth tracking down for the variety in songs & modes - it's all in Japanese, but the menus are really easy to get figure out & the game itself is straightforward of course. Should be about $20 used.
Seems like a lot of Dreamcasts are dying lately, sadly. I'm interested in going down the GDEmu route before my GD-ROM drive dies, but I don't know how much time I have left given that I've already had to adjust the potentiometer.
Not really, no. I'm only worried about putting it off due to the availability. If I wait for my drive to die there's a chance that a GDEmu board will be a pain to get. It already seems to be in very high demand.
Does anyone know what the best option is? I'd like to be able to do this fairly easily, so something like assembling my own board from scratch is out of the question, but I can do something like remove the drive easily enough if necessary. I'm not too worried about price, so sending it away to be done by a professional is fine with me, too.
Really, any advice would be great-- I'm not too familiar with this side of dreamcast mods, and a lot of the info I looked up was fairly outdated (or the services no longer provided/parts manufactured).
I have a GDEMU and it's great. It's kinda pricey, but well worth it. 100% compatibility, and very easy to install. Feel free to inbox me if you have any questions.
That's nice to know you can replace the GD drive with something else, but there's still the issue of dumping the discs... Seems the most bothering part to me?
That's nice to know you can replace the GD drive with something else, but there's still the issue of dumping the discs... Seems the most bothering part to me?
It really doesn't take long. You can be doing it in the background while you're doing other stuff on your computer, or if you're feeling ultra-lazy, someone else likely already backed-up a copy of a game you already own. The internet is your friend.
It's not a matter of how long, it's a matter of how... (I'm not asking for informations if it's against the chart... I hope discussing this is OK, btw, I'd consider that I don't do anything wrong in looking for a way to keep playing my games when I can't access original hardware anymore...)
I fear that I may break my DC by trying to make a copy using the serial port. Broadband adapter is insanely expensive, and if I'm not mistaken, compatible PC drives are also at least difficult to find.
Maybe that's stupid, but I would feel less bad if I dump my own discs. I'm still not totally at ease with the idea of using backups (I'd prefer buying a DC re-edition or a clone) but there isn't many solution should my DC break. I wish I bought a spare one.
Beside that, I've seen people playing dumps of the games I really want to preserve, the dumps were missing many videos (so that they fit on a CD, I guess)...
Maybe that's stupid, but I would feel less bad if I dump my own discs. I'm still not totally at ease with the idea of using backups (I'd prefer buying a DC re-edition or a clone) but there isn't many solution should my DC break. I wish I bought a spare one.
Beside that, I've seen people playing dumps of the games I really want to preserve, the dumps were missing many videos (so that they fit on a CD, I guess)...
If you're that bent out of shape about it, you can just buy another Dreamcast and continue to use the discs you own.
The system is almost 20 years old, and there are plenty of quality rips out there, performed by people who also care about classic game preservation. It's a little naive to think that you are taking some sort of moral high-ground by backing-up titles you already own yourself, as opposed to using virtually identical images created by someone else. If the labour involved helps you rationalize what you are doing, more power to you, but that just seems silly to me.
performed by people who also care about classic game preservation. It's a little naive to think that you are taking some sort of moral high-ground by backing-up titles you already own yourself, as opposed to using virtually identical images created by someone else. If the labour involved helps you rationalize what you are doing, more power to you, but that just seems silly to me.
I said myself it was probably silly ^_^... It may also be the fact that it would be a dump of "my" game, even if it's identical down to the bit to a downloaded one.
(there was also a difference of legality of both approaches here, but I'm not sure what you can or can't do now, and it's a technicality).
And I'd like to emphasize the fact that my previous post wasn't implying any judgement about people downloading dumps of games they own... It was just my personnal feeling on this matter.
You know, I kinda wish they made the reverse; Instead of JP subs with English audio, English subs with JP audio. I guess there's a homebrew option for that now, though.
You know, I kinda wish they made the reverse; Instead of JP subs with English audio, English subs with JP audio. I guess there's a homebrew option for that now, shough.
What's the best Dreamcast emulator for PC these days? I still have a Dreamcast hooked up to my TV but just with the RF cable, and VGA cables are just too expensive to justify the cost of whenever I've looked. So I figure PC emulation may be the best way forward to get the best image.
Sadly that does mean switching to playing the Dreamcast on a 27" screen instead of 55"
What's the best Dreamcast emulator for PC these days? I still have a Dreamcast hooked up to my TV but just with the RF cable, and VGA cables are just too expensive to justify the cost of whenever I've looked. So I figure PC emulation may be the best way forward to get the best image.
Sadly that does mean switching to playing the Dreamcast on a 27" screen instead of 55"
I was recently given and older Flat screen TV. Problem is only 1 HDMI port. Not a problem is it has 2 DVI ports and a normal computer VGA port. I cannot find a DVI cable for Dreamcast. I had heard there is one out there. Any thoughts on where I can find one of these.
I was recently given and older Flat screen TV. Problem is only 1 HDMI port. Not a problem is it has 2 DVI ports and a normal computer VGA port. I cannot find a DVI cable for Dreamcast. I had heard there is one out there. Any thoughts on where I can find one of these.
Huh, I have NTSC-J too. I use a boot disc to run it, and the boot disc didn't display VGA, but I don't really need the display to operate the boot disc
Maybe I'll give it another go tonight.
Anyway, I really like FV2! it has some really cool ideas like 3S parries and Super KO's
Huh, I have NTSC-J too. I use a boot disc to run it, and the boot disc didn't display VGA, but I don't really need the display to operate the boot disc
Maybe I'll give it another go tonight.
Anyway, I really like FV2! it has some really cool ideas like 3S parries and Super KO's
Do any of you guys have suggestions of where/who to buy the sd card reader from? I don't want my gdrom to die on me.
Watching shenmue videos recently makes me want to go play it but need a way to rip the games for emulation or risk playing them and having the gdrom go out.
