petran79
Banned
Yes. You can change it in Neo4all settings.
It is just that the Wii version can not be changed
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Sega Dreamcast - Appreciation and Emulation Thread
- Thread starter Seik
- Start date
Yes. You can change it in Neo4all settings.
It is just that the Wii version can not be changed
geniusbits
Member
I hear you but if I put together a system switch I'm not going to want to go back and forth. If RGB is widespread usable I would do that, but if I have to change it for many games I would rather stick with S-video working on all.
Just the GDEMU, but that is more of a GD-ROM replacement. It works very well.
This uses the serial port, I believe.
sixteen-bit
Member
isn't the serial port SD reader incredibly slow?
You're not going to want to use that for playing games off of it. You would want it to dump your own games for use in an emulator or one of the drive replacement options. Long way of saying, yes it is slow.
Really? I mostly bought the SD card reader to play games off of. Hm.
I hadn't heard anything about games running slow or whatever. Either way, I guess it'll be nice to have.
EDIT: Since looking it up a bit, I've found that there is quite a number of games I love that seem to work quite well from the SD card reader. Phew
One day...
If the game isn't streaming or loading frequently it'll be acceptable, but something like crazy taxi is a stuttering mess.
Edit: I suppose I should add, at least that had been my experience. Some games were certainly worse than others.
I guess the answer is no on the PSU question. No problem. At the very least I need a cheap European PSU though, I wish there were any PAL Dreamcast for parts available right now :/
What's the best way to hook VGA up to an HDTV without any VGA inputs? Preferably something affordable? I've heard bad things about VGA to HDMI converters so I'm hoping for some recommendation that's guaranteed to work well. I'm in Europe BTW.
I've got an crappy PC monitor but I'd rather not use that.
What's the best way to hook VGA up to an HDTV without any VGA inputs? Preferably something affordable? I've heard bad things about VGA to HDMI converters so I'm hoping for some recommendation that's guaranteed to work well. I'm in Europe BTW.
I've got an crappy PC monitor but I'd rather not use that.
Never heard of those PSUs...
You can get RGB 480p SCART through the Toro VGA box, I believe. Unless someone can correct me if I'm wrong. This can then be fed into a Framemeister to encode into HDMI.
They're internal. Easy to swap around, just a few screws in place. I want to pick up a cheap American Dreamcast and don't want to mess with stepdown converters. You can just swap the PSUs with a European one and that should do the trick instead. The third party ones can take any voltage so they seem to be even better though? And buying a whole working second Dreamcast would kind of kill the cheapness here
Well, I wouldn't really call that an affordable option as nice as it sounds. Maybe if I already had a Framemeister. Which I do want, but it's not exactly in the cards right now.
petran79
Banned
It does, though characters and stages look pixellated, just like most CPS2-3 ports on Dreamcast.
I've looked in to this as well, and although I haven't tried it, this looked promising. It doesn't sound like it does and scaling or anything, which hopefully means that it doesn't add much/any lag.
On the topic PSUs, does anyone know if a Dreamcast PSU could be used to power a bare-bones Naomi? (I know there is a lot going on with powering the I/O and GD-ROM drive, etc, but at a basic level could this just power the the motherboard?)
That Hammerhead looks promising, thanks. Nothing too bulky at all. It's analog to digital so it has got to do some scaling though, they all do. I just need to make sure it handles the Dreamcast well.
This amazon review sounds good:
And someone at assemblergames.com:
I think I'll go for it. Any objections?
edit: one thing I'm wondering is if a VGA to Component conversion would be better. I've got no idea myself
edit2: also, isn't Dreamcast VGA 720 x 480 instead of 640 x 480? I've heard about aspect ratio issues on modern displays. I sure hope these two impressions mean the Hammerhead doesn't do that and not that they didn't notice. Or would that be entirely on the TV and not on the box? I really wish there was some conversion box that I know will work for sure but I haven't seen anything to make sure
The Dreamcast outputs 720 x 480. This actually scales a little nicer than 640 x 480 on modern widescreen televisions. Cycling through your television's display options, there is usually a scaling option ("Full" or something along those lines) that will stretch the image a little without unreasonably distorting it, that is a very viable option for anything that isn't using sprite-based graphics. This is purely anecdotal, but Shenmue looks great displayed like this on my Panasonic Plasma, for what it's worth. A bunch of DC games support anamorphic-widescreen, so that's something to consider as well.
Oh, I do think my TV won't be a problem here. Aside from the missing VGA port which I'm really annoyed by right now it's a great set, I'd be surprised if it can't handle the Dreamcast's resolution.
But some people do report problems on HDTVs. So I was wondering if anyone knows if one of these VGA to HDMI converters would experience problems as the Hammerhead for example actually doesn't list 720 x 480 as a supported resolution or if it's all going to be handled by the TV in the end.
I know from these reviews that the hammerhead would work with a Dreamcast but I'm worried it might be in a slightly squished 640 x 480 because that would annoy the hell out of me.
Seeing as though the Hammerhead appears to just shove through whatever resolution your input device throws at it, and your TV does the processing, I would imagine that 720 x 480 would be perfectly acceptable. My TV is able to tell me exactly what the input signal coming in is. Yours hopefully can do the same. Just look in the manual for your exact model of TV, and check out the acceptable input resolutions. (You should be able to find a .pdf online if you don't have it physically.)
Thanks for all the help here.
I'm not seeing it in the manual(s), maybe I missed it, but this is the closest I could get. It's a Sony KDL55W805b. From the online technical specification page:
So it only lists the real standard ones unfortunately, I imagine they just mean 640 x 480 with the 480p one. Doesn't state it doesn't support 720 x 480 but I'm not sure now. :s
edit: By the way, I contacted the company that makes the Hammerhead about it and while they didn't know for sure they believe a Dreamcast's VGA signal gets squished from 720 x 480 to 640 x 480 during the device's conversion so that doesn't sound too good.
That said with those impressions I posted not mentioning it I feel like there's a chance it might work fine, but it's pretty pricey to buy without being sure. Sigh. :/
sixteen-bit
Member
Wasn't too sure what Volgarr was until earlier. Pretty neat, but somewhat disappointed, because admittedly, I really want to see some 3D indie releases for the Dreamcast at some point
Also, whenever that SD Card reader arrives, I hope to be able to capture some footage of retail games running off of it to show the performance. It may not be much, but when I was initially deciding on whether or not to purchase the device, videos of its performance with particular titles would've been very helpful. I just decided to take the risk and go for it.
The games I'm hoping to test are:
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer
- Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2
- Rayman 2
- Sonic Adventure
- Sega GT
- Stunt GP
cj_iwakura
Member
I don't own it in any form, so as much as I'd love to test it, it seems inappropriate.
shanafan
Member
I think it might be easier to just download a backup that has been modded for your region, or grab a backup and region mod it yourself/add VGA support with this tool. No sense hacking up your hardware for this specific instance, especially if you already own the game.
It's not always about what is easiest...
Except when it is.
It's also about mitigating risk--in this case, avoiding mucking up one's hardware unnecessarily by attempting to mod it--when the clear solution would be to take the boot disc out of the equation, but I'm sure someone out there appeciated your cryptic contribution, so thanks for that!
There's nothing cryptic about it, just trying to be polite. What you're suggesting is illegal in many countries. Not here to debate something that is a fact in the places that many posters live. I could be wrong, but the user appears to be mindful of this and looking for a solution that is permitted where they live.
You could have simply suggested that they dump their own copy and attempt to patch it, which, someone can feel free to correct me, would not be in violation of the intent of this thread.
I bought one of those Agetec Dreamcast sticks. Still haven't paid for shipping though. I was looking through a few modding threads on srk and I saw that all of them instructed to widen the buttonholes to put in 30mm buttons. Is there a reason everybody wants 30mm instead of just swapping in 28mm buttons? Also how difficult or easy is it to swap out the stick?
I ordered one a few years ago and I could not get it to work.
Not as useful to buy this when things like GDEMU exist though.
Make sure you have the latest version of Dreamshell for your SD card adapter.
http://www.dc-swat.ru/blog/dreamshell/
http://www.dc-swat.ru/blog/dreamshell/
why mod it?
sixteen-bit
Member
Popular Japanese arcade buttons (Sanwa/Seimitsu) are 30mm
petran79
Banned
Sometimes it also depends on the DC model. Some DC consoles are more picky than others.
Personal preference. I like ls-32 for 2d games, which is what I would mainly play on it. And sanwa buttons feel nice.
But there are 28mm sanwa/seimitsu buttons, or am I missing something?
I suppose what I took issue with was the nature of your original response post; it didn't provide any further insight to his situation or a solution to his problem, so what even comment on the subject? I mean you certainly can comment on it, but why?
With regards to the Dreamcast, dumping the game would require additional hardware. A serial port-SD card device users have discussing in the posts below.
He mentioned using a boot disc, tool commonly used to circumvent piracy protection, in addition to its other less controversial features. I'm not here to encourage piracy on this forum or police anyone either. (I'm not even implying that's what would be going here, as he stated he owns a copy of the game) I'm simply providing advice on what the best possible solution to his issue may be. It's up to users to know what the laws are in the areas they are from, and act accordingly.
I think you should give the stock parts a try before you invest in changing them. part of this is the historian side of me - I like old sticks and think their evolution is really interesting. but honestly, the stock parts in the green goblin are significantly better than those found on sticks from that era, going through the PS2 days and early last gen. it'll also make you less dependent on your preferred setup which is good!
Boot discs are also commonly used to boot games from other regions.
Owning a game does not entitle you to download a copy of the game from the internet. So, when you keep suggesting that people do it, you are in fact, promoting piracy in many countries. These aren't my rules or my laws. I didn't create them, I don't get to interpret them. I just try to follow them. I'm not the only user that feels that way.
You seem to be taking this personally, when it is not meant to be. I'm simply trying to point out that your suggestion may not work for them, as they appeared to be looking for a more legitimate solution.
I also have a stock virtua stick high grade (which I still haven't put back together) which im leaving as is to play VF and a kind of iffy ps2 Sega stick which is all seimitsu, so I think I'm not lacking in that department lol. I do plan to get a second one though. I'll try out the parts and maybe leave one unmodded.
My last post implied that boot discs allow for imports to be played on hardware from other regions, but they do so by circumvention of the DRM, which is illegal as well. Whether you create your own back-up or not, the use of the tool that circumvents the DRM whether for piracy or not, is illegal in typically the same regions that downloading a back-up is. In other words, chances are he's already potentially breaking a law by booting his perfectly legal copy of FA2, regardless of his intentions.
This discussion took a turn, and my intention was certainly not to derail this thread. Best of luck getting FV2 running with VGA!
petran79
Banned
Dreamcast stopped being supported for ages. Talking about similar methods for SNES and Genesis is allowed here, same thing in the Saturn thread, where you have to buy a memory card to bypass region control. Also there's a thread about a Nintendo 3DS exploit to bypass region lock
sixteen-bit
Member
Actually, the most common complaint I hear about the game is how easy it is. I haven't played it myself but from some youtube gameplay it definitely seems like a manageable game for newer players.