No.187
Should I buy a Dreamcast? Always wanted one.
What should I look for? Are there significant model differences? Can it really play burned games.
No.189
>>187I heard that the later models won't play burned games, yeah the DC can play burned games but it's not great for the lazer. The good news is that someone came up with a way for the DC to read SD cards and it's a pretty cheap adapter. Correct me if I'm wrong but you can fit the entire DC library on a large enough SD card.
There's a few games you really should try for it like Bangai O and Project Justice.
No.192
>>189The US library is something like 220gb's, if I remember right.
>>187I'd recommend it. I'm probably preaching to the quire but the DC was under-rated and has a good library that's 'easily accessible' if you have the internet.
No.193
>>192
>choirMy spelling is crap. But make sure you test the CD drive in it.
No.221
>>192>>189
>220249 and change Redump (no cracks or loaders).
>entire library597.95 GiB TOSEC
No.226
>>187They're great machines, you should buy one.
The only bad thing about the dreamcast is the absolute shit-tier controller, everything else is amazing. Truly, it was ahead of its time.
No.227
>>226Agreed. Favourite gaming console ever, even if I've ascended to god-tier PC gaming these days. The controller is absolute shit, but I think it was designed around the VMU being a major gimmick, being used both to save your game files and as a portable game system itself. Many DC games offered optional VMU games you could download and play, which would usually impact the main game in some small way.
No.232
>>221I've been using DCRevive and DCRes, they're pretty good and have quite the library.
No.258
>>226I liked the L & R triggers.
No.261
For the 15-year birthday, I finally bought myself a VGA adapter. I bought my Dreamcast at launch…why the fuck did I live so long without this godsent?! My games look great!
No.281
Probably the greatest system I have ever played. No joke.
No.285
>>189Any US console with a manufacture date later than December 2000 won't play CD-Rs
No.360
If you decide to get one, make sure you check the number in the lower-left corner of the sticker on the bottom. If it's a 0 or a 1, you're clear. If it's a 2, then it won't be able to play burned games.
No.366
Most of the games aren't cheap. There are some good ones that still are but the great ones aren't. The reseller scum have started to hoard Dreamcast & even Genesis games now. AAA titles are $30 & up on average. If you want to get complete DC games you chose a terrible time to start, but if you don't mind playing burned games I think you'll be fine.
No.1307
>>227I really like the DC controller, even if everyone else thinks it's shit. It doesn't have the two analog sticks that everyone expects now, but it's a fantastic step up from the N64 controller (and Saturn 3D pad), and works well for games that want a single analog stick + buttons.
No.1308
>>187>Can it really play burned games.Yep but if you play burned games a lot of them will have downgraded audio/video. The DC discs are actually GD-ROM not CD-ROM, they hold over 1GB of data. So to fit that shit onto a CD a lot of data has to be compressed or outright discarded. Soul Calibur for example has awful sounding music.
No.1343
Make sure the controller ports aren't burned out.
No.1362
>>1360No, it is not common anon. The Dreamcast overall is pretty solid.
No.1363
>found a dreamcast for cheap that I believe would be able to play burned discs
>reads all disks I try with it terribly
>can't fix it despite spending hours adjusting the lens
I guess I'll just save up for one of those homebrew SD card readers for Dreamcast.
No.1365
Remember to burn at the absolute slowest anons, 2x & 4x being best (you can get away with 8x & 16x sometimes though). Also, Maxell CD-Rs work best (at least in my experience).
No.1373
>>1308>So to fit that shit onto a CD a lot of data has to be compressed or outright discarded.
>get burnt copies of Skies of Arcadia and GGX>SoA's music files were apparently discarded at random>GGX had no music at allZero fucks given - I had a blast.
Christ I was so much easier to satisfy when I was younger.
No.1411
>>1308Are there any locations to purchase GD-roms, or are we stuck with poor music? I'm planning on downloading all of the games I missed out on and would like to really enjoy my Dreamcast without having to pay $80-$200 for a game.
No.1476
I found a "broken" dreamcast at a flea market for about $3. My brother and I fucked around with it until it worked again. I only own Grandia II but it plays most burned copies just fine.
Overall good acquisition.
No.1493
>>1476>only own Grandia II[>only>implying you need another JRPG No.1497
>>1493I own more JRPGs but the only Dreamcast I own is Grandia II.
Which version is better, Dreamcast or PS2?
No.1498
>>1497Dreamcast hands down.
No.1499
>>1498Why's that?
I've only got access to a PS2 at the moment, but I enjoyed the fuck out of it on the DC, so I was considering picking up the port.
No.1511
>>1411>>1308Bumping these out of curiosity. Would anyone know a way to buy GD-roms? Has burning DC games onto CDs evolved at all? Should I look into using DVD-rom?
No.1525
>>1511DVD-Rs don't work.
CD-Rs though do in fact work.
No.1551
>>1499>replying to my own postSuch is life on /vr/
What was it about DC JRPGs that made them so special? The ones I played, at least, seemed suspiciously adept at capturing a spirit of adventure, of being epic without taking themselves too seriously, and were filled with so much fucking
colour.
No.1571
>>1525>>1525Are today's CD-Roms capable of downloading the entire game without a problem, or is data compression and music loss like
>>1308 said still an issue with games?
No.1689
No.1707
>>157199 minute CDRs (which usually have to be imported) can do Dreamcast games better than you would think. The US version of Shenmue 2 requires them, because without the extra space, everything sounds like a 16kbps wav file. Yeah, you heard me. It's a fan project, like Policenauts ENG.
No.1842
>>1707Sounds good to me, thanks! I'll have to take some time in the near future to set up the DC and play a bunch of games I missed out on.
No.1888
>>1373The Skies of Arcadia CD-R version, technically impressive as it is, is pretty much the poster boy for GD-Rom > CD-R. It lags and is a general bitch too…
Intro screen has cool music though.
No.1899
>>1551Sega (Mega) CD JRPGs seem to have the same thing. I dunno what it is about the Mega CD versions of the Lunar games, but they seem so fucking vibrant compared to the (admittedly superior) PS1 versions.
>>1499A bit late for this one, but whatever - the PS2 port of Grandia II was done by Ubisoft (the English publisher of the series at the time) to reach a wider audience; similar to the reasons why the first Grandia was ported to PS1.
As for the quality of the actual port… it's rushed and shoddy, to put it charitably, with random graphical glitches, lower quality textures than the Dreamcast version; and noticeable slowdown, especially in battles.
That said, if you have never, ever played the Dreamcast version and just want to experience Grandia II, none of the actual game part has been compromised, that's still excellent. It's just marred by a shoddy port.
No.1919
>>1899You're assbackwards. The CD versions of Lunar look gritty and dark, because of the low color count, whereas the Playstation versions are super vibrant. Also the CD versions are superior to the Playstation ports.
No.1947
>>1899The slowdown sounds horrible, but it's been an age since I played - maybe I won't notice it so much.
No.2772
So are there any models I should get/avoid to make sure they play burnt CDs or would getting the SD card/Dreamshell (>>189) to work be a better option?
I'm not bothered about trying to fit all the games on one card or anything. I'd rather avoid the issues people have mentioned with burnt copies.
No.3418
>>2772
Not referring to the dreamcast hardware specs for the serial port.. at this time if you're not running an IDE mod in place of the GD-rom, you will experience slowdown or refusal to load in quite a few SD-ISOs. Burnt CDs still have a place unfortunately.
No.3454
>>1842
Problem with 99 minute CDs is sourcing ones that work. Banana CDs from DX are probably junk and I can't burn the ones that I currently have with the CD burners on the desktop or laptops in my house.
"Numbers" disks on Taobao might be alright, but you'll need to go through an intermediary to order internationally.
No.3455
>>3454
Why is sage handled by so badly on this site?
>>2772
SDISO is great, but expect slow down and some difficulties getting some games to work.
No.3489
>>3455
The board owner insists on allowing the feature
SAGE!!!!!!!!!!
No.3564
>>3454
Update: The discs just weren't showing up as 99 minutes in one of the burning programs I used. Brasero handled it fine as an audio project, but reading is spotty as reported. Disc was burned at 4x, but I'm going to run another test at 1x in CD Mastering Mode.
>Works on the PC that burned it.
>Works in the Dreamcast with an awful seeking noise. I can hear what sounds like the motor clicking.
>Works in the PS2 flawlessly.
>Doesn't work in the Xbox, which reports it as an unknown disk.
>Doesn't work in the car or a bose stereo system.
These were Banana discs sourced from Taobao.
No.3605
>>1363
If you're handy with soldering look up the HDD mods.
No.3643
What do they go for these days?
I saw a place selling them for $35 with a $5 game, all the cables, and a controller, though they didn't have a vmu
No.3715
>>3564
Yeah, can't get them working with anything. Oh well.
>>3643
If that's USD that's pretty good imo. Here they're 30-50 for the console alone, 10-15 for the cords, 15-30 for the controller, and 5+ for the game.
No.3756
>>3715
>Here they're 30-50 for the console alone, 10-15 for the cords, 15-30 for the controller, and 5+ for the game.
>Charging the controller/cables separately
>$15-30 each
What fucking scumbag is trying to sell people that shit
That is beyond disgusting.
No.3758
>>3756
The controllers, supposing there are more than two of them (a small likelihood given the DC's number of ports), I can kind of understand; but you're dead right on the cables: it's a bundle, fucking well bundle things together.