N00b Creamcast questions

*Dreamcast. ><

It looks like I'm getting my hands on at least two Sega Dreamcasts for a good price. I've never owned one, and only played on one a few times. I know this console is near and dear to many people's hearts, and the enthusiasm on this forum, in particular, is the reason I decided to go with adding one to the collection.

I am probably going to be modding one of them, and I know there are quite a few mods out there for this thing, and how-to's are out there. What I want to know from you guys is, what are your favorite mods. and why? What capabilities does the DC have that most people don't know about?

In other words, from the perspective of fellow collectors, and those of you that avidly mod DCs, what should a green owner of a DC know about what he/she is getting into?

I fully expect you guys to simultaneously drool over the Dreamcast with fervent nostalgia and chastise me for not doing more research (or referencing the research I have done here). I welcome both, where appropriate.

 

One of the Dreamcasts I'm getting has a loose controlelr port, and I've read that soldering can fix the issue. The problem is (and maybe I'm looking in the wrong place), I can't find a DIY guide on this particular fix. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

There are no DIY guides on fixing broken joints. It is a simple proedure that anyone who thinks they can wield a soldering iron should be capable of doing without instruction.

If you mean bad fuse there are plenty of guides out there.

 

No, I found a ton of stuff on the fuse thing. Yeah, I'll probably poke around this one a bit, get a feel for the structure. I have to start somewhere. Just was wondering if there were any unforeseen tricks I should be aware of.

Thanks, APE. BTW, a Google search on fixing another issue brought me to a thread you were in, and that's what made me join the forums, so, thanks.

 

Fixing the loose controller ports is piss, takes like 2 minutes, as far as mods go, if you're not confident repairing broken solder joints, I wouldn't reccomend messing about with the dreamcast really and most of the mods aren't massively necessary. The VGA and SD card mods are good ones but it's generally easier just to buy a VGA cable and and SD card adapter. Ermmm There's always the lovely region free bios with the devkit boot screen

 

Warnings:
1: Controller ports often blow.
2: If you want a BroadBand adapter, it'll cost a limb or two
3: GD-ROMs are more sensitive to scratches than other discs
4: Many of the better games were ported to other system, even first party games.

Other:
1: You can probably run homebrew modless

 

Yes, that's a lot of what I've read. I'm mainly interested in playing Shenume, TBH. :lol:

I managed to get two complete systems for under $40, so, it's not like I tossed a bunch of money at it.

The better working of the two goes into the collection, and I'll only be grabbing the best (exclusive) games for it.

I really appreciate the feedback.

Since you brought up homebrew, who has good suggestions in that arena?

 

For instance (but surely not all): http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?39407-The-complete-DC-Evolution-thread
Recommended mod for easing out homebrew play: http://www.kreidler.be/Shinebi/dreamcast%20reset%20button.htm

 

To me, the killer mod for the dreamcast is the Internal VGA mod + scanlines mod. After, the freezone bios is really great.

 

Freezone? Do you mean region free?

The internal VGA is a PITA unless you use 30AWG wires and even then it is rather difficult to fit everything inside without bumping into something. There isn't much room inside unfortunately. Using through hole components for the circuitry is a bad idea so if you can get away with it making a small PCB to fit surface mounted components on is a great idea.

 

I never did the VGA mod, but everyone says it works a lot better than most of the cables out there (except for the stock VGA cable, which is difficult to find). The region free bios also sounds like a good idea (back when I was into the scene, that was not around).

Homebrew: There is a really cool 3-D asteroids game that I thought was a lot of fun. Besides that, there's the usual clones of snake, Tetris, and the like. There are some pretty good ports of Doom, Wolfenstein 3-D, and Quake. Most of the emulators work well too.

 

Creamcast... amazing Miniature Dreamcast cakes by Hostess maybe??

That's all, don't have anything to add. Cool you found a good deal, I want to get one myself. The active, enthusiastic community still going strong for it is super awesome.