Sega Dreamcast |OT| Appreciation and Emulation Thread

[Son of Liberty]

I'm usually not the one for nostalgia but the Dreamcast brings back fond memories of the early 2000's.
Shenmue was such a mind-blowing experience for me, I probably played through that game a half-dozen times.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

Got mine in 2012 at Goodwill for like $15.

Now I own a bunch of games, have several controllers and love it. Need to finish Shenmue and Powerstone 2 is a blast at parties.

Wanted one when it came out but sadly I was too young to have my own money

I will always love the sonic adventure intro and whale stage

 

[RF Switch]

PSO changed my life

 

[phanboy4]

I missed out on the DC, even though I was a Genesis kid and still remember Sega fondly.

Gotta say though, coming back to both it and the Saturn as an adult, I still honestly prefer the Saturn (with the JP library) by a mile. I feel that if you don't like fighting games, the library of arcade ports on the DC isn't nearly as good as the Saturn, and most of the non-arcade titles haven't aged well.

And the stock controller just does not feel good in my hands, to the point where it makes me not want to play DC stuff, especially arcade ports. I know it's quite similar to the Saturn 3D Pad, but that feels way better in my hands. Even the N64 controller is more comfortable for me than the DC controller. I got a MadCatz DreamPad and that helped a bit, at least.

 

[NEE HEE HEE]

I'm going to monitor this thread - I still don't know what to buy for this thing. All I've got is Illbleed, Shenmue, Third Strike and Worms Armageddon.

By the way, the SCART to Toro connection makes the output look really fucking good!

 

[Deleted member 21996]

One of my favourite consoles too. Soul Calibur was mind-blowing, but there were many other standouts. Personally I remember it most fondly for Quake 3 Arena and F355 Challenge. The former game for running up huge internet bills, and the latter for the horrendous steering wheel-strapped-to-a-chair concoction I inflicted on our living room.

 

[HHGaming]

I loved the dreamcast a lot. was such a nice console

If only Sega would port shenmue / Skies of Arcadia :(

 

[Andromeda]

The Dreamcast was like the console dream come true. I bought it at launch. I mostly played on a PC monitor with a VGA box. I miss the CRT screens.... It was so good to finally play at 60fps in Europe ! And the games were fabulous :

Sonic was fun and beautiful at launch. Shenmue was so immersive and new. I also had plenty of fun with Power Stone and I loved playing Shadow Man (I 100% that one). Also Ferrari F355 was so good.

But Soul Calibur was (is) a masterpiece and incredible to look at (but the core gameplay and even music were as good as the graphics). Really Soul Calibur was the perfect game and killer app for the DC. I remember friends that only had PS1 thought they were watching CGI but they eventually were hooked by the surgical gameplay.

And so many joyful hours spend to 100% (and 100% again) Toy Commander, or playing against friends, the ultimate underrated game of the whole history of videogames. This is my favorite game on Dreamcast with Soul Calibur.

 

[Krusty]

Greatest console and software library of all time IMO.

When Sega went down the pan, my lifelong passion for gaming went with it and never came back :(

 

[HDMF76]

PSO GOAT

 

[Suede]

The Dreamcast is one of my favourite consoles, I have very fond memories of it. The selection of games were great, and loved how brilliant it was for arcade ports. A lot of things about it were ahead of its time.

I bought a VGA box a few years ago and still get it out now and again to do replays of Shenmue/II and such.

 

[evilromero]

I appreciate the game library but as someone who regularly plays my old consoles, I don't appreciate its controller. I tolerated it at the time since the analog felt solid but now I think I prefer the Saturn's 3D gamepad. Also I feel like the VMUs hardly hold any save data. I've got 3 and I often have to delete files to make space.

Still, thinking of getting a few games I missed back in the day like Dynamite Cop and Zombie Revenge.

 

[Maligna]

Loot of PSO love in here. I concur.

The Dreamcast gives me strong Christmas vacation vibes due to all the time I didn't playing Shenmue and PSO around that time of year.

 

[Suede]

Merged this with the Dreamcast thread that was made in Gaming.

 

[Spades]

I just got my DreamPi and set everything up - this thing is outstanding. Works out of the box pretty much and now I'm playing online. Love it.

 

[The Booktastic Bus]

Hey dudes, I've dug out my dreamcast but now I remembered why I never played it a huge amount: I bought pre-owned and after a week or so of use it started randomly resetting itself. I've found an online tutorial where it says I need to disassemble it and clean the power contacts. Anyone done it before?

Also, what's the best way to make this sucka region free? I have a PAL console but want to play Japanese titles.

If you rip the games and re-burn them to CD, will that work?

 

[modoversus]

Hey dudes, I've dug out my dreamcast but now I remembered why I never played it a huge amount: I bought pre-owned and after a week or so of use it started randomly resetting itself. I've found an online tutorial where it says I need to disassemble it and clean the power contacts. Anyone done it before?

Also, what's the best way to make this sucka region free? I have a PAL console but want to play Japanese titles.

If you rip the games and re-burn them to CD, will that work?

Click to shrink...

I don't know if this applies to PAL consoles, but the earlier units can be tricked with a boot disc to load CD's and orginal GDrs from other regions. Back then there was the Utopia boot disc, do not know if there is a better solution.

Ripping games and burning them to CDs might be difficult for some titles, since some do take advantage of the expanded size of GDR. Games with FMV cinemas, mainly.

 

[Deleted member 2328]

Hey dudes, I've dug out my dreamcast but now I remembered why I never played it a huge amount: I bought pre-owned and after a week or so of use it started randomly resetting itself. I've found an online tutorial where it says I need to disassemble it and clean the power contacts. Anyone done it before?

Also, what's the best way to make this sucka region free? I have a PAL console but want to play Japanese titles.

If you rip the games and re-burn them to CD, will that work?

Click to shrink...

I had the same issue and I've done it numerous times, it's very simple.

The easiest way is to use a boot CD. You should be able to find an ISO online easily. Just don't use the Utopia boot CD because it doesn't offer 100% compatibility. Just either use Action Replay or Code Breaker.

There are ways to rip games such as using DreamShell and a serial port to SDcard adapter. But in a time that prety much every game is available on-line to download, I don't think it's worth the effort.

 

[Spades]

Also, what's the best way to make this sucka region free? I have a PAL console but want to play Japanese titles.

Click to shrink...

This disc was infamous in the UK - came free on the cover of DC-UK magazine and allowed for NTSC region discs to be played on a PAL console without any mods (back in 1999/2000, this was huge). Try to rip a copy or get hold of one if you can - works great.

 

[Metalix]

Noted, I have an NTSC copy of Armada I haven't been able to play yet.

 

[Saoshyant]

My three Dreamcasts are PAL. I stopped bothering with boot discs and installed a mod chip in one of them for region freedom. It was super easy and cheap to stop dealing with that hassle every time I wanted to play CvS2 or Ikaruga or anything else.

 

[Hideocaina]

Im playing Shenmue 1 on Demul with widescreen hack and is awesome, will post some screenshots later

 

[Deleted member 7756]

A new Demul has released ( v0.7 180428 )

Shader building is a lot worse now, but this could be be due to the NVidia driver update I installed not long before testing.
I had to let the entire Dead or Alive 2 intro play about 5 times before it was finally stutter free.

 

[PGamer]

 

[Tailzo]

Have anyone tried Dreamcast emulation on recent raspberry pie (model 3b or 3b+) with recent emulator builds?

 

[mgtn]

PSO was my first online experience in a videogame. I nevever feel the same with another online games. PSO was a great community.

 

[RexNovis]

So my dreamcast has been causing a ruckus every time I turn it on lately. Its always been loud but its just ratcheted up substantially the past couple months. Not sure if its the laser or the fan but I think I might try and replace both. Does anyone here know of a place I could perhaps send it off to to get these things replaced for me or do I need to do this myself? I'd prefer to have it done fro me if I can afford it.

 

[Deleted member 2328]

Everyone, I just want to let you know that this thing works flawlessly.


I bought mine from arcadeshock.com but I'm sure it's also available from other places.

 

[Windrunner]

Everyone, I just want to let you know that this thing works flawlessly.


I bought mine from arcadeshock.com but I'm sure it's also available from other places.

Click to shrink...

I will get one but lack of a VMU port (probably because they didn't want to make a new mould just for Dreamcast) is such an oversight: Some games will only load save files from slot A1.

 

[Deleted member 2328]

I will get one but lack of a VMU port (probably because they didn't want to make a new mould just for Dreamcast) is such an oversight: Some games will only load save files from slot A1.

Click to shrink...

I guess that's true, but most of those (at least all Psikyo shooters I've tried) actually work just fine if you use the adapter on port B and just leave an controller with a VMU on port A for save purposes.

 

[Windrunner]

I guess that's true, but most of those (at least all Psikyo shooters I've tried) actually work just fine if you use the adapter on port B and just leave an controller with a VMU on port A for save purposes.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I am not worried about arcade games, it's just more of a pisser for single player games that mandate use of port A for playing as well as saving/loading.

 

[PGamer]

 

[bangai-o]

Are there any Diablo-like games in Dreamcast?

 

[Deleted member 2328]

Are there any Diablo-like games in Dreamcast?

Click to shrink...

Record of Loss War. I haven't tried it myself but I only hear good things about it.

 

[Saoshyant]

Also on the Dreamcast, Silver's a good pick for those looking for Diablo-likes, though it also does its own thing.

 

[DaveLong]

Are there any Diablo-like games in Dreamcast?

Click to shrink...

Record of Lodoss War is the actual title. It's a great game in that style. Totally worth your time.

 

[Deleted member 2328]

Record of Loss War. I haven't tried it myself but I only hear good things about it.

Click to shrink...

Record of Lodoss War is the actual title. It's a great game in that style. Totally worth your time.

Click to shrink...

Crappy auto-correct lol.

 

[DaveLong]

I figured. It's obscure enough that searching on the wrong title might not get you to the right game. :)

 

[Shinriji]

• 
• After a long back and forth, I managed to get the Dreamcast. Thanks to @DaveLong for convincing me to go for it.
  
  PS - The Phantasy Star game is still sealed. Probably gonna stay that way since the game doesn't work without online right?
  
  
  

 

[Laevateinn]

Phantasy Star Online has a great single player campaign.

 

[Tailzo]

• 
• After a long back and forth, I managed to get the Dreamcast. Thanks to @DaveLong for convincing me to go for it.
  
  PS - The Phantasy Star game is still sealed. Probably gonna stay that way since the game doesn't work without online right?
  
  

Click to shrink...

It's a great single player game too :)

 

[super moustique]

The Phantasy Star game is still sealed. Probably gonna stay that way since the game doesn't work without online right?

Click to shrink...

There's a SP campaign too... It's pretty boring if you play by yourself though.

Congrats btw !

 

[Laevateinn]

There's a SP campaign too... It's pretty boring if you play by yourself though.

Congrats btw !

Click to shrink...

We're no longer friends

 

[super moustique]

We're no longer friends

Click to shrink...

Were we friends to begin with though ? :P

 

[Tetrinski]

• 
• After a long back and forth, I managed to get the Dreamcast. Thanks to @DaveLong for convincing me to go for it.
  
  PS - The Phantasy Star game is still sealed. Probably gonna stay that way since the game doesn't work without online right?
  
  

Click to shrink...

Phantasy Star is my favorite game of all time and I could never play it online lol

 

[Tanuki-Go]

Picked up a copy of Power Stone... only to have it suffer from what appears to be disc rot. Shit, I was looking forward to playing it this weekend.

 

[Shinriji]

Disk rot is the bane of all sega disks, I have some SS and DC games with severe disk rot and I take good care of my games. The exception is my Sega CD games, that are perfectly fine. I wonder why?

Meanwhile, all my Sony games are working as expected and they saw much more use all those years.

 

[NDPsycho]

Picked up a copy of Power Stone... only to have it suffer from what appears to be disc rot. Shit, I was looking forward to playing it this weekend.

Click to shrink...

Have you tried it on another system? I have a number of different dc games that won't work on my first system, but run fine on two others. In my case it's a weak or failing laser in my oldest system. Not saying it isn't a disk rot problem, but I think rot isn't as prevelant as it is portrayed and unless you can clearly see that it is rot, it might be worth checking other possible causes.

 

[NDPsycho]

Disk rot is the bane of Sega disk, I have several DC and SS games with severe disk rot and I take good care of my games. My Sony games are perfectly fine and they saw much more use all those years.

Meanwhile my Sega CD games are perfectly fine, I wonder why?

Click to shrink...

Don't gamble...that is some terrible luck. I have over 400 Sega disk based games and haven't run into any issues yet. Most rot is attributed to manufacturing defects, damage and environmental conditions.

 

[XrossExam]

Still my favorite console of all time for many reasons but also simply it's design and form factor as well.