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Author Topic: So I bought a Dreamcast  (Read 2662 times)

Offline Titan

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So I bought a Dreamcast
« on: June 01, 2020, 11:06:08 PM »
It took me almost my entire furlough but I finally was able to get a great deal on a Dreamcast. It's a console I've always wanted. I remember when it came out and just dying for it. But Sega's furtunes turned sour quickly, and I decided to not beg my parents for it. Why cry for a Dreamcast when the PS2 was right around the corner? I had to bet on the winning horse. Well, now I'm 33. I'm doing ok for myself and decided to get more into collecting games I've missed out on and try to experience them the original way they were to be played. The Dreamcast was on my bucket list. I decided to go for it. For weeks now, I've been combing Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and eBay. I found this one. The listing was crappy looking and no one seemed to bid on it, when most were going for 80-100 bucks for a console and a controller. There had to be something wrong with it, right? The image looked like it was very yellowed. But me being a former pro photographer, I immediately noticed that the fuzzy image quality and off white balance means it was shot on a cell phone and why it looked so meh. I scrutinized the pictures and figured it wasn't yellowed and it looked in decent shape. I emailed the seller and made sure it worked. They said it did. So I figured, the hell with it. I bid and ended up in a slight war but won.

I was the winning bid at 56 bucks. After the shipping and tax, it came to 80 almost even. Not a bad haul considering the price I've seen these go for on eBay. It also came with 6 games: Crazy Taxi, NFL 2k, NFL 2k1, Chef's Luv Shack (fun as hell), Sega Bass Fishing and it claimed to come with Sega Marine Fishing (the case was there, but ended up being a Namco arcade compilation. My OCD is kicking in now and I have to get the disc for Marine Fishing to complete the set! But I'm happy to have the arcade compilation too). As an added bonus, when it came in, it had a VMU. It wasn't listed and was in the controller already. I assume the seller didn't know how the Dreamcast worked and they thought it was part of the controller?

The console was supposed to come tomorrow. I looked up the shipping just out of curiosity on where it was. It said it was coming today! I kept opening my front door just waiting for it to come in. It finally did. With a giant grin on my face, I hurried it inside and grabbed my dull ass box cutter to get into the box that clearly at some point at Gamestop circa late 2000s, early 2010s. Butterflies in my stomach, I opened the box. I was elated. It looked fantastic! It had a few minor scuffs (completely removable) and some dust but a good clean is all this thing needs to look brand new. I hooked it up, even more nervous expecting it to maybe not work. After all, it was a gamble. The seller's other listings were pint glasses and random shit. They didn't seem to know much about game consoles. But it fired up without a hitch and within seconds, I was playing Crazy Taxi. I couldn't be happier. It feels as if in a world of shit with corona virus and America breaking down, I am 14 again with no cares. I've felt I've fulfilled a dream I've had of finally owning a piece of gaming history and something I've always wanted. And my girlfriend's happy because she doesn't have to listen to me talk about this anymore and hearing the eBay dings every 10 minutes when we're together  :laughing:

Sorry for the crappy quality pictures. I took these on my phone and lighting in my condo sucks  :headbang:
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Offline Kurt Angle

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2020, 01:18:04 AM »
Dreamcast was a pretty good machine and it’s a shame it died prematurely. If you are lucky you might have one of the ones that plays copied games without needing a mod chip. On those you could burn an image to a blank disc and just run it!

Offline Paul2

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2020, 01:31:13 AM »
nice find and nice system that you bought.  whatcha think of the dc controller?  so you have a sony wega trinitron crt tv.  may i ask what year model is it and does it comes with component video input connection?  one last question, what size is it?  i am guessing 24"?

Offline Titan

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2020, 07:42:50 AM »
Dreamcast was a pretty good machine and it’s a shame it died prematurely. If you are lucky you might have one of the ones that plays copied games without needing a mod chip. On those you could burn an image to a blank disc and just run it!

It is a shame. It was such an underrated system. But the PS2 pretty much ended it's life which is a shame. But I'm so happy it's getting the attention it deserves today. Probably why it has such a cult following. People like things that end in it's prime. Mine was made in March of 2000. I did find this on another forum. "Flip your Dreamcast over. Look for a number by the serial/model numbers in a circle (it's right by where it says whether it's an NTSC or PAL console). If the number in the circle is missing, 0, or 1, it will read burnt discs. If it's 2, you're going to need a modchip." I have a 1. Also later in the thread it says if it was made before November 2000 it'll work fine with burned games. I can always try it. I mean I'm going to collect for it so if I burn discs, it's because the game is too expensive for me now or I'm trying to track it down and want to play it in the meantime. What's cool too is there's homebrewers still developing and selling games! I need to find them.

nice find and nice system that you bought.  whatcha think of the dc controller?  so you have a sony wega trinitron crt tv.  may i ask what year model is it and does it comes with component video input connection?  one last question, what size is it?  i am guessing 24"?

The controller's not that bad. I've used it before. It's weird the wire coming out of the front.  And I'm still getting used to it but as weird as it looks, it's pretty comfortable considering it's odd shape. But using it today compared to say the Dual Shock 4, it's definitely clunky by today's standards lol.

I don't know what model year the TV is. 2005 I think? I can check the label on the back but man is it heavy so I'm not gonna check until I have to move it again lol. My grandma died a couple years ago and my mom is still working on cleaning out her house. It was there among a pile of junk. My uncle said he was going to trash it so I took it. Considering I was looking at that exact model on eBay lol. And yeah, it has component. The CRT I wanted for my retro gaming was required to have it. My PS2 slim is currently hooked up that way. I think it is 24". The only issue I have with the TV is no matter what input I use, there's a black bar on the left hand side. It's annoying me but I haven't looked into it yet so see how to fix that. I want bigger but I live in a 1 bedroom condo so space is an issue (I'm actually working on a project I can't wait to show you guys). When my girl and I get married, I may try to convince my parents to give me (or I buy, whatever lol) their CRT they still have. It's much bigger and has a nicer picture. It'd be great for a game room.

The Dreamcast is eventually going to be hooked up to my HDTV. Because it has the capabilities of running VGA natively (and I have a VGA connection on my TV), I'm getting a highly recommended converter that takes the VGA signal and converts it to HDMI. It's going to be nice I'm sure :) Just hope it looks as nice when I upgrade to a 4K TV when I get an PS5. Oh. And one more thing, I ordered a new laser for my Fat PS2 (it's a launch 30001 model and we all know what happens with those lol). That's shipped in a couple days ago and waiting to be installed. I was gonna try the freezer technique recommended by GAMES years ago, but decided this was a more proper fix  :laughing:
« Last Edit: June 02, 2020, 07:46:38 AM by Titan »
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"13 year old girls sleep with older men cause they think theyre in love
13 year old boys sleep with older women cause theyd be stupid not to

Offline Paul2

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #4 on: June 02, 2020, 05:22:53 PM »
sad to hear that your grandma passed away.  hope she lived a long good age before she goes.  and hope that she reincarnates after she passed away.

over 19 years ago, my mom bought me a 20" sony wega trinitron tv and it doesn't have component or even s-video input for that matter.  it only has 2 composite video inputs.  then about half a year later, i bought a ps2 that bundled with gran turismo 3.  since the ps2 is backward compatible with ps1 games, i hooked up the ps2 to this sony tv and was disappointed by the limited cable connection.  i have to live with composite video connections when i wanted a tv with component connection.

on the day that my mom went with my oldest brother to buy this sony wega trinitron tv, i didn't go with them.  when she brought it home and when i found out it only has 2 composite video connections, i wasn't happy.  i was so dumb that i can still exchange it since i believe the return/exchange policy is like 2 weeks to 1 month after purchase.  i didn't want to exchange it for a better tv with component connection because i got paranoid, afraid the retailer might think i did something wrong with the tv that is why i don't want to exchange it.  even though i didn't do anything wrong with the tv.  thinking about it, i should have went with my mom to the electronics store to buy a tv with component video connection in the first place.  so i just live with this tv with only composite connections and i live with this tv connected to my ps2 and eventually ps3 for years, more than 15 and a half years before i got a sony wega trinitron tv that has a component video input connection.

the new sony tv i got was thrown away by a neighbor that lived down the street and it was put on the curbside.  so i suspect it might be thrown away, so i asked my mom when she got home to bring it home by car.  she didn't want to bring it home by car for whatever excuse that she made that i forgot and she instead took out a dolly to push it home which is more inconvenient than drove it home by car.  the tv is 24" big so its very heavy for a person to carry and push it with a dolly is more inconvenient than to take it home by car.

what i like about this tv its that is has component video input, 4" bigger than my 15 1/2+ years old tv, and the speakers are on the sides which should have this surround sound to it.  my 15 1/2+ years old tv speakers are on the bottom corners of the tv which sounds good but speakers on the sides should sound better.  besides, the 20" 2nd composite video connection is broken and the audio on the first composite connection is also broken too since i didn't take good care of my tv because it didn't have component or at least s-video connection.

some days later, i walked past this neighbor house that i got the tv from and the neighbor was there outside on the back door and i asked her if its free and she said yes and i thanked her.  so, again, i have to live with composite video connection playing ps1, ps2, and ps3 games for 15 1/2+ years of my life with this tv in my bedroom.  during those time, hdtv took off, flat panel tv took off, and that year in mid august 2016 when i first got the 24" tv, 4k tvs just debut with hdr and wcg (wide color gamut).

so it must be bad fate that i have to live with composite video connection tv for 15 1/2+ years of my life. :(  lol.

oh, one last thing, very likely i might upgrade to 55" 4k120 oled tv this year on black friday to replace the 24" tv in my bedroom which by then will be over 4 years since i have this tv. B)
« Last Edit: June 02, 2020, 05:27:27 PM by Paul2 »

Offline Titan

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #5 on: June 02, 2020, 09:43:36 PM »
That sucks man. Composite blows major ass. The TV I had growing up was a 13" Sylvania TV/VCR combo. I didn't know shit about TVs then and it was mono so it only had the white and yellow jack. So games were terrible on it. And I played like that for years. Had I known anything about TVs I probably would have begged for something a little better lol. Eventually, I snuck it downstairs to where my dad watched TV and that had component. So I got cables for that and when he wasn't home, I'd move my PS2 down there and then back to my room when he was home. Worked out well enough. But to play my PS2 online, I had to move it into our computer room where the router was. So all through high school, my PS2 moved between 3 different TVs. Oh man that was a chore lol.

It's actually crazy now the different ways to get legacy consoles to work on an HDTV. You have third party cables. Then dongles you can attach the original cables to upscale to HD to make them look presentable on HDTV. All seems like cheating to me so that's why I got the tube TV lol. But I am going to get my Dreamcast on the HDTV. It supposedly looks great with the VGA hookups and adapters. I am a bit nervous about doing that and then hooking it up to a 4k TV when the time comes.

Speaking of my Dreamcast, I'm so annoyed I couldn't play it tonight. I spent the last like 4-5 hours fucking around with my fat PS2 trying to get the new laser (it was OEM too) I bought from Amazon to work. All that work, and I'm returning it and praying the next one they send me actually fucking works  :bang: Short version of it, before, blue disks didn't read but DVDs did. Now blue disks work great and DVDs don't work. I spent hours minutely adjusting the pentiometers trying to dial in the voltage. The most frustrating is I put the original laser back in to see if the DVDs would work and now all disks work. I hate that thing lol. But given it's track record, it'll work fine for maybe a few days then act all funky again.
« Last Edit: June 02, 2020, 09:49:05 PM by Titan »
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U R FUCJKGIN FCUTE" -THX to luke and Bob

"13 year old girls sleep with older men cause they think theyre in love
13 year old boys sleep with older women cause theyd be stupid not to

Offline Paul2

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2020, 10:59:27 PM »
speaking about the dreamcast, since it supports vga connection, if you connect the dreamcast to an hdtv via vga, you probably get progressive scan 480p @ 60 Hz which means it reduce flickers a lot and improve motion compares to 480i @ 60HZ.  even 30 fps games upconvert to 60 fps still looks better running it in 60p screen.  and a few games might benefit a lot if its run in native 60p @ 480p via vga connection.

like fighting games for example are usually render in 60 fps like soul calibur and mortal kombat gold and you will get crisper and fluid smooth motion on tv with vga supports compare to 480i60 tv.  what is the native resolution of your hdtv?  if its 1080p, then it will upscale 480p to 1080p on your tv and the upscaling quality done by the tv might be very good if its a quality hdtv.

you said your sony crt tv has this vertical black bar on the left side of the tv.  when you play dvd movies and/or vhs tapes, does the black bar still there on the left side of the screen?  or its only videogames that have this black bar?

you must be a hardcore gamer to move your ps2 to 3 different tvs on different rooms.  more hardcore than me i think which is not a bad thing.  everybody have their hobbies. B)
« Last Edit: June 02, 2020, 11:05:59 PM by Paul2 »

Offline Titan

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2020, 07:42:17 AM »
The native resolution is 1080p on my HDTV and I think it can do up to 120hz (but I shut that capability off because it worked like shit on my PS3). I bought it about 10 years ago. It's an Insignia TV. 32 inches I think? It's been pretty awesome to be honest. But is it a quality TV? I dunno. It's worked great for me but it was what I could afford then.

I haven't tested DVDs or VHS tapes. Mostly because my DVD player is my PS4 and I don't own a VHS player. So only video games I guess lol. I did find a diagnostic guide online. I'll have to give it a go when i get a chance (it's raining the next couple days so I can probably find time lol). But it does look adjustable. And it seems to only happen with the inputs.
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"LOL u know id fuck yu wsboth right? i would love to fuck the both of uyouy

U R FUCJKGIN FCUTE" -THX to luke and Bob

"13 year old girls sleep with older men cause they think theyre in love
13 year old boys sleep with older women cause theyd be stupid not to

Offline Paul2

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2020, 10:33:16 AM »
since you said you connected your ps2 slim to sony crt tv, try playing a dvd movies/videos on your ps2 slim to see if it still have black bar on the left side of the tv screen.

Offline §ôµÏG®ïñD

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2020, 02:58:58 AM »
Nice, I've got a dreamcast, had it since launch. Bought the arcade stick for it too. One of the most underrated consoles ever. Most of the games I've got were easily AAA titles. Ohh.. and i only ever bought 1.  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: June 07, 2020, 03:01:29 AM by §ôµÏG®ïñD »
  Ǧµî✟å® Ĵµñķîë!!  

Offline Titan

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2020, 07:23:52 AM »
Nice, I've got a dreamcast, had it since launch. Bought the arcade stick for it too. One of the most underrated consoles ever. Most of the games I've got were easily AAA titles. Ohh.. and i only ever bought 1.  :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Nice! That arcade stick I think is hard to come by and wicked expensive. And agreed. Super under rated. PS2 is what basically finished it off. But people know that today and the Dreamcast is very collectible. I was having trouble getting one on eBay for a good price but I lucked out. But I do need to fix it. It's got that pesky problem of where it's not keeping the date and time lol. I'll be ordering a new battery holder and battery soon.

I'm gonna work on getting my Dreamcast online in the near future. It's amazing there's a dedicated online community still playing games. But since it came with a phone line modem, you need to attach it to a piece of hardware called DreamPi which you plug into your broadband network. Then the DreamPi tricks the Dreamcast into thinking it dialed into the internet. Pretty cool! And it's basically plug and play.
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"LOL u know id fuck yu wsboth right? i would love to fuck the both of uyouy

U R FUCJKGIN FCUTE" -THX to luke and Bob

"13 year old girls sleep with older men cause they think theyre in love
13 year old boys sleep with older women cause theyd be stupid not to

Offline Titan

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Re: So I bought a Dreamcast
« Reply #11 on: June 16, 2020, 10:31:49 PM »
I went to a retro game store near my woodshop yesterday (it was also the first day we were allowed to go to stores :) ). I picked up 2 PS3 games but I also got Phantasy Star Online for my Dreamcast. Gotta say, it's pretty fun. I can even see the roots of a lot of modern games like Destiny in this game. Must have been pretty exciting back in the day! I can't wait to get my character ranked up, build my DreamPi and get this online and play some scheduled games :)
Liquid Spam of The Spaminators
"That took some balls to stick a gun in his pants." -Gman
"LOL u know id fuck yu wsboth right? i would love to fuck the both of uyouy

U R FUCJKGIN FCUTE" -THX to luke and Bob

"13 year old girls sleep with older men cause they think theyre in love
13 year old boys sleep with older women cause theyd be stupid not to

 

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