Why do people want Dreamcasts so much?? Can they be hacked...

[creatine28]

Just bought a DC from EB games.  Didnt see much info on it, what all does the EB games deal inlcude?  Do I get 1 controller and the plugs needed to hook it up?

[Level42]

OWwwwwwww nooooo !! You guys picked them all up before me

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/195512.asp shows:

The product you requested is currently not available. It may be out of stock, no longer available or we may be performing site maintenance, making it temporarily not available. If you think you reached this page in error, please try again later or contact us and let us know.

Hope they get some more....

[JB]

You UK laddies get the 17% slower and squashed-screen 50Hz consoles like we do in Australia.  Blame our crappy power input and legacy hardware for that.

Uhm, crappy power ??

TV refresh rates were originally set by the AC frequency, due to interfence problems.
Hence, your CRAPPY 50Hz power means you get CRAPPY 50Hz TV that flickers.

Actualy, the US and Japan guys have the legacy hardware, not the Europeans and Australians.....PAL is way superior over NTSC....

Ummm... both standards are pathetically outdated legacy.
It doesn't really matter if PAL is from the 60s and NTSC is from the 50s, as both were designed for technology limitations that haven't existed for decades.

Your 38-year-old TV standard is why games run slow and everything flickers.



Though as far as a fair comparison goes...
NTSC has a massively superior color range(particularly in green, which the human eye is most sensitive to and NTSC has a full twice the range in), while PAL has somewhat better resolution and (if I recall)luma range.

Admittedly, the stabilzation of the chroma signal in PAL is nice, but it's only an issue for broadcast situations.


I personally don't watch enough TV to care about hue fluctuations in sub-par reception.


Were it not for the 50Hz refresh, I'd call the 2 systems equals.
As-is... I'll take the flicker-free 60Hz display that most video games were designed for and you can keep your resolution diffrence.

[CJK]

Dreamcast = ReVolt!!!!

LOVE that game. Played it many, many nights in Iceland on deployment with the Navy...

-- Chris

[Level42]

JB:

Not going into it too much (off topic) but: PAL and NTSC were both designed for broadcasting there was nothing else in those days, so chroma stabilization is the main feauture that made PAL superior for all the years it has been used....NTSC was not called Never The Same Color (twice) for nothing.....

I agree 60 Hz gives a little less flicker, but its not something the desingers chose to use, they too were bound by the mains frequency used in their home market, and that frequency was chosen long before TVs were invented.

O well, we've now all got 100HZ tv's (or LCD's) so the flicker is no problem anymore...and with all digital format abound...who cares

But I'm glad all arcade monitors use 60 Hz   Now on with the DC subjevt please 

[JB]

JB:

Not going into it too much (off topic) but: PAL and NTSC were both designed for broadcasting there was nothing else in those days, so chroma stabilization is the main feauture that made PAL superior for all the years it has been used....NTSC was not called Never The Same Color (twice) for nothing.....

I AM aware of that. And grant that PAL is superior for broadcast television for that reason.

Though as I said, it seems to not be a problem anymore.
As near as I can tell, on the stronger signals of modern TV stations it isn't much of an issue.



The commonly-cited reason for PAL's superiority, though, is the increased resolution. Which is one of a variety of reasons to pick a given TV technology.

Given a common refresh rate(as with certain South American nations that use 60Hz PAL), both standards are roughly equal, IMO.

I agree 60 Hz gives a little less flicker, but its not something the desingers chose to use, they too were bound by the mains frequency used in their home market, and that frequency was chosen long before TVs were invented.

They were bound by the AC frequency at the time. Such restrictions haven't been a concern for years. 
Hence why it's a legacy standard.

O well, we've now all got 100HZ tv's (or LCD's) so the flicker is no problem anymore...and with all digital format abound...who cares

Me. More frames a second, and I don't pay extra for scan doublers in my TVs. 

But I'm glad all arcade monitors use 60 Hz  

Yes. At least ONE market has maintained worldwide consistency.

Now on with the DC subjevt please 

Aww, but I LIKE debating TV standards.

[Goz]

I have an overclocked Dreamcast on the way and already have 2 others. So I'll be selling one soon as well as some hacked control pads, VGA adapters, and maybe some guns (I'll post it in B/S/T later this week). Also my local Game Crazy, EBGames, and GameStop all have Dreamcasts in stock for $20 if anyone seriously needs one and can't find one; let me know. Also you can find some nice bundles on eBay and Craigslist if you are looking for a few games off the bat.

-Goz

[SirPoonga]

So what's the purpose of na overclocked dreamcasT?

[Goz]

So what's the purpose of na overclocked dreamcasT?

Some of the shmups like Gunbird 2 get a severe lag when the screen is full. This addresses that issue.

[Seven7]

how in the world do you overclock a dreamcast?  Expecally without frying something!?  ON a PC its not that big a deal, but a dc?  All i have to say is wow.

-Seven7-

[Goz]

Basically there's a clock generator IC on the mainboard that creates a 33mhz signal which feeds into the SH-4 CPU (this uses a multiplier of 6). You need to carefully lift a certain pin of this IC from the main board, and feed your own compatible clock signal.

Anyways it's boosts the clock from 200Mhz to 243Mhz and illiminates any lag (so I'm told).

-Goz

[monkeybomb]

Gozur-Have you tried the SNES emulator on the overclocked dreamcast?  It doesn't play smooth enough for me as it is.

[pointdablame]

Where did you get the overclocked DC goz?  I'm intrigued.

[Goz]

Gozur-Have you tried the SNES emulator on the overclocked dreamcast?  It doesn't play smooth enough for me as it is.

The overclocked Dc is on its way. I wont have it for another day or so. I'll make sure to check it out and let you know how it goz.

-Goz

[Goz]

Where did you get the overclocked DC goz?  I'm intrigued.

I had been searching high and low as i had hear rumors. Then I saw one posted for trade on the shmups board. I'm pretty sure that I am getting mine from is the overclocker. I'll see if I can dig up more info.

-Goz

[Level42]

Yeah !!! They're back in stock !!!

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/195512.asp

I think I should also buy these:

An extra original controller and a memory card. Both very cheap, pre-used....

[SirPoonga]

Yeah !!! They're back in stock !!!

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/195512.asp

I think I should also buy these:

An extra original controller and a memory card. Both very cheap, pre-used....

What is pre-played???  That would mean they haven't been played yet.

[Stingray]

I'm also interested in your overclocked DC, Goz. Please post more info when you have it.

-S

[Level42]

Yeah !!! They're back in stock !!!

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/195512.asp

I think I should also buy these:

An extra original controller and a memory card. Both very cheap, pre-used....

What is pre-played???  That would mean they haven't been played yet.

Haha, yeah, I actualy think its a nicer word for 2nd hand, but indeed, in the sense you say: pre=before so before played (or used)

[elvis]

What is pre-played???  That would mean they haven't been played yet.

In English, yes.  But you have to understand English is one of the few languages that does everything the wrong way around, as well as adding or removing terms and still making grammatically sentences.

As per the latin roots, "pre-played" would mean "played in the past".  Not "before being played" as you suggest.

Ask anyone who has English as a second or even third language: it's a very difficult language to learn thanks to the large number of exceptions, and huge number of different allowable combinations of words with double-meanings.

ON TOPIC:

I'm also keen to hear about the DC overclocking, also for schmup smoothness.  Looking forward to the posts when they arrive!

[creatine28]

Just found this link


http://devcast.dcemulation.com/mods/overclock/overclock.php

[nickbuol]

So where does everyone put the Dreamcast in their cabinet?

I bought my DC back before they stopped making them for like $150, accessories started going cheap, so I have just about everything made for the thing and over 200 games.  I would love to encorporate it into my new cabinet that I am building, but since it is a top load console, I don't know where I could cleanly install it and have it still be easy to access.  No coin door on my cabinet, otherwise I thought about making a roll out shelf that slid out the coin door when open.  I might have room in my control panel, but I would have to test a few things out there and I am not quite done with that part.

Just looking for creative ideas.

[Level42]

What is pre-played???  That would mean they haven't been played yet.

In English, yes.  But you have to understand English is one of the few languages that does everything the wrong way around, as well as adding or removing terms and still making grammatically sentences.

As per the latin roots, "pre-played" would mean "played in the past".  Not "before being played" as you suggest.

Ask anyone who has English as a second or even third language: it's a very difficult language to learn thanks to the large number of exceptions, and huge number of different allowable combinations of words with double-meanings.

ON TOPIC:

I'm also keen to hear about the DC overclocking, also for schmup smoothness.  Looking forward to the posts when they arrive!

Haha, so I was succesful in hiding the fact that my native language is not English, thanks for the compliment 
I'm Dutch, and believe me, that's a much stranger lanuage, although not as strange as German and French 
I think English is pretty easy really, but that maybe because we grow up with everything subtitled on TV, good practice

Back to the topic: Indeed, hadn't thought about where to put it, coin door is a good idea. But I have a feeling that the DC will be next to my TV for some time first

[nickbuol]

Well, I made the decision tonight to put the Dreamcast inside my control panel.  With my 4 player design, it fits nicely.  I drilled 4 holes for the controller ports on the left and right ends of the back of the control panel (won't see them under normal conditions), and I am letting the glue dry that is holding the controller extension cables in place.  That way, I will just have to plug in my favorite DC controls to the back of the control panel and keep things nice and clean looking.

I did have to drill (using a medium hole cutter attachment) an opening in the back center of the control panel.  Everything else is USB for the MAME stuff and I have a 4 port USB hub, that doesn't require power, inside the control panel and have a 6 foot USB cable so that I have 1 connection to the PC, but now with the DC going inside, I needed a hole big enough to get power in and video/audio out of the DC.  I will need to use a RCA style extension cable for the video, and I will have to use an audio converter to go from the RCA right and left audio to "headphone" style and then run a splitter from my powered speakers so that it can take inputs from the DC or the PC.  Should be good.

I am going out of town for the weekend, so I won't be back to the project until Monday night when I plan to finish covering the sides (left, right, front, and back) of my control panel, and then get the control panel base mounted on to the cabinet.  Then comes the fun wiring job, and then attaching the top to the control panel base.  My goal is to be done with that by the end of next week and then next weekend get MAME tested and running.  Somewhere in there I need to get the speakers mounted (holes are already cut), the marquee light mounted, and the artwork on.  I will finish up with getting the PC power on/off button moved to on the cabinet itself, and if I feel really gutsy, take the TV remote apart and set up a button for that too to turn it on/off.  Once all of that is done, I will put the front glass in place (haven't ordered it yet, but don't want it laying around just asking to be broken), and THEN I will finally get around to getting the Dreamcast fired up. 

I've come so far, and yet have so far to go....