dreamcast and emus???

[daywane]

just asking how well do thay work?
I have never played with a dreamcast.
I have looked here and seems cool to me
http://www.zophar.net/consoles/dreamcast.html
I see on ebay dreamcast are cheep. do I need to do a lot of modding to get the console to read a burned disk?
I have did a search but no real luck on what I am looking for. after 1 hr on search I thought heck with it and ask for some input

[pmc]

Try these sites which are all about DC emulation:

http://www.dcemulation.com/
http://www.dcforums.net/

To answer your questions: no mods needed. The DC can read CD-R media. I've seen emulators distributed as bootable images and even packed with ROMs on the same CD. Download the whole package at once, burn with Nero or Alcohol 120% or whatever, and you are ready to play.

Good luck!

- pmc

[daywane]

thanks. I have been thinking of building a pc for emus in the living room but a dramcast seems more fun

[pmc]

thanks. I have been thinking of building a pc for emus in the living room but a dramcast seems more fun

Check into performance reports for specific emulators before you get too excited. Many emulators do not run at full speed yet.

I have DreamSNES but it runs slow unless you disable the sound (rendering the experience "no fun"). So I run a PC emulator for SNES instead.

I have a Sega Genesis emu for the DC too and it runs well.

NES stuff runs great (NESterDC I think).

The MAME Wow-Pack runs like crap. I believe that there's a better MAME distribution out there, but I have yet to try it because I have a PC-based MAME cabinet anyway.

I tried a GameBoy Advance emulator when I first got the DC and was running amok trying emulators. It was unplayable.

Point is, do your research. DC emus are not perfect but it's a very active community and the situation changes regularly. Given that you are thinking about buying a DC just for emulation, you should know. I'm sure that lots of people here or at the sites I pointed you to can tell you about specfic emulators and which versions to get.

Then again, everyone should have a DC anyway so go for it!

[jakejake28]

might wanna put a dc in there with a pc... dc has heck of a lotta good arcade type games that mame or other emus can't handle.

[daywane]

such as? what are the good arcade games?
I am getting one.  I just bought a bunch of monitors and fell the need to tinker.
here is my new junk pile to tinker with

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5157797177

I hope the monitors work 

[Lilwolf]

Ever since adding a DC cab next to my mame cab... I play the DC 10x more often (ok, had the mame machine for 4 years+ and just finished the other a month ago).

There are 30+ fighting games.  Many already emulated in mame (KOFxxxx) but some really fun ones (JoJos bizarre).

There are also great versions of MANY vertical fighters. 

In the last few weeks though.  Gauntlet legends and Mr Digger has been running 24-7

btw... Gauntlet Legends plays great with an 8way.  I know you get more control with analog... but if you don't have anythign to compare it with... it works PERFECT!  (ie, don't try and compare it and you will be very happy).  I do find it a little hard to read some of the text on my 19' arcade CRT though... but kinda had that problem on my TV also...

[Dave_K.]

Ever since adding a DC cab next to my mame cab... I play the DC 10x more often (ok, had the mame machine for 4 years+ and just finished the other a month ago).

Welcome to the cult-of-dreamcast.  Yes there is always a place for Mame in my heart too, but playing modern games in a cab is much more exciting.  And its not that I'm a DC fanboy, I am able to play all my consoles (xbox, gc, ps2) in my cab as well.  Its a shame more people don't venture out of PC/Mame with I-Pac land.

[pmc]

In the last few weeks though.

[Dave_K.]

Do you mean Mr. Driller?  If so, then you gotta check out Mr Driller Land for the GameCube (import) it has 5 different themed levels multi-player support, and one of the best soundtracks I've ever herd in a game. 

[pmc]

Do you mean Mr. Driller?

Yes. I meant "Driller". Got caught in my own excitement and perpetuated lilwolf's typo. Then again.... maybe Mr. Digger is another game altogether?

I'll certainly watch for that GameCube game... albeit I have no cube at this point.... I'm waiting for them to become available at $15.

[Lilwolf]

Hey! THAT WASN'T A TYPO

The was a 100% memory fart.  But I didn't mistype a single letter on Mr Digger!

There is a difference... 

[tmasman]

here is my new junk pile to tinker with

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5157797177

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but...

If you like tinkering...
check out http://www.cnczone.com...
Pull the Stepper motors outta some of those printers & start having some real fun!

I've been slowly but surely collecting the parts to do my own tinkering with a CNC router...

[PhoneGuy]

Check the date on the DC to be sure it will read CDR or it won't load the emulators.

From http://www.megagames.com/dc/dc_backup_faq.shtml

"When buying a Dreamcast, look for Dreamcast units manufactured BEFORE October 2000. There have been some units manufactured in Oct. 2000 and Dec. 2000 with the new BIOS revision that will not work with CDR's."

[daywane]

Thanks for the heads up. I did not know this

also thanks for the links. I will check it out.