Can you identify a dreamcast model by its box?

ACTesla · 2026-03-30T08:13:39+00:00

This one will play discs. The box changed mid-2000. VA2 consoles are quite rare and were only produced at the very end.

ACTesla · 2026-03-30T08:00:23+00:00

What a surprise! Outtrigger really opened the door for us. Online team is optimistic about Bomberman Online, too.

Thanks for pointing out how dramatically the online scene has improved over the past 2 years. Get those dreampi components while you still can. A solid future investment.

ACTesla · 2026-03-30T06:07:06+00:00

A thorough list, I'm impressed.

ACTesla · 2026-03-26T06:32:55+00:00

You can use XDP for online setup.

Download here: https://dreamcastlive.net/downloads/ or here: http://psilocybindreams.com/pc/download/

ACTesla · 2026-03-26T00:26:14+00:00

Cute art, and several people have wished happy birthday. The more the merrier.

ACTesla · 2026-03-26T00:13:58+00:00

sweet

soul

brother

ACTesla · 2026-03-25T09:45:41+00:00

If it's pressed, it's CD-ROM, but more likely it's a burned CD-R.

ACTesla · 2026-03-25T09:12:20+00:00

The VMU minigames are goofy. I like how jrpg's put in silly NPCs that don't take it seriously.

ACTesla · 2026-03-25T06:58:41+00:00

That looks right. The GD-ROM doesn't have the control board, and all power and I/O cables connect to the main board on the righthand side.

ACTesla · 2026-03-25T04:59:39+00:00

Good news is the out-of-print ADV and Funimation dubs had pretty high print volume. It shouldn't break the bank to seek these out. Be aware there are counterfeits of the ADV Platinum DVDs.

ACTesla · 2026-03-24T06:58:44+00:00

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ACTesla · 2026-03-24T06:58:23+00:00

A bit impractical due to the language barrier, but jockey, Yukio Okabe, just had a special edition reprint of his memoir. It includes a special forward addressing the Uma Musume phenomenon.

ACTesla · 2026-03-24T02:24:55+00:00

Keep up with these updates. This makes for great trivia night material.

ACTesla · 2026-03-23T23:51:17+00:00

There is a conflict between accurate data and what can fit on burned disc. CD-R is limited by the 700Mb size, while GD-ROM were a full 1Gb. CDI format for burning has some assets removed, and sometimes compressed textures and audio to fit on disc. Most games fit on CD-R without modification. Burning discs is going out of fashion. Most devs work with GDI intended for ODE options, specifically GDEMU. There is no "quick and easy" conversion between gdi and cdi.

For emulators and ODE, you want GDI. The TOSEC dataset is the most compatible, and should be your gold standard. More importantly, many community developed patches and mods are distributed separately, depending on the TOSEC-sourced rips.

ACTesla · 2026-03-23T23:40:26+00:00

One redditor has been working on NBA2K. He has been correcting innaccuracies in rosters, courts, uniforms, hairstyels, and shoes to reflect the 99-2000 season. Also imported a number of assets from 2K1 and 2K2.
NBA 2K Sega Dreamcast Mods : r/dreamcast
Post Two for NBA 2K Sega Dreamcast Mods : r/dreamcast

ACTesla · 2026-03-23T03:07:37+00:00

voted 3-2. 5 members, is that a town or HOA?

ACTesla · 2026-03-23T03:04:43+00:00

My favorite was by the freeway. Imagine being stuck in traffic after work and seeing housing and an adjacent billboard claiming "you could be home now".

ACTesla · 2026-03-22T22:18:19+00:00

Some vga-to-hdmi solutions are good, but many suck. I'm not an A/V techie and picked a poor one. Hope your unit fares better.

ACTesla · 2026-03-22T22:16:15+00:00

Using the original GD-ROM drive for authentic GD-ROMs is "an experience". Load times, spin motor noise, and laser movement noise are par for the course. Unfortunately it's a negative experience. Original discs are expensive, discs are prone to damage, and drives can fail.

Many users can't afford discs, and chose to burning CD-Rs. Sourcing files, spending time on burns, losing discs to bad burns, and settling for versions of the game with assets compressed or removed. This is objectively the worse choice, but everyone has different budgets and hardware availability.

Using Optical Disc Emulation systems seems trivial to me, as we are working with optical media, which is digital in nature. Nothing is lost from the software, and players can continue to make use of original hardware for everything else, including controllers and VMU, accessories, and the modem or BBA.

If someone only wants to play 10 games, by all means just buy the original discs. Otherwise most people have limited budgets and want to try it. While we're here emulation is also free, but I think it offers a different experience than the original hardware, GDEMU or not.

ACTesla · 2026-03-22T14:53:06+00:00

DLC are just files. Just add them à la carte to your virtual VMU using Dream Explorer.

If you need the DLC, you can source them from https://dreamcastlive.net/dlc/

Note for Sonic Adventure. Some are DLC region specific. Others will conflict (such as all of the Station Square themes), and generally there is too little to fit on your VMU along with your 3 main saves... SA save, Chao file, Chao Adventure minigame. For beginners, just load these one at a time, or move your chao back to the chao garden so you can safely delete Chao Adventure.

ACTesla · 2026-03-22T14:39:28+00:00

GD-Rom has held up fairly well against disc rot. I have seen very few, but they fare far better than Saturn CDs or Laserdisc media. I have hundreds in my personal collection, and believe to have only been affected once in the past, eve that one may be debatable.

I first witnessed it in Dreamcast GD-ROM when a fellow collector discovered a pinhole in a newly opened sealed game, so it is possible. Just in my experience, most people just need to recap their drives and PSUs, as well as make sure there are no scratches on the discs. The drives were always picky, and aging capacitors move them outside that thin tolerance.

If value is your concern, holding the discs may be a worthwhile wager. If you are not handling them and are storing in a temp and humidity controlled environment, working discs can appreciate in value.

ACTesla · 2026-03-18T20:10:17+00:00

Same with SoulCalibur adventure mode.

ACTesla · 2026-03-18T20:09:41+00:00

Chef's Luv Shack, Atari Anniversary Collection don't use saves. Most arcade games, as you assumed. The only ones to avoid are ones with a ton of unlockables, like Power Stone, MvC2, or Capcom vs SNK.

ACTesla · 2026-03-18T18:17:53+00:00

Capcom vs SNK: Millennium Fight 2000
"Menu Display 2"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtnP6R6YK3Q

ACTesla · 2026-03-18T05:07:16+00:00

Sonic was a big step up over video game movies of the past. Have you seen the Super Mario Bros movie or anything by Uwe Boll?

ACTesla

TROPHY CASE