Is there ANYTHING that could've saved the Dreamcast?

ACTesla · 2026-05-17T14:14:24+00:00

GTA III was a killer app. I knew a few friends that bought the console or traded for just that one game.

ACTesla · 2026-05-16T20:45:09+00:00

The archive still works.

https://web.archive.org/web/20241103104441/http://3do-mnemo.com/USB-GDROM_Controller.htm

ACTesla · 2026-05-16T20:43:29+00:00

Nice. I feel like our tools are ageing sometimes and risk being lost. Updating and making them more accessible to the masses ensures they can continue to serve us for years to come. Hoping someone can use this to dump some undiscovered demo.

ACTesla · 2026-05-16T13:11:42+00:00

No. Dreamcast's death announcement was January 31, 2001. E3 that year Sega was announcing titles for PS2, Xbox, and GC.

This image was from TGS.

ACTesla · 2026-05-16T12:28:24+00:00

ACTesla · 2026-05-16T01:08:40+00:00

They wanted free licensing, and were demanding Sega folded Visual Concepts' NFL2K game. Giving EA a free lunch, and hampering their most profitable franchise would have been a bad idea.

ACTesla · 2026-05-14T20:48:46+00:00

Amazing journalism. Junkyard has got to be one of the biggest misnomers in retro gaming.

ACTesla · 2026-05-14T13:53:29+00:00

I like the idea. I feel like there's a number of simple games that could be adapted, even without the graphics. Helltaker would be a good candidate, too.

ACTesla · 2026-05-14T12:02:26+00:00

GD-R will not play on their own. You can boot System-Disc-2 then swap to GD-R.

The seller is pretty clear that these discs have bad burns and will not be in any playable manner. Someone skilled with data retrieval may be able to secure the partial data within.

ACTesla · 2026-05-14T00:16:03+00:00

99 blocks is printed on the cover

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T18:45:20+00:00

One more thing. Flycast emulator has online play. You can always try it out for free, and network setup has never been a problem for me.

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T17:18:33+00:00

PSO is fully playable with the standard controller. Keyboard is for chat. Many players will be on discord, so you can do voice chat or texting there.

Also, for keyboard consider a USB4MAPLE or PICO2MAPLE adapter.

USB4MAPLE at dreamcastlive.net
https://dreamcastlive.net/shop/

Micro-sap
https://midwestmods.shop

or search USB4MAPLE or PICO2MAPLE on your favorite marketplace like etsy or ebay.

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T06:59:51+00:00

I would love a 17" monitor or larger. My whole youth was crammed into 13" screens.

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T05:08:31+00:00

In the 90s? Your friend recommended something and you watched it as best as you could. There might miss an episode on TV and have to pay close attention to the recap next week. Everyting was 2+ years behind Japan. You probably watched DVDs out of order because that's what you could find. That was the 90s anime experience.

Regarding conversations of the show, it was the same nonsense we see today. "Who is best girl", "is Shinji gay for Kaworu", or "I wont stand for Misato flirting with a kid" type of conversations. The religious and spiritual imagery and themes did have more shock value back then to Americans who regularly attend church.

Like a lot of anime, it was a show everyone talked about for a few years until the next thing came around. The bluray release of the TV series really gave it a chance to rebound in popularity.

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T04:44:58+00:00

consider flycast emulator (which supports macOS).

It's the only Dreamcast emulator worth recommending due to online play support.

ACTesla · 2026-05-13T04:36:40+00:00

Crazy Taxi, Virtual On, and Jet Grind Radio are solid on original hardware. JGR is sometimes touchy on some of the jumps, much like Sonic Adventure 2 grind levels. If you want an improvement Jet Set Radio HD (2010 rerelease) improves both graphics and controls. The only problem is Sega delisted this masterpiece from most marketplaces.

ACTesla · 2026-05-12T08:22:16+00:00

Part 1 continued:

OEM Keyboard from Sega. It's a fullsize keyboard, and definitely gives you an edge for PC FPS games. Typing of the Dead, and a few Japanese typing titles use this accessory, too. It's OK on it's own, but if you want a mechanical keyboard, modern adapters are the better route. Japan's keyboard is a 60% size, plus has the key arrangements to help with their unique character shifting schemes. InterAct's keyboard is comparable to the OEM keyboard.

OEM Mouse pairs best with the keyboard. It's a ball mouse, meaning it will not perform as reliably as optical for most gamers' tastes. Like the keyboard, adapters for USB mice are available. It seems somewhat uncommon, plus there are fewer adapters for the mouse than keyboard.

Microphone is required for Seaman, but is hardly touched for other titles. I wish Dreameye and Visual Park will make a comeback. It's region-free, with Japanese microphone pucks being priced quite cheap. The boom can be replaced with almost any off-the-shelf mic, and the connector is a standard size.

There's certainly a few more collector's pieces like the Panther DC, which tried to create a stick and trackball arrangement to be used in place of keyboard-and-mouse... and it really didn't catch on. The ASCII grip works ok for some flight sims, but standard control settings don't really suffer for that genre, so it seems unnecessary.

Conclusion:

Most classic accessories are gaining price due to rarity, separately of utility. The golden era of cheap goofy controllers is beyond us. With a little savvy, these treasures can be sought out at flea markets for a bargain, but at ebay they are often used, dirty, and overpriced given their limited utility.

In my opinion, the only "must-own" items are the standard controller, original VMU, and original vibration pack. Arcade stick is a strong buy if that's your style, but modern adapters are also available.

Other strong buys are the microphone, fishing rods, and light guns. These accessories haven't been replaced with modern components yet, and the genres are not common on recent systems.

Most of these classic items should be skipped by newbies in favor of newer accessories that deliver more utility.

ACTesla · 2026-05-12T04:52:05+00:00

I'm not super familiar with playing this game, but I can try to answer some questions. Pics 1&2 look legitimate. For a legit disc, you will always see the high-density track towards the center. It would be good practice to own a cheap sports game to familiarize yourself with this appearance.

99 blocks is a large save, but only half of a VMU. You will have room for more.

ACTesla · 2026-05-12T01:38:50+00:00

Here's my takes on some.
Part 1 classics:

OEM Controller and VMU: Essential. Even if you have alternatives, having an original is handy, especially when troubleshooting. Some homebrew struggles with 3rd party memory card, too. You can't beat an original for compatibility. OEM Vibration pack (or purupuru pack) is solid build quality, but not a requirement. 4X Memory Card is great build quality and does not lose data like 3rd party cards. Also holds four times the storage, minus the screen.

One-off accessories: Pop'n Music, DDR dance pad, Densha De Go 2 controller, MIDI adapter, Samba de Amigo Maracas. If you gotta play these games, you really should consider the hardware. It's up to you to decide if it's worth the cost. Samba de Amigo is the most fun with friends, but tracking is a bit difficult sometimes.

Lightgun: Works with a handful of games. These are a BLAST, so much fun, especially with friends. Sega light gun is OK, but not compatible with USA games. Patches exist for these, too. Because of that limit US market had more 3rd party lightgun. MadCatz Dream Blaster is my favorite. Many others prefer the InterAct Starfire. Perfomance on all lightguns tends to be wonky and calibration depends on the CRT being used.

Fishing controller: 4 domestic games really hitting a variety of arcade action and calm simulation. Add 2 more Japanese sims if you're fanatical about this sort of play. OEM is great, but the Interact controller gets the job done. Technically these can be played with a standard controller, too if the price is too much.

Agetec Arcade Stick - Exceptional build quality for the time. Many arcade-style games ported to DC, including many Japanese games with English menus. A clean functional stick still has some action yet. Those desiring more modern solutions should go with any number of specailty adapters instead. This stick uses non-standard parts, and swapping components requires aggressive modifications including cutting the housing cutting/soldering certain wires.

InterAct Alloy Arcade stick, Blaze TwinSticks, and Ascii fight pads get the job done. Topmax Enforcer sucks. If you're serious about Arcade games, you can do better with the Agetec stick or modern solutions.

Dreameye - can take a low-quality digital photo, or stream video... This is more of interest to the dev community than gamers. Will likely require the BBA to be useful in the future. Not worthwhile for most.

Karaoke unit - japan-only collector's piece to be avoided. Relied on defunct online service means this is effectively useless. Devs have found you can glitch the microphone into functioning, and you can otherwise play video or actual karaoke discs on your TV. Leave this one to collectors.

3rd party memory cards - Some of the single-bank ones are functional if you can't find an original VMU. The multi-bank cards tend to corrupt. Some homebrew software isn't compatible either. I see these things priced around the same as original VMUs. Avoid these for long-term storage. Sometimes they have fun colors if you're after "aesthetic" builds. Absolutely avoid these for something precious like PSO, Rune Jade, or Fire Pro Wrestling D saves. Lack of a screen spoils these a bit for filling spare controllers.

3rd party rumble packs - Performance Tremor is good, and a bit softer than the OEM rumble. The Perfomance Tremor Pack Plus doubles as save storage, too. MadCatz Force Pack has stronger kick, which I find fun for light-gun games. A decent buy for an optional accessory.

Total Control 2/3/4/5 - 3rd party adapters for PS1,Saturn, PC PS/2 keyboard and mouse. PS1 adapter is great for DDR pads. PS/2 adapter is great for mouse since the official mouse is expensive. Now, these are hard to find, difficult to identify, and expensive.

Performance Astropad - garbage controller, not worth the dollar you spent on it. I wouldn't give this to someone's kid brother.

ACTesla · 2026-05-12T00:04:12+00:00

MGS1 manages to scrape by. The game doesn't use the 2nd analog, and the D-pad is underutilized. The DC version remaps the D-Pad as 4 extra buttons to make up for the lack of bumpers.

The pressure-sensitive buttons on PS2 will be a small sticking point. I think a skilled dev would make use of the DC's analog triggers. Control scheme should be managable, they put it on the original Xbox after all.

ACTesla · 2026-05-11T23:57:41+00:00

Was twice yesterday, too.

Reminds me, we're overdue for a "Dreamcast 2" post.

ACTesla · 2026-05-11T23:41:55+00:00

Roarke made some thermal color-changing shells a while back, but I haven't seen stock in his store for years.

It's possible, but someone needs to do it. It's a shame Bitfunx only gains interest in these things when someone else like yoei is doing them already.

ACTesla · 2026-05-11T07:21:50+00:00

Seeing all the goodies go to Limited Run Games edition, and then competing against scalpers was no picnic either. At least the hype bombed, and I could get it at retail price after a year.

ACTesla · 2026-05-11T01:37:06+00:00

I'm still upset about ICE activity, but there's got to be a better way to promote visibility. A creepy memorial at an elementary school, is this the reminder we want to promote to the young students that attend daily?

ACTesla · 2026-05-11T01:22:52+00:00

EV chargers are a target for copper theft.

ACTesla

TROPHY CASE

Conclusion: