Chinese Dreamcast SD Adapters for sale

[Anthony817]

Yeah, SWAT cleared it up for me. I was under the impression that I could swap it out between my PSP and DC, but it is ok, I hope it works with it, he said in theroy it is supported, but untested as of yet.

I got a conformation from Buyfromtaobao.com that they have started processing my order, and I never got any option to choose expedited shipping, so I reckon it'll be here at the end of Febuary or beginning of March for the grand total of $11:14 overland/sea shipping.

I wonder though, how would one save data to the SD card in game? It will see it as a memory card, or has that feature even begun yet?

[Favrenation]

It will most likely use the memory card. All it is doing is loading the "disc" through a different medium so it should still utilize the memory card,modem,bba.

[Anthony817]

But supposedly the sandisk card can act as the memory device for games too from what everybody is saying.

[merlin]

Expedited shipping costs, $31.16.

There is a cheaper option, but I don't really trust surface mail expected to take over two months from China.

Thats me though.

Go for the cheaper option... Mine was mailed out to me about two weeks ago and it arrived yesterday. The difference in price is crazy - Instead of waiting a week, wait two, and save some cash.

I'm just testing the thing out now... If anyone's interested, I'll let you know how I got on.

[Anthony817]

Ok, I never got another option anyway, so I guess $11 is the total price. I downloaded Dreamshell and messed with it and some commands on my keyboard last night for fun.

Could you test out some Bleemed games to see if they work at all? I think the games that emulate perfectly like Klonoa or G-Darius could work great with this.

Also, how long does it take to rip a game from the disc drive to the SD card?

We are also getting a SDISO section for Dreamcast games over at Dcisozone, so expect to see ready to download iso images there and at the FTP server on the SWAT forums.

[merlin]

Looks like I haven't done my research (at all!) with this sdloader...

1) You cannot run .cdi images (i.e. ripped games easily found on the web)

2) I'm trying .gdi dumps and they're not working at all either (I mean there's not even an attempt to boot anything - it just doesn't do anything)

I should add that the card works fine - it reads it okay. Just doesn't boot anything so far

So - I guess my next attempt will be the 'sdcard ready' iso's that are on the ftp over at dcswat (fingers crossed)

I really should've done some research first!

[Anthony817]

Haha, it's ok man, as long as you got it all squared away now and understand what to do. The threads over at SWAT's site are great and so very helpfull. When I get mine in the mail I will try and rip games and apps to share with others.

I am not sure if they have some kind of quality controll or not with the FTP. They might prefer to have games that are mostly working. I have no idea, but I plan on only uploading working ones as much as possible, and noting the ones that don't work that I have tried.

Here is the link to the Dreamshell and SDLoader threads English section for others that are just getting into this and want to know how to get started.

http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/forum-29.html

If you need help on creating an SDISO image, post a thread on their forums and they will help you asap. Sometimes you have to rename the iso in order to get it to work too as a heads up.

[merlin]

Haha, it's ok man, as long as you got it all squared away now and understand what to do. The threads over at SWAT's site are great and so very helpfull. When I get mine in the mail I will try and rip games and apps to share with others.

I am not sure if they have some kind of quality controll or not with the FTP. They might prefer to have games that are mostly working. I have no idea, but I plan on only uploading working ones as much as possible, and noting the ones that don't work that I have tried.

Here is the link to the Dreamshell and SDLoader threads English section for others that are just getting into this and want to know how to get started.

http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/forum-29.html

If you need help on creating an SDISO image, post a thread on their forums and they will help you asap. Sometimes you have to rename the iso in order to get it to work too as a heads up.

Well, I downloaded Charge N' Blast and Mars Matrix from their ftp.

Mars Matrix was a corrupt iso (got near the end of extraction then went kaput... maybe a bad download, not sure until I download it again)

Charge N Blast - extracted fine, put it on sdcard > put in adaptor > fired up the dreamcast and loaded dreamshell... finally! Something that worked... No... It loads up to the main menu then when you select '1 player mode' it just goes black and the dc stops reading from the card.

So far, the only possible use this sdcard adaptor can have is for homebrew. I have 4 dreamcast consoles and two of them have dead lasers so I was 'hoping' this thing would give the lasers a rest on the ones that do still work. Truth is, you're still better off with original games and just buying a new dreamcast when your old one breaks.

Still... no harm done - it's not like the sd adaptor was expensive and I'm sure that dude in China is probably putting the money to good use

[Anthony817]

Well, CDDA is a big cause of the problem here, as the yamaha processer has to shuffle betwixed the audio chip and the CPU, and that causes lag in the game, as the serial port is no faster than 5mbps.

Some retail games have 100% compatibility like Vigilante 8 second offence, so go and read the compatibility list and see what you like from it, and choose your iso from the FTP et voilà, you should have a fairly compatible ISO to play.

http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-1329.html

[merlin]

Well, CDDA is a big cause of the problem here, as the yamaha processer has to shuffle betwixed the audio chip and the CPU, and that causes lag in the game, as the serial port is no faster than 5mbps.

Some retail games have 100% compatibility like Vigilante 8 second offence, so go and read the compatibility list and see what you like from it, and choose your iso from the FTP et voilà, you should have a fairly compatible ISO to play.

http://www.dc-swat.ru/forum/thread-1329.html

I have been checking the compatibility list... I'm also (after some digging around in cupboards...) using two different units - one uk pal and one jap ntsc.

I just tried Jojo's Bizzare Adventure and that's not working either (the compatibility list says it works (?) Same thing on both machines, card flashes twice very quickly when I select load and it goes dead.

I really don't think this is a problem with the sdcard because it reads it fine - if there were 'issues' I imagine it wouldn't read the card at all.

This isn't rocket science but I'd love to know why these isos aren't loading
(or loading then crashing) ? Seems strange to me. Like I said, I'm using Pal and NTSC Dreamcasts as well.

EDIT:::::::

Okay, before I started this evening I had 2 cdr's - I burnt the Chinese version (they sent me a link to - I also uploaded it here on megaupload) and I burnt one of two versions of Dreamshell (uploaded at dc-swat) The version I 'haven't burnt' is the one clearly labellled 'DreamShell_4.0.0_Beta4_(From_SD_loader)'

Is it remotely possible that I haven't burnt the right boot disc?!

EDIT 2::::::::

Okay, I managed to get Gunbird 2 working

I copied the contents of the 'DS' folder to the sdcard - this was the problem - Charge N Blast also works now (albeit with some serious sound issues!) Jojo's Bizzare Adventure is still not working though... Anyway, lesson learnt! Install the 'DS' folder to the sd card first THEN start putting games on it! This is where I was going wrong.

Just to clarify... When your sd adaptor arrives:

Download this 'DreamShell_4.0.0_Beta4_(From_SD_loader) Or (as I'm doing...) use the one I uploaded earlier in this thread on megaupload (but still extract and copy the 'DS' folder from 'DreamShell_4.0.0_Beta4_(From_SD_loader) to your sd card...Just don't burn the cdi image as the other one works okay - essentially they're the same thing anyway)

Extract it - Then burn .cdi image (discjuggler worked for me) THEN put the 'DS' folder on your sd card. Do that and you'll be fine. Note: There's no clear 'games' folder in that DS folder once you've copied it across but I just put the games in the root of the sd card and they worked.




...yes, I do feel like an idiot, in case you're wondering