Dreamcast-Talk.com

I have a rather special Dreamcast. I bought it premodded from the nefarious Buyrite games back in 2000. It's since been Frankenstein'd with a PSU from another Dreamcast, part of a Sega Sports shell to make it look like a panda and I'm not entirely sure what else. But it's also my most cumbersome console to use and I need to fix that.

So First off all, I need to get a new Battery in there. I have NO Soldiering experience and no replacement controller ports handy.

Next order of business is the PSU. I'd like to get one of those smaller new ones but a lot of the one's I've seen on Ebay don't say what AC Adapter I should use with it. My system is getting toasty and it's affecting the GD Rom's ability to read some well loved games. If my System is warm it won't read Jet Grind Radio and it's not even that scratched up, just a few fine ones another Dreamcast I had which wasn't in the best shape a a friend got me at a Flea Market struggled to ready Jet Grind Radio so it's something with that specific game. Resurface it's fine but in the meantime..

Speaking of Reading discs, I'm not paying what some people are asking for some of these games. I did just acquire Japanese Copies of Power Stone, House of the Dead 2 and King of Fighters 2002 but some games NOPE. So I'm burning CDIs (many of which I've gotten here) I'm using Verbatims and CMC Pro discs and I might grab a spindle . I should be good with those? I don't want to wear down the laser.

This is the Big one, I need a better video output and I can't be bothered to do the DC HDMI Mod. Every other retro console I own goes into my soon to be replaced Framemiester with HD Retrovision cables. Lets be real, the Dreamcast HD Retrovision Cable isn't coming. I know Retro Access has their Scart Cable, but I'm not exactly on good terms with them. There was an incident a few years back that also involved some cyberstalking on their end. YEAH.... Anyway I'm using a Kaico hdmi adapter for not and it's just OK. The Console boot up is cut off though and I'm noticing the picture is a bit washed out. Plus I'm limited to VGA games so no Hydro Thunder, or a bunch of Midway games, no Gunbird 2, No Bust a move.. I'm thinking a Behar Bros Akura box paired up with an M Classic. I can't use it on the Retrotink I'm replacing my Framemiester with but at least in theory I'll be able to play everything?

Is there another option I'm not thinking of?

That should do it for now.

The soldering required to replace the old battery with a battery slot, as well as replacing the fuse with a resettable one, is very simple to do, but don't go at it with a soldering iron until you have some practice first. Try desoldering and soldering onto a junk PCB first. Use flux and quality solder, and a temperature controlled iron. If you have any unsalvageable controllers or anything like that, they can make good practice. Also be sure to use the correct rechargeable battery. ML2032 is what you want. I've been using one in a coin cell slot for a few years with no issues.

Stick with the stock PSU. I doubt the heat is what's affecting Jet Grind Radio. Dreamcasts always got a bit warm, heat was a genuine concern from media outlets who had their hands on the console before release. Make sure the inside of your console and the fan are nice and clean. GD-ROM discs also can't handle much abuse at all, even fine scratches are going to affect the GD-ROM drive's ability to read. Even resurfacing can cause read issues. The drive can also fall out of calibration and can require a potentiometer tweak, but don't attempt unless you have a multimeter. Here's a guide.
http://retro-hack.blogspot.com/2010/06/ ... e.html?m=1

From personal experience any CD-R is going to cause the drive to work a little harder than GD-ROM discs, but Verbatim releases quality discs. Taiyo Yuden and JVC discs are also quality options, but you're likely better off using well preserved official discs. I don't at all blame you for not wanting to pay current prices though. I'd personally recommend an ODE replacement instead but those aren't without their quirks. The ability to ditch the limitatations and issues of optical media are worth it though IMO.

Hydro Thunder actually is VGA compatible, to my knowledge there was a release with a "HOT NEW" label that natively supports VGA. The Akura is a quality product, and if you insist on using an HDMI connection it's likely your best option outside of DCdigital, which is expensive and requires genuine soldering skill. I would personally just recommend using a VGA cable into a VGA monitor, but of course the library gets a little limited that way. The Akura can't actually output a 480i signal to HDMI, its switch simply acts as a means to force VGA compatibility in games that don't support it. I suspect this will be fine for most games but I doubt 240p games like Bangai-O will work properly. I can't really say without experience though.

I'm thinking of just getting an official Japanese S-Video Cable and feeding it into the Retrotink. Let the Tink work it's magic and everything should work. There are S-Video-Scart converters.

I guess alternately I could get a Scart Cable.

You're good with Midway+VGA, indeed there were few re-releases with Hot New! slapped on em, new color discs etcetc

Yip they're all red/orange on the revised

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