VGA bootloader?

[ILAMtitan]

I recently got vga working on my dreamcast, which made me very happy, but my utopia bootloader dosent work in vga mode, so no import games for me. Ive tried the v1.1 vga patch with no success as well. Is there a boot loader out there that will disable region encoding and work in VGA?

[Darksaviour69]

http://www.consolevision.com/members/fackue/tut_imports.shtml

;)

[ILAMtitan]

I both of the free loaders on that page, and none of them worked. It always tossed me back to the main intro like i had jsut turned the DC on, and then went to the DC bios menu.

[Darksaviour69]

what is the game?

[ILAMtitan]

It does it with any game i have burned recently.

[Schnamtaro]

I'm having exactly the same problem.

I have this (http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=223&products_id=82&) VGA box and this (http://www.continent.com.au/product_info.php/product/2102) LCD monitor.

Most of my games display just fine. But Utopia v. 1.5 (I've also tried an older version, not sure which) doesn't display, and I can't see Ikaruga (import, not burned) when I swap it in after booting. Most self-boot burned games work, but a few (e.g. Bomberman Online, Soul Calibur) do not.

When it doesn't work, my monitor is blank for a sec, then this message pops up: "Cannot display this video mode, change computer display input to 1280 x 1024@60Hz." Nothing I can do to the monitor will get it to accept whatever video mode it is actually receiving from the box.

This VGA box has a microswitch with three settings: TV, PC, and CD-R PC. Any game that works with VGA, works on the PC setting. The CD-R setting doesn't seem to work with any game, whether it's burned or not.

Any help would be much appreciated. I'm having a good time playing my DC again on this monitor.

edit: I should add that I'm very willing to buy DC-X or the like, if someone indicates that it often works in this situation where Utopia fails.

[beetroot bertie]

DC-X works with all my imports (Ikaruga included). It's certainly worth purchasing but you should try the CDX demo that Dark Saviour linked to earlier in the post as this works well too. DC-X just has a few more options etc.

[Elsid]

Awsome!, most bodasiosly execelent dude!

[ILAMtitan]

Where is the ebst place to buy DC-X?

[beetroot bertie]

They have it for £12.99 (new) at www.videogameimports.com
There's always ebay too.

I just checked Ikaragu with the CDX demo that Dark Saviour linked to and it does work although I'm back to a TV at the moment rather than VGA. I definitely works with DC-X on VGA but if I remember right, I think the CDX demo disc does the job too on VGA.

ILAMtitan, perhaps you burned the boot discs wrong if they don't even load.

[ILAMtitan]

The boot disks load fine, but they dont opperate properly. I used A120% to burn them, are there any special options i needed to be mindfull of?

[Schnamtaro]

Thanks for the DC-X info Bertrude.

Oddly enough I solved my Ikaruga problem by DL'ing and burning it. The burned copy works with VGA, while my actual import disc (booting w/ Utopia) does not.

The remaining mystery for me is why there are some burned games that work with TV display but not with VGA display. Perhaps it's a burning problem, but it seems to me that if a game weren't burned properly, it wouldn't display (and play) correctly on the TV either. For me, Utopia 1.5, Soul Calibur, and Bomberman Online are all still in this boat.

Perhaps I'll try DL'ing and burning them again, who knows.

[beetroot bertie]

ILAMtitan: can't help with your burning queries as I'm a Mac user and I'm unfamiliar with the PC stuff.

Schnamtaro: can't really discuss the DL'ing issue as it involves warez and is best steered clear of.

[ILAMtitan]

I just got a copy of Utopia 1.5, but have yet to burn it; will it help at all since i was using 1.1 and 1.2 earlier?

[beetroot bertie]

Dunno. I use DC-X and have had no need for Utopia discs for import games. I know the Utopia discs made imports play with a black border around the screen edge rather than the full screen like DC-X, but I don't know about 1.5. Maybe someone else knows...

EDIT: There's a similar post over at DC Emulation's forum, this may answer some queries:

http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=78150