VGA Modified Dreamcast with Front SD Card Slot Released

[wraggster]

The last item of news was fascinating (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/sd-adapter-for-dreamcast-released-337873.html) for the Dreamcast Homebrew community, but this is equally as awesome, the same Chinese site (http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=4792894809) has for sale a Dreamcast Modded with VGA Video Output and an SD Card Slot in the front and runs a Custom Bios, this is also totally region free and Homebrew friendly, bloody hell i want one so badly.

Heres the translation from the site:


Perfect version of the DC bare metal headphone jack with a VGA S AV AV interface before the plug is easy on the cat the cat is now upgraded to a full pull out of the back also comes in the DCFront SD card interface DC can be put into the SD card to play games head to read the disk saves to send a particular SD card boot disk to play FC MD SFC N64 NEOCD MAME GBA emulator and some dials are perfect to save the machine is also runningIntegrated development of machine BIOS chip DC Genuine no guide to the region can be directly read this so do not ask what version of the host has no other color version is limited to the host, please contact the owner DIY

Heres some pics

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/8554/t2o0voxhhaxxxxxxxx11998.jpg

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/1687/t2f00oxchaxxxxxxxx11998.jpg

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/9132/t230foxajbxxxxxxxx11998.jpg

Heres the modified Bios

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5038/t2tjjoxc8bxxxxxxxx11998.gif

Now who wants one of these, any chinese folks who can tell us the price would be awesome.

[mdlmemorybank]

Ugh now look what you made me do im drooling lol :thumbup:

[indrora]

I have an answer!

Apparently, they sell for 300Yuan or 350Yuan (depending on if you want the modded BIOS or not)

See
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7655637293

Sounds like fun.

[Numbski]

$55 plus international shipping apparently:

http://www.google.com/search?q=350Yuan+in+USD

We have apparently crashed item.tabao.com :( I seriously do want one. International shipping will likely be brutal unless we get some group buy action going.

BTW - yes, it shows me as a n00b. Not so much - more like idle-for-so-long-that-I-had-to-re-register. :) Sorry for that, but I've not had much time to spend on console hacking in like, oh...8 years. Just so happens I've had a project to move a dreamcast into my arcade cabinet sitting idle for years. This would motivate me to get it done. :D

[Anthony817]

$55 plus shipping! Wow! I saw this when I was getting the pictures for my SD card video, but had no idea it would be this cheap!

I seriously think this is the ultimate Dreamcast ever!

[Numbski]

I'm only doing this because I got my order in first. :)

http://www.buyfromtaobao.com

Enter the URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7655637293

:thumbup:

[Numbski]

Actually, I stopped. Although it was going to be ~$60, they say that international shipping will be "calculated upon arrival", and then I see this chart:


Express Mail (3-6 working days)
Weight(lb) Shipping Rates (U.S. dollar)
1lb $31.16
2lb $40.54
3lb $48.42
4lb $56.30
5lb $64.18
Every additional 1lb: $7.88, over 20lbs part: $7.00/lb (1lb=454g)

* The price has included the fuel surcharge and declaration charges.
* We will try to help you to avoid taxes.
* Uses any of UPS, FedEx, DHL, TNT and EMS, decided by us.

[Anthony817]

I'm only doing this because I got my order in first. :)

http://www.buyfromtaobao.com

Enter the URL: http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=7655637293

:thumbup:

Dude! You are awesome! I will post this link in my video too to help people purchase the SD card reader easier.

[kevro]

This REALLY needs a broadband adepter built in. They would be cheap to reproduce (cheaper then the used ones any way) It doesn't even look like it has the standard Dial up modem just a S-video out?

[l11l1D00M1l11l]

I've been working on trying to get a hard drive to work with my DC for a long time, but I never got anywhere. I gave up the project a few years ago, and now I'm seeing this for the first time.

That price is ridiculously cheap and I WANT ONE NOWWWWW!!!

The only problem is I'm having a REALLY hard time navigating that site. Could someone please help me?

And has anyone on here purchased and received one yet? If so, how'd it go?

1.) Does it work well and does the GD-ROM still operate normally?

2.) Do ISOs that need to be loaded rapidly on the fly (like Crazy Taxi) run smoothly from the SD Card? I'd imagine they would load even faster than they did from disc, but it doesn't hurt to be certain.

3.) Will it play PAL AND NTSC games?

4.) Can you change the system language to English?

5.) Does the SD card slot read SDHC cards as well? I simply can't fathom a Dreamcast with 32gb of read/write flash storage. If not, what's the max size card you can use with it?


If the answer to all of those questions is "yes" then I will be ordering one as soon as I know.

And pleeeaaaase help me navigate that site. Thank you VERY much in advance!

[BlueCrab]

While I'm not going to help with your warez related questions (see the site rules), I can a few things in general about using the SD Card adapters (including this internal one) on a Dreamcast.
First of all, the SD Card is done off of the Serial port. The max speed of the serial port is lower than that of the GD-Rom drive, not to mention the extra code that has to be run in order to access the SD Card. Thus, its slower to run things off of the SD Card than the disc drive (this is for the most part not a problem with homebrew).
I see no reason why this particular mod would disable the GD-Rom drive, as you still need it to boot the machine, so I'd be pretty sure that it still works.

[l11l1D00M1l11l]

Ah, no I didn't assume the GD-ROM would be disabled by any means. I'm just figuring that these are used Dreamcasts to start out with, so I wanted to know if anyone noticed any wear and tear on the optical drives. Slower performance, read errors, etc.

And sorry about the warez question, I thought it was an okay thing to ask because others were talking about it being able to play commercial games from the
SD slot. Of course, I own a TON of Dreamcast titles already, so I would mainly be using it as a portability feature. Nothing beats taking your DC to a friends house without having to bring a bunch of discs with you. Aaaand I'd much rather use it than my GD-ROM all the time. I went through 3 DCs already because they fail eventually like all other mechanical hardware.

So, really, my main question is - if anyone owns one of these things - how is the overall performance? A good breakdown would make it worth while. Even if the SD slot is more of a gimmick, I'd still like to buy one simply for the built in S-Video and VGA ports. I don't think I'll ever need to use the ethernet adapter ever again. All in all I'm buying one of these things, I just want someone to confirm the seller's reputation. I don't feel like sending $100.00 over a website I can't read. I did however research it more and found out about Yoybuy, so I will probably be using that to purchase it.

My only concern with purchasing it, if it is legit, is when I choose my color and everything if the seller will be able to read English.

[dj vectorman]

Thx For Posting This, So U Put Emulators And Roms On Flash Sd Card Via Pc, Then Burtnt Sd Card Into Sd Card Reader On Dc To Read Emu??????????????

[l11l1D00M1l11l]

Thx For Posting This, So U Put Emulators And Roms On Flash Sd Card Via Pc, Then Burtnt Sd Card Into Sd Card Reader On Dc To Read Emu??????????????

Yeap. That's pretty much what it's there for. I keep doing more research every chance I get and it seems like it's almost not even worth it, though. At least for me. I love my Dreamcast for the retail games, but as far as homebrew goes I'm a bigger fan of the original Xbox. I just wish it had Half-Life and all of those ridiculous DC Half-Life mods. Oh, and a better version of Quake 3.

[dj vectorman]

thx so many people said sd card dc NOT for emu rom, so thx truth

also what emus to put on sd? nester kega mame4all neo4all znes dreamnes sms?

[l11l1D00M1l11l]

thx so many people said sd card dc NOT for emu rom, so thx truth

also what emus to put on sd? nester kega mame4all neo4all znes dreamnes sms?

Well don't quote me on that, I could be wrong. I'm sure it ultimately depends on how the homebrew is programmed, whether it be a game or an emulator. They need to know to look for an SD card for saving games and loading roms and whatnot. You could probably boot the emulator's executable from the SD card, but I'm not sure if any emulators are equipped with the specific code yet.

[dj vectorman]

Thx, Itll Be Kool If Kega Could Boot From Sd, They I Can Play Segacd Iso / Rom From Sd Via Kega On Sd Card On Dc.

Heres A Non Sd Card Question, Also Can I Just Make A Dreamsnes Cd-r With My Fav Snes Games Will That Work On Dc? Cuz Dreamsnes Version I Have Sux, 50 Crap Games On It, I Think Dreamsnes Mainly A Boot?