Dreamcast Question

[Patmian212]

Hey all my friend gave me his old dreamcast with a lot of games, I especailly want to play Phantasy Star Online but I have a few questions.

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty?

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online?

3. Any good racing sims for the DC?

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then?

5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2?

[Tommyg117]

Hey all my friend gave me his old dreamcast with a lot of games, I especailly want to play Phantasy Star Online but I have a few questions.

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty?

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online?

3. Any good racing sims for the DC?

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then?

5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2?

1. I'm not sure!

2. Not Sure.

3. Speed Demons is an AWESOME game. not really a sim but you could bet your car and it had a lot of gambling and stuff, really good game.

4. There was very little pirate protection, my friend has a lot of copied games, and all you had to do was insert a certain disc, then when it prompted insert the copied game.

5. Dc's graphics are similar to what PS2 was at it's launch however I don't think dreamcasts graphics ever maxed out their potential!

Hope this helps!

[Dagless]

Hey all my friend gave me his old dreamcast with a lot of games, I especailly want to play Phantasy Star Online but I have a few questions.

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty?

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online?

3. Any good racing sims for the DC?

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then?

5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2?
1. AFAIK There are no more DC servers running. Sega turned them off last year or so.
2. dont know!
3. Racing Sims... dunno, but I played a game called Viper which was a bit of fun. not really a race sim fan :)
4. Has it been chipped? I dont even think my DC was chipped by when I bought it i got a lot of copied games free. so I dont know there either! I think that later the pirates might have built the 'freeloader' into the games themselves.
5. I'd say its comparable to PSP graphics, just a little under PS2. some games (well, 2D) have amazing visuals. Any Streetfighter game will tell you that.

[kinsella93]

3. Any good racing sims for the DC?

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then?

3. yes, sega gt is fantastic, i enjoyed it alot
4. Dreamcast went out of business because they made there format different form the norm (GCD it was called i think) and this format was very easily pirated, games where so easily found and made that they were loosing money fast. Terrible blunder by sega!

[cvalda]

SEGA shut down all SEGA run servers, but there are some FAN RUN servers for PSO. I don't remember what the website is, but you should be able to find it easily.

There aren't many racing SIMS for the DC, but there are plenty of racing games. There was one sim for the DC which was supposed to be awesome, but I can't remember what it's called (I'm just a boatload of info tonight). There are dozens of really good DC sites. www.dcemulation.com is the most popular, and they talk about EVERYTHING (not just emulation, which actually isn't the main focus of the website).

[Laser47]

2. There are ethernet adapters for the DC but they are way too expensive, Ive read somewhere that a person made the internet work with his computer without dialup by connecting a modem cable from the dramcast to his mac and the making the DC dial in to his mac so that the DC would get an internet connection off his DSL line. I dont know where i found that though.
4. Since the dreamcast uses GCD (Gigabite Compact Disk) I dont know how someone would be able to burn a game to work with it, ive read somewhere that GCD requires a special burner and special disks. But im not saying that people havent burned cd for the dc, almost anything is possible.

[Sutekidane]

Basically, the whole GD-ROM thing is a proprietary disc format developed with either Matsushita or Yamaha. The only optical drives capable of reading it are the dreamcast themself, and a special developer device. The developer device was also able to burn to blank GD-ROM discs (extremely rare).

The way they cracked the disc format, was that people found a way to connect a cable from the serial port of the dreamcast, to the serial port of their computers, and run a program on the dreamcast and pc, and rip data from Dreamcast discs. From there they resized the data by compressing audio, movies, and burned it to regular CD-Rs.

There is also another method to rip the data using the broadband adapter which is much faster, though the broadband adapter is rather rare as well.

EDIT: The PSO Dreamcast Servers are still available in Europe, only the American servers where shutdown due to extreme hacking, and abuse, which is pretty typical. I'm sure quite a few people play, or else it wouldn't be around after 4-5 years.

EDIT2: Dreamcast is pretty comparable to the PS2 in some cases, but not all. Some games actually look better than a lot of PS2 games. If you want to see good graphics, play sonic adventure 2, or Shenmue II. You'll need the broadband adapter if you plan to use DSL internet. Pirated copies of dreamcast games do usually have a built in bootloader.

[LethalWolfe]

Test Drive Le Mans is an awesome racing game, IMO. If you ever do the 24hrs at Le Mans in real time (w/o stopping... well a quick restroom break would be okay) please report back on the experience. :D

You can also go over to ign.com (http://www.ign.com) and check out their reviews of DC games. After the DC went under is when I bought the most games 'cause their were dirt cheap.

3. yes, sega gt is fantastic, i enjoyed it alot
4. Dreamcast went out of business because they made there format different form the norm (GCD it was called i think) and this format was very easily pirated, games where so easily found and made that they were loosing money fast. Terrible blunder by sega!
The Dreamcast failed because Sony's marketing department "shocked and awed" gamers world wide w/it's "emotion engine" BS and tales of in-game Toy Story like graphics. The PS2 hype basically made the DC DOA. Which is a shame because it was a very good console.


Lethal

[kwajo.com]

my Dreamcast will keep me playing long since my Xbox has died. long live the Spiral!

[bokdol]

Hey all my friend gave me his old dreamcast with a lot of games, I especailly want to play Phantasy Star Online but I have a few questions.

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty?

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online?

3. Any good racing sims for the DC?

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then?

5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2?

1. was answered
2. with out the broadband adapter you cant use dsl. it was a standard eathernet jack that replaced the modem.
3. was answered. also tokyo extream racer is not bad.
4. most games could fix a cd that is how they were copied. but to play them you needed a boot loader. some people were able to load a boot loader on to the cd so you could boot the game directly off the copy. but i donot condone copying games especially since you can get a crap load of games for dirt cheap... you need soul calibur (a true testiment to the dreamcast power) oh and if you liked 2d fighting games the dreamcast a alot.
5. was answered

[kwajo.com]

The Dreamcast failed because Sony's marketing department "shocked and awed" gamers world wide w/it's "emotion engine" BS and tales of in-game Toy Story like graphics. The PS2 hype basically made the DC DOA. Which is a shame because it was a very good console.


Lethal


this is very true, the DC was very competitive with the PS2, even had superior specs in some departments such as sound and network abilities. It was sony's marketing that killed it really, becuase even though they sold a few million in the US before the PS2 came out, many gamers also then bought the PS2 thanks to the hype and killed the DC's game and accesories market

[madmax_2069]

the url to the server and the how to, on getting the dreamcast to connect to them,

http://schtserv.funurl.com/

i play on the homebrew pso servers a bunch of people play the game online still
its better to have pso v2 so you can have more fun

or if you have the EU version of pso there servers are still fully operational the only ones that got pulled offline was the USA versions

go here and read up and mabe join in a few scedualed games

www.onlineconsoles.com

[Mord]

90% of DC games don't use more than 800MB, so you can use some software, i forget what it's called, to burn a cd to trick the dreamcast into thinking that it's a GD rom, as far as racing games nothing much beats metropolis street racer, it's pretty much project gothem 0.5 though i much prefer it.

pso gets very repetitive after a while, the cost of getting a broadband adapter (100 bucks) and the time involved you may as well get a WoW account, dont get me wrong i like my pso, but WoW beats it hands down.

get skies of arcadia, kick ass RPG, and soul caliber, best fighting game i have ever played, and furfighters which is the best single player game i have ever played, also jet set radio kick ass game it's great great fun, should only be played with the sound up high with a friend takeing turns.

[evoluzione]

i still play my dreamcast, the graphics are better than the PS2 for themost part, although that has now changed as the PS2 developers are squeezing every last thing out of it.

as far as games, well, i can't believe no one mentioned the best driving game on the DC and that is Metropolis Street Racer. which is now in it's 3rd incarnation and that is Project Gotham Racing, on the brand new XBox 360. the graphics are amazing, especially considering the system (and game) are now over 6 years old!

another great game (not a driving game though) was Toy Commander, and if you like fighting games, well, Dead or Alive 2 was ace. of Sega GT was a great driving game too, similar to Gran Turismo on the PS2...think of Sega GT as the DC version of the (awesome) arcade game Sega Rally 2.


i'm off to play on the DC now.....

[Mord]

hey i mentioned MSR, and i agree toy comander was kick ass, i got it with sonic adventure when the system launched.

[maxterpiece]

bro had a dreamcast for a short while and then traded it in and bought a PS2. I wasn't really into consoles, but I remember i enjoyed playing the dreamcast much more than the PS2. Playstation2 I think also capitalized on the fact that sega didn't do the best job of marketing dreamcast and playstation2 was backwards compatible - something that is sorta meaningless in reality, but many people see as another feature that dreamcast didn't have.

[evoluzione]

hey i mentioned MSR, and i agree toy comander was kick ass, i got it with sonic adventure when the system launched.


oh yeah, so you did :) what a great game

[madmax_2069]

90% of DC games don't use more than 800MB, so you can use some software, i forget what it's called, to burn a cd to trick the dreamcast into thinking that it's a GD rom, as far as racing games nothing much beats metropolis street racer, it's pretty much project gothem 0.5 though i much prefer it.

yea its called a IP.bin wich held the boot info

pso gets very repetitive after a while, the cost of getting a broadband adapter (100 bucks) and the time involved you may as well get a WoW account, dont get me wrong i like my pso, but WoW beats it hands down.

Ypu dont need a bba adapter to play PSO v1 or v2 online the only game that used the bba adapter was Q3A, UNREAL TOURNAMENT, and PSO V1 and V2 and a few others there is no bba only DC game. all of the online games on dreramcast used the dialup adapter to.

soul calibur is a kick ass game

i like tokyo extreme racer 2, SEGA GT, MSR
yea SOA kick's ass so doesnt Grandia 2

[ReanimationLP]

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty? Sega killed all Dreamcast servers.

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online? BBA adaptor, which you can find on eBay, your gonna get raped on the price though. (90-150 US)

3. Any good racing sims for the DC? Metropolis Street Racer.

4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then? It supported the Mil-CD format to make it easy for developers. It happened to be their downfall too.

5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2? Gamecube more than the PS2. DC has more VRAM for the graphics then the PS2, which makes a big difference.

[madmax_2069]

1. Are people still playing it online or will the servers be empty? Sega killed all Dreamcast servers.

Wrong sega cant kill what isnt there's= dreamcast online game list (http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/content_gameslist.php?sid=0ed3010c6838331315732be4597644e4)

and not to mention the home made PSO v1 and v2 servers the link is in the above post

allot of the sega servers in europe are still active and people still play and there is some there that is active here like Quake 3 arena cause the emplamented a diffrend type of online for the game in europe unlike Quake 3 arena here in the USA wich there is a bunch of servers avalible and you can make a Q3A server for dreamcast useing the server software for the pc version with the dreamcast map pack loaded

go here and read on the site http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/portal.php
they scedual games to play

2. I have the sega dream key to set up my DC with internet but I do not have dialup in my house only DSL, anyway to get my DC online? BBA adaptor, which you can find on eBay, your gonna get raped on the price though. (90-150 US)

there is a way to hook up you dreamcast up to the dialup modem on the Mac/pc its like a dialup server of sorts take a phoneline from you dreamcast and plug it into the port in the modem on the Mac/pc the way it works software wize in windows 98 is very diffrent in the way you set it up in OS or OS X just use google to find out how to do it in OS X . the onlineconsoles.com llink has info on how to set up windows to do it.


3. Any good racing sims for the DC? Metropolis Street Racer.

MSR you stated is a real good game. also try F355 challenge, Test drive le mans, Tokyo extreme racer 2, flag to flag, SEGA GT and there is a few others


4. My friend gave me a lot of copied games and they all work, was there no pirate protection back then? It supported the Mil-CD format to make it easy for developers. It happened to be their downfall too.

yea and no there is some dreamcast versions that wont play Mil-CD but there is a some what of a workaround for that cause all of the homebrew apps for the system.

www.G4tv.com had a special on the history of the dreamcast on the program icons wich explains allot of what happened to the dreamcast

sorry cant remember the direct link of the video to download but here is the link to the site

http://www.g4tv.com/icons/episodes/1259/Sega_Dreamcast.html


5. Which console has comparable graphics to the DC ie PS, PS2? Gamecube more than the PS2. DC has more VRAM for the graphics then the PS2, which makes a big difference.

your are right, only if sega built the dreamcast with a dvd-rom instead of the gd-rom it explains it all in the G4tv icons video

[Mord]

ok, never realised you could do that, damn my lack of time or patients to bugger around with fink or any of the stuff you need to do it, i'd like to get pso version 2 working back again.

[louis_sx]

The Dreamcast used what was called a GD-ROM drive, which used a non-standard disc that held roughly 1GB of data on a UDF format, similar to DVD's. The result is that you could do some finagling to hook it up to a PC using a developer's hardware tool and dump the GD-ROM to hard drive, then create an ISO and, since more often-than-not developers didn't use more than 500-600MB anyway, then burn it to a CD and it worked fine. The Dreamcast has no copy protection other than the media, which was cracked in 2000 by some Germans that went to jail over it, but the methods and software exist to this day.

Take a true NAOMI arcade board with the full 32MB of memory and 16MB of VRAM and add a DVD-ROM (instead of 16MB system, 8MB vid, and GD-ROM), and you would have had a killer home system for 1999 and still competitive with the Xbox/PS2/Cube today. I love my Dreamcast. Long live Soul Calibur, Outtrigger, Typing of the Dead, and Chu-Chu Rocket!

[madmax_2069]

the most easyest way to get PSO v1 and v2 online going threw the homebrew servers is to go to there site with the dreamcast and download the codebreaker code on the firtst controler on the A1 memory card. you have to have the codebreaker to get it to work and only have the one controller with the memory card in the controller that has the codebreaker code and boot the codebreaker disk. i dont know why it dont see the save when there is another controller pluggeed in all i know codebreaker will only see the save with only one controller plugged in. then select what version of PSO you have like the USA version v1 or v2 there is 1 more code to enable the first one was for the version you have and the other is the connect code then go to the point to where you enter the disk and put the PSO disk in and put in the memory card with your PSO data on it and there ya go its ready to connect. as long as if you have a way to connect the dreamcast online