Dreamcast questions.

[eretsua]

I'm thinking about buying an unmodded PAL Dreamcast and I've got some questions.

The seller informed me that it can play cd-r backups of NTSC games but it can not play original NTSC games, is this true?

If so does it allow it to play NTSC games in 60hz & full colour?

Does the DC put out an RGB signal? Any suggestion for good RGB-leads for the DC?

I assume that there are mod-chips out there that will make the DC region free for official games? Are they difficult to install yourself if you have no experience in modding consoles? Any specific chip I should look for?

And last but not least....PAL vs NTSC units... is there a significant difference?

any help or info is much appreciated!

[lurch996]

It will play self booting cd-r's and they wont be in 60hz. Get a dc-x import disc for region free. I think the dc does output rgb.

[Kongster]

And last but not least....PAL vs NTSC units... is there a significant difference?

Yeah, most of the DC's best games are invariably Japanese so in that respect, I'd go for the NTSC unit.

[Bassman]

The DC does do RGB.

The DC Action Replay (or possibly Xploder... can't remember which) would enable you to play other region games. I have tried an import with it on my PAL DC successfully.

[Leon Retro]

Don't bother with a mod-chip.

Get DC-X or Code Breaker. These disks are booted then you take them out and put in whatever game you want from any region and they load.

If you have a Pal machine some import games will have borders whatever you do. It's best to have an Ntsc American or Japanese machine so that all games will boot at 60hz full screen.

The Dreamcast has excellent RGB scart output. I recently bought a new rgb scart lead of Ebay for ?1.50 and the quality is perfect!

Back-ups nearly always boot without a boot-disc, but some require a disc called a utopia disc. Once again import back-ups will sometimes boot with borders- so a NTSC machine is the best option!

[charlesr]

It will play self booting cd-r's and they wont be in 60hz.

Unless they have been 60Hz patched.

[eretsua]

Thanks for the fast & useful replies!!!

I think I'll go for an NTSC machine. I was wondering if I could use official PAL controlers on a US machine. And also if PAL VMS/VMU Memcards & rumblepacks would work on the US machine. I looked up FAQs about this but got confusing answer so if anyone can speak from experience that would be great!

[muddy]

I use 3 official UK Memory cards on my chipped Jap Dreamcast.
I think my rumble pack is UK too.

hope this helps

[Leon Retro]

Thanks for the fast & useful replies!!!

I think I'll go for an NTSC machine. I was wondering if I could use official PAL controlers on a US machine. And also if PAL VMS/VMU Memcards & rumblepacks would work on the US machine. I looked up FAQs about this but got confusing answer so if anyone can speak from experience that would be great!

I have all three machines and the peripherals seem universal- except for the Sega Gun.

[Darwock]

For ages I used the Utopia boot disk on my PAL DC, used to wonder why the music on stage 1 of Ikaruga would end long before the boss music kicked in. Wasn't until I switched back to my Japanese one for some reason that I realised it doesn't play NTSC games at full speed ><.

[sj33]

For ages I used the Utopia boot disk on my PAL DC, used to wonder why the music on stage 1 of Ikaruga would end long before the boss music kicked in. Wasn't until I switched back to my Japanese one for some reason that I realised it doesn't play NTSC games at full speed ><.

It depends on the game really.

If the game doesn't specify a refresh rate, it will just fall back to hardware default.
This is not exclusive of Utopia, modchips themselves have this problem.

For this reason, many people prefer later bootdiscs like DC-X, Codebreaker, Xploder etc which display NTSC games in NTSC.

[eretsua]

Once again thank you all for you fast & helpful replies!

I just ordered a modded US DC from Lik-Sang and some peripherals and I'm feeling very happy about it!

[Madbury]

There are some issues with certain games when you cross the streams. For example, Outtrigger PAL won't display properly on my NTSC-US DC regardless of how I set up the DC-X boot disk. Thankfully it supports VGA though, so I can get round it that way.

[Leon Retro]

Ikaruga and all the Japanese shooters I have only boot at 50hz on my pal machine.

[lurch996]

Ikaruga and all the Japanese shooters I have only boot at 50hz on my pal machine.

same

I tried using them with a dc-x, but no joy