Trying out Dreamcast again...

[HC_O]

-----

[Strider]

enjoy, i'm going for a complete pal collection at the moment, and if you can ignore the insane amount of racers on the system there's a surprising amount of great titles available for it.

[SuperDanX]

Its not that suprising is it? Great console, theres loads of 2d games for it, and a ton of great 3d stuff too, couple that with the vga compatabilty and its a very playable retro console. Very tempted to pick up a jpn machine as my pal system and games are long gone, but im trying to limit myself to just one home console (ps2) that said how much longer i can resist the call of Zombies Revenge is another matter..

[SUMIRE]

Zombie revenge is so bad its good. I cranked it up last night, and ended up playing it for ages. Another terrrible game that is awesome is Dynamite Dekka 2.

For some reason either my connection on my Dreamcast VGA is knackered or the VGA box end as is. If I knock it slightly the damn picture goes pink.

One thing that really annoyed me going back to the Dreamcast was the fact Skies of Arcadia wasnt VGA, and it doesnt run through my scart lead either

[nakamura]

Is your Skies PAL? I remember having issues with a few imports titles not supporting certain modes of output. PAL fixed this in most cases but not sure about VGA.

[Phar]

PAL version of SoA is 50hz only thats why it doesn't work over VGA, it supports RGB though, then theres the US version which supports VGA but not RGB.

[egparadigm]

For some reason either my connection on my Dreamcast VGA is knackered or the VGA box end as is. If I knock it slightly the damn picture goes pink.

Is this at the socket on the Dreamcast? Apparently a lot of cables are a bit loose there and if you knock them, you can knock out one the connections. Had this issue with a 3rd party RGB lead. The official one is a lot tighter.

[nakamura]

PAL version of SoA is 50hz only thats why it doesn't work over VGA, it supports RGB though, then theres the US version which supports VGA but not RGB.

Gotcha. Been a long time since been involved in all the dc nonsense!

[fallenangle]

With a DC-X or similar boot disc you might be able to force RGB SCART with the US version.

Unless your TV has a specific issue the PAL one should work with RGB SCART but ONLY with a RGB SCART socket. If you're using it with a non-RGB SCART TV socket it'll just give a blank screen unlike most consoles that automatically revert to composite in such circumstances.

[trickytree]

With a DC-X or similar boot disc you might be able to force RGB SCART with the US version.

No this doesn't work, I've tried it and all sorts of similar things. The only RGB 60hz version of Skies unfortunately is a yarr release, and that's glitchy.

[Phar]

Gotcha. Been a long time since been involved in all the dc nonsense!

Yeah it's a pain at times remembering whats RGB/VGA/60hz supported, credit to Sega for being the first company to really offer PAL gamers 60hz & having a VGA mode but it was always a bit hit and miss with 3rd partys, even Sega weren't consistent, SoA being an example.

[nakamura]

I remember playing Shotokou battle 2 on VGA and Skies. (must have been USA). Really were amazing output quality. Same with the PS2s RGB but not quite as good.
One of the reasons I found it hard to take to the old xbox as through even the best cables it looked muddy in comparison.

[Phar]

RGB over the original xbox was always pretty crap thanks to the flicker filter applied to every game, you could get around it by using a modded xbox though, you had to rip the game to the HD and then patch the xbe file to remove the filter, it actually had a pretty sharp image once you did that.

[nakamura]

I didnt know that. Ive got a modded box but only really use it for emulators now.
I just remember all the slating Sony haters gave the PS2 in my area and when i saw both versions of Burnout 3 the ps2 looked much better.

[JamesS]

RGB over the original xbox was always pretty crap thanks to the flicker filter applied to every game, you could get around it by using a modded xbox though, you had to rip the game to the HD and then patch the xbe file to remove the filter, it actually had a pretty sharp image once you did that.

I put an option for that setting into one game I worked on, but got slagged off for it by IGN for being too much like something you'd find in a PC game.

Then again, in the same review, they also talked about the different soundtracks in the game, not realising they were reviewing their own user soundtracks that were stored on their Xbox's hard drive