Results 1 to 3 of 3

Thread: any place to learn how to mod a Sega Dreamcast to play isos out of a hard drive or flash drive?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    ecuador
    Posts
    128
    Thanks
    65
    Thanked 4 Times in 2 Posts
    EP Points
    35

    Default any place to learn how to mod a Sega Dreamcast to play isos out of a hard drive or flash drive?

    I own four dreamcast, each of them "died" in the sense that the the lens can't read the discs, I tried to calibrate the laser and it worked for a few months, but now they are useless, I need to replace the lens for a pc cdrom lens, when I get them, but I guess I'd like to try and see if I can mod a dreamcast to play backups out of a harddrive or a flash drive.... Any advise?

  2. #2
    Zorlon's Avatar
    Zorlon is offline Older than you think
    Still loves Retro gaming
    Still loves new consoles
    Part time games modder
    Just here to help out when I can
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Location
    UK Newcastle
    Posts
    22,205
    Thanks
    177
    Thanked 2,176 Times in 1,328 Posts
    Blog Entries
    5
    EP Points
    12100

    Default

    There are a few options

    Best option at the moment is a USB GDROM drive (replaces the GD-Rom drive with a usb port for external USB HDD's)
    Second option is the GDEMU that uses SD and also replaced the GD-Rom drive
    Other options still require a CD-R

    I don't think replacing the laser with a PC laser is really going to help much

    cheapest option is just to buy a working a dreamcast though

    Anyway other options include
    SD port via the Serial port but that is too slow for most retail games and games boot via a CD-R
    Hardwired IDE but as above the games boot via a CD-R actually it is the same CD-R
    You can however flash the software into a flash bios chip if I remember that can be used to boot these mods, but you do need to be able to boot the CD-R once to access the flash unless someone has made a flash prog to do that before soldering the chip in that I would guess has been done, can't claim to of looked into that all that much as I can't solder too well
    Last edited by Zorlon; 14th-November-2015 at 16:33.

    Mod projects - XBOX
    Phantasy Star Online Episodes 1 & 2 - online quests in offline mode packs [COMPLETE]
    [Quest Packs Collection]
    GTA San Andreas - Hot Coffee [COMPLETE]
    [Mod ready] & [Full ISO ready]
    GTA San Andreas - Real Car Names extra content mod [WIP] [Back burner, just won't have the time ]
    Please can all ESR users post your results here to help with the project and others wanting to use ESR

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    ecuador
    Posts
    128
    Thanks
    65
    Thanked 4 Times in 2 Posts
    EP Points
    35

    Default

    Heh, soldering is not my specialty either, at least I was able to turn on my snes though, when the capacitor got burnt by replacing the capacitor by other from a damaged snes.
    Little I read about the process to mod a Dreamcast, I hoped to find a way step by step to do it, somewhere there were images where a guy soldered this IDE cable to one side of the Dreamcast and that was messy but I'd try it, with a good guide, after all I got some Dreamcast to practice with, my first Dreamcast was bought in 2006 and I kept buying them when the lens couldn't read the disc.... burned discs.
    I know burned disc really messes up the lens by experience, well my consoles will keep sleeping until the day I get to fix them... and my best option the less complicated one would still be the change of the lens for a pc cdrom drive... Oh one of my Dreamcast turns off not a minute after I turn it on and I noticed the fan didn't spin and when I make it spin it works, meaning it doesn't turn off but I still can't play my discs, it is weird that a small fan cools off the entire console and this happened to my wii too, there was a small dirt that prevented the fan from spinning and the console really got hot and turned off by itself.
    Last edited by aspinia; 16th-November-2015 at 21:54.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
About Us

We are the oldest retro gaming forum on the internet. The goal of our community is the complete preservation of all retro video games. Started in 2001 as EmuParadise Forums, our community has grown over the past 18 years into one of the biggest gaming platforms on the internet.

Social