Dreamcast Modification GDEMU

 

I have to admit to owning 2 Dreamcast consoles, not through choice but  as payment years ago for sorting out a very sick PC. I was never a fan of Sega, Sonic and such. I was strictly PC at this point of time, 1998 to be precise. The Saturn was a flop in my book ,so the Dreamcast was something I chose to ignore until it was landed on me.

The Gamepad really annoyed me, as awkward as the Nintendo 64 behemoth, maybe Microsoft liked it as they made a similar beast called "The Duke". Reluctantly I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised. The games were better than great, Shenmue II, Jetset Radio, Power Stone, Ikaruga, Crazy Taxi..... ports from Sega Naomi Arcades. Graphically alot of games looked more like PC games than jagged console affairs, PowerVR seemed to feature a lot on titles load screens. I remembered PowerVR from the PC days of Voodoo Graphic cards

SHENMUE

SOUL CALIBUR

The Dreamcast had an optical drive which played genuine Dreamcast Discs, however some Mod chips surfaced allowing playback of Backups, yeah backups! As time passed a Boot Disc appeared that basically loaded the header for region and copyright lock and froze the load. The original Dreamcast bios could be exploited to bypass the locks by using a loading method reserved for MIL-CD or Music format discs. 

 The UTOPIA (Warez Release Group) Boot CD instantly allowed anyone with a cd burner to download game images to CDR and use the disc to bypass security. A two step disc swap essentially. As the scene progressed games were eventually released on MIL-CD discs which rendered the Boot Disc history.

As with all technology, its years later that something good comes along. The GDEMU is a replacement for the Dreamcast Optical drive that allows the use of an SD Card to act as a hard drive to store, load, save your game collection. I had to have one!

GDEMU BOARD FRONT & BACK

The boards are very well made and even the Chinese copies of the original design are said to work perfectly. A straight swap for the optical drive but without a 3D printed mounting kit its all a bit rough and ready. Luckily there are plenty of sellers of mounting kits, 3D printers usually making small models of skulls and such making a few quid on Fleabay, why not?

GDEMU MOUNTING KIT

As seen, its a mount for the GDEMU to raise it off the metal casing with an SD Card extender to hold your Card in the hub part that is shaped exactly like the laser carriage holder of the original optical drive. Its a nice clean solution. The GDEMU uses less power than the standard drive so there is also a small PSU tweak to get rid of some load by fitting 1k resistors between the 12v rail and ground.

Some people have replaced the PSU with small Pico PSU device but I wanted a low cost quick and dirty solution. A HDMI mod exists which costs a pretty penny, beyond my budget right now. I did opt for a new fan though as the original is the noisiest little bastard to grace any console. The Noctua fan mod can be purchased online, the name alone is Quality. I still use a Noctua fan setup in my PC, quiet and efficient, Rolls Royce of Fans!

Yet again 3D printers have been busy making the bracket to mount the fan and an alternate lid door latch lever as the stock one foils the new fan. So far this is all just a window shop for bits so lets get the Dreamcast open and fit the stuff.

All screws removed from underneath and modem removed from side allows the top casing to lift off and removal of the disc drive. I decided to fit the fan first though as it seemed sensible to do it whilst there was plenty of clearance around.

Next i fitted the GDEMU and its mount. Not a difficult mod at all.

I had to wait a few days for my 1k resistors to arrive but i have fitted them as well as a new CMOS battery and holder, new power LED that cycles, new caps also on that small board.The latch is easy to replace on lid, just one spring to remove and refit to new latch. Maybe took an hour with some soldering and minimal adjustments to get it all done.

I had made my SD Card weeks ago in preparation for the arrival of all the kit. I need to set up game covers on main menu but I was glad to see the menu on first boot.

Some messing with image extraction and implementing default artwork with jewel case box covers got the menu looking better. GDEMU Menumaker also allows tweaking of theme.

I treated the Dreamcast to a modern VGA cable as my Toshiba TV has a spare VGA doing nothing. i recommend one if you want a better experience without the HDMI board upgrade.

I have a feeling me and the Dreamcast are not finished yet. Maybe if the prices fall on the HDMI mod boards and replacement PSU`s. For now I have a fishing rod to play Sega Bass Fishing 2  & Marine Fishing. A brand new custom controller would be good too but I`m happy for now!