Great review, John! I'm kinda frustrated that all of these new HDMI options popped up after I invested in the upscalers, VGA boxes, GC component cables, etc. but still looks like this stuff is the way to go!
I literally had the DCHDMI ordered before I was done watching this video. After investing in an Analogue Super NT and Mega SG, I want quality video out of the last remaining console I truly give a damn about from the composite era (now only waiting for 'hopefully' a cheaper Analogue NT). Also, love your channel as well! I've used several of your OBS videos to get my setup right!
John, your content is quickly becoming some of my favorite on RUclips. DF Retro is awesome. I can't get enough of it. I also love that you included footage of Test Drive Le Mans in this, it's one of my favorite racing games ever. I'd like to see you do a comparison of some of the games that started on DC and got ported to PS2. As I remember it, the DC versions were actually usually superior at least in terms of graphical quality. I had a VGA box back when the DC was released (my console still works perfectly fine after all these years, too) and I remember how amazing Soul Calibur looked on my PC monitor. I'm very good at soldering, I've done component-level board repair and have a nice bit of equipment for those types of jobs, so I could easily do the necessary work to install this. I am definitely going to buy one of these for my DC.
Back in the day I was the only kid in school with an dreamcast and a VGA Box. I hooked it up to my CRT Monitor and all of my friends said: wow, it looks so sharp and smooth.😅 When 480p @ 60Hz was the shit. 😂
Me too! I had that see thru orange box that allowed VGA to my monitor. I remember when I saw skies of arcadia for the first time on it, I couldn't believe how sharp the image looked.
@jvalex18 exactly. The best analog cable ever and 40 years almost right? I have both bag and HDMI going into my tv from pc...i prefer warm analog colors bit HDMI is clear af...however for analog vs digital both are great. But getting 1080 html instead 480 vga better why can't dreamcasr do vga 1080?
@jvalex18 I would suggest hooking up your vga and hdmi to your tv ... I have mine at 1200 x 700 or something and it looks near HDMI 1080...basically a 40 year old analog cable can look close to a 8 year old hdmi digi signal basically...which is impressive besides ever hear or supervga or ultravgano cutting at 1080 or 2k still analong 😲 right
@jvalex18 I didnt exactly say it was 1200 x 700 it was less than 1080 but still looked good coukd have been 1800x900. Think your missing my point of 4 decade old tech vs 1 decade old and analog vs digital tech. Vga is still pretty damn good.
That DOA2 and Shenmue footage still gives me goosebumps. Awesome games for their time, haven't seen such technological jumps pound for pound since in my opinion.
"varied library"', really? ... almost no RPGs, survival horror, shooters, platformers, beat em ups/ action games. The DC was all about fighting games, sport games and shoot em ups. I love the console btw but It`s library was far from varied even considering it`s short time on the market.
@@segamon yeah and El Dorado Gate that no one played and Elemental Gimmick Gear, but would you say that 10 RPG games are a solid RPG library VS the 80+ RPGs on PS1 and PS2?
Sudaca Gaming You're talking about a console that was on the market for 2 years and comparing it to 2 consoles that were on the market for 12 & 13 years. The libary is plenty varied enough for the time it was on the market, if you were to look at the first 2 years of PS1 or 2 i doubt there will be to much difference.
@@RetroGamesBoy78 The PS2 already had a more DIVERSE library by 2001, I`m not saying it was better, In fact, I bought a Dreamcast almost exclusively for fighting games and for the perfect arcade ports. I bought a PS2 on 2001, when FFX and SH2 came out. Again, the DC was a hell of a console but It didn`t have a varied library, period. It had more potential?, It was dead too soon?, yes, but the reason It failed wasn`t because it was an "underrated" console or whatever stupid theories DC fanboys have, It died because the PS2 was just a more powerful console and it was aimed both for casuals and hardcore gamers. Sega never understood (or didn`t want to) that the public was changing.
One of the greatest consoles every made. I remember when I was eighteen and 1st came back from Italy. All I could think about at the time while on vacation was about buying one. I had never anticipated a gaming console so much, and let me remind you how amazing the launch lineup was. Unfortunately, Sega killed this beloved machine to the detriment of us former Dreamcast owners. Even though I eventually bought a Playstation 2 I never loved that console as much as the DC
I screamed openly at 2:30am in the morning when I read about Sega going third party. It was a huge betrail I'll never get over. My parents thought I was crazy... and at that moment I was. I knew it was coming but I still hated it. I knew Sega would never be as good of a company as it was then, and I hate being right about that. I too eventually owned a PS2, only owned a handful of games then sold it for food money. I never understood the appeal.
as much as I hated it also the company would probably not exist at all to this day if they had not made that painful decision. it was annoying being a sega fan after that because the games were released on different platforms, I tried to stick to xbox (and some Nintendo) ever since, fuck sony
Lack of public enthusiasm for the Dreamcast killed it - hype for Playstation2 was in overdrive - and from a JP DC owner at the time of the PS2's JP release I felt the JP PS2 was a mess, with the launch games all underwhelming, especially considering Sony's pre-release hype around its hardware - it didn't even utilise simple anti-aliasing - causing many games to suffer from resolution 'jaggies'. TTT (best of the JP Launch games imo) got reprogrammed in the west and software smoothing is added to remove 'aliasing issues'. Eventually the PS2 became a great console - with a superb library - but on launch it was a mess especially compared to the already available and capable Dreamcast.
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-RUclips I agree with you 100% that the Dreamcast was a breaktaking, and original game console; in many ways what the Sega Saturn should have been. Unfortunately, Sega had many years of mediocre/half-baked released under their belt which ruined their repertoire with gamer's. The original launch lineup for Dreamcast was utterly amazing with Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Powerstone, etc. What really killed the Sega Dreamcast was not only Playstation 2 hype, but a lack of support from Sega. The Playstation 2 was very mediocre at launch but did buildup one of the greatest libraries in gaming. In term's of it's graphics the GS accelerator wasn't particularly advanced, and in many ways shared IQ similar to a Voodoo 2 - that's why it's graphics didn't look sufficiently cleaner than Sega Dreamcast - also make note that it used lower resolution 8-bit palatalized textures.
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-RUclips I love the DC and it was and still is my console of choice. I think what ultimately led to its demise was lack of 3rd party support. SEGA was very possessive of its GDRom technology and would not let 3rd parties manufacture and produce games unless it went through one of their factories and studios. It was their way of control and helping stop piracy (ironically though the DC became the easiest console to pirate later on) I think if SEGA went through a traditional copyright style system the same way the Playstation and XBox did with mod-chips and opened up its GDRom burners and tech to third parties they would have fared a whole lot better. So many of the great DC games were basically SEGA games. Its a shame because I always felt SEGA was always pushing the boundaries when it came to hardware innovation, but they always fell because their library of games as a result suffered.
@jvalex18 I literally gave up on console gaming when Sega went 3rd party. I have a Nintendo Switch now, but for years I had no interest in current gen consoles after the Dreamcast.
@@TheXev After the end of the Dreamcast it's like the console market fell entirely. Suddenly it felt so much poor and unisteresting. I went to pc gaming definitively and haven't bought another console since. The Switch is appealing though.
The more competition, the better. It could easily have changed what Sony or Microsoft did with their consoles to compete with Sega. Consoles would most likely be much more different than they are today.
Actually first shot at true arcade perfection came many years before Dreamcast. You forgot the Neo Geo. Granted the price kept most people away, it was still arcade perfection at home first.
I remember when 60 fps gaming felt more like the norm than the exception, I thought we will have it standard in the future. Instead we are still stuck with jerky 30 fps games most of the time on consoles. This also shows how ahead of its time the Dreamcast was. I wish Sega could've continued their way.
There wasn't a time in the 3d era when 60 was normal at home. N64 often ran at 20, Saturn the same (or lower). 60 isn't standard on Dreamcast either, it's mainly the arcade ports. Shenmue is 30, I think Sonic Adventure is 30. Sega Rally 2 and virtua fighter 3 ports were mishandled and had big slowdown. Consoles have always traded frames for detail and always will.
I am a PC gamers from the 90s and I can tell everyone that FPS did matter just as much as today. Thanks to affordable solutions from Voodoo, mainstream PC gaming were on It's way to high fidelity gaming that was reserved for enthusiasts couple years prior. Anyone saying we didn't care back then is simply wrong. Even DC was advertised as 60FPS gaming and it was one of the reason people got it.
You could say that gen was when 60fps was becoming more common than before, especially in terms of AAA/Exclusive games. I remember most of the PS2 games I played back then being a steady 60: Ace Combat 4, Dark Cloud, Ratchet & Clank Going Commando, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Breath of Fire V, Burnout 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, SpongeBob BFBB, SSX 3, Downhill Domination, Sky Odyssey, Pac-Man World 2, etc.
Wouldn't say it was THE 'best console ever' but definitely 'one' of the best - the hardware and software SEGA made (specifically its Arcade heritage) was a major factor in mainstream gaming video console history right until DC production ended - the last big hurrah for Sega nowadays is probably the Yakuza series & OutRun2 was the most notable release prior to that.
The Dreamcast is my favorite aesthetically looking console. It's just so simple and compact but alluring. The feel of the power button or open tray button just have the best click. I am running my Dreamcast with a Akura box through a Framemeister. It was probably the best picture quality you could get from a Dreamcast before the DCHDMI showed up. If I don't run the Akura box through the FM, the picture on my 65" TV is a tiny square in the middle of the screen, less than a foot big in both height and width, making it unplayable without a upscaler solution. So really the DCHDMI is affordable when you take that into account. I would recommend a professional install as soldering those flex cables to a chip can be daunting, and if you mess it up you have to pray that the supplier has more in stock. I already purchased a DCHDMI kit a few months ago and my batch should be arriving soon. I am running a custom green case that were produced two decades ago by a third party and fetch a pretty penny on Ebay when they do show up. I did this to avoid cutting into the original shell as I believe in preservation of older consoles. I also have the GDEMU installed, and the Noctua fan mount making the system damn near silent and the ultimate way to play Dreamcast games. Sadly I refuse to play it until the Retro Fighters Dreamcast controllers arrive. My hands are much bigger than they were when I originally used that claw grip controller. It feels very uncomfortable to wield those controllers now.
Yo time hit me real fast too. I remember playing the Original Xbox like yesterday... My dad had bought it with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and now it's 18 years old and I'm 21.. What happened?
The Dreamcast was such a jump above the competition. I remember playing Powerstone and Sonic Adventure for the first time and being blown away by the graphics and framerate, I'd never seen anything like it. Out of the box online gameplay, game DLC (always free)... Holy shit it was a marvel. Then Shenmue came out and it took a whole generation for another console game to match it in graphics fidelity. Phantasy Star Online (PSO) is everything Anthem wishes it was, 2 decades later. It remains my favourite console of all time just for the feeling of sheer joy and the glimpse of the future of videogames it gave us, way back in 1998.
I remember playing Soul Calibur on launch night, and going to the section where each character looks at you while reciting their win quotes. My mind was blown it was so lifelike back then
Same here. Will never forget going to GameStop at 4 in the morning, no line, and picking up my system. While in college classes later that day, all I could think about was going back to playing NFL2K. It was all a game-changing experience; and my fondest as a lifelong gamer.
Still the only console I bought on launch day. Still has the best day-one launch titles of any console. How Sony got away with bullshitting their launch day sales numbers for PS2, I'll never know.
Mr. Digital Foundry, first of all, I want to say I found your video incredibly informative, you kept a very nice balance layman explanation while still going nicely in depth into the product. I'm sure if you ever attempted an in-depth/scientific video explanation of the product or if you made a how-to installation guide of the product you would do great. Either way you video was of incredible high quality (video engineering/audio engineering/script) in every aspect video, audio, images, presentation, everything REALLY. Most importantly to me your video is completely devoided of any pretentia. It's very easy to see that this product and this subject matter is of great importance to you and truly is a passion. So clean of pretentiousness is so rare to see in RUclips and it makes me so happy to see it in a subject matter that is important to me. Your video is truly the first 10/10 I have seen on youtube. If it was up to me you would be the number content creator of this subject matter. So far this is the only one of your videos I have watched, but I have a feeling all your videos are of this high caliber and high quality. Please keep on making videos after years of having a youtube account and watching videos you truly are the first content creator I willingly have subscribed to. Thank you so much for the great content and I wish very much for your continued success. I offer my support in your endeavor if you ever need it. Thank you once again sir and godspeed.
Man I love the Dreamcast so much. I was there on 9/9/99, and I still have my Dreamcast. But yeah, I don't have a good way to play it on my current TV, which is a shame. And modded options like this always scare me away. Anyway, thank you for showing the amazing Bangai-o! That game is a masterpiece!
I remember getting it day one and getting a hotel at the beach with some friends and lots of beer. We had a blast that weekend. I was 16 maybe but I remember friends asking me if they could borrow it after the party and I said HELL NO. I ended up staying up all night playing Soul Caliber with my homey Sunday night. Going from Nintendo 64 to that was like literally going to arcade at the mall but at home. Wish it would of suceeded.
To a degree it's true, 6th gen was colourful, while the first half of the 7th gen hated colour for some reason, it was plagued by brown and yellow games with a shit ton of bloom. You know, the piss filter look. If you look at Gears 1&2 and compair them to 3 is a night and day difference, it's like suddenly they remembered brown wasn't the only damn colour.
@@fenix_tx_1342 It's just art design, it changes with each generation, trial and error, trying something new, overuse it then try something different. I like the grim atmosphere of Gears 1.
@@Aristowi Sure, having that for a few games is fine. It was a nice thing for that specific series for the time. But when the majority of the games are brown during the 7th gen consoles, it became a problem. Though it probably was as bad with everyone making their own mascot platformers during the late 80s to early 2000s.
I really have to wonder how this console failed so badly. I mean, this game console is incredible! It looks awesome, even to my eyes in 2019! Back in 1999, this must’ve looked like the future! It’s so beautiful... And the games were so good! If I was around in this era, I would’ve loved this, as this was honestly ahead of its time. I’m going to buy a Dreamcast and a VGA box for it as I now have a lovely CRT monitor.
Good to see you guys acknowledge it came out in Japan a lot of Americans and some Europeans don't count the Japanese launch stating it was first released 9/9/99. They do it with other consoles too to be fair like the Famicom/NES or Super Famicom/SNES.
Sega fan here since childhood, first console was a white Sega Saturn. Just installed Redream and discovering the Dreamcast's library (but i had played some of its games on PC ports over the years). Might be my new favorite system. I like arcade/pick-and-play games, and the console has a very 2000's feeling other 6th gen consoles don't have.
What a profound insight the Dreamcast that came out two and a half years after the N64 (starting the next generation of consoles) looks like a generation apart. Brilliant!
I remember when I got my DC, it was about 2 weeks after it released and I got sonic with it, I was so blown away by the graphical jump of previous consoles and I dont think that ever happened to me again until the original crisis was released on PC.
Dreamcast was and still is the most played console I ever owned. I played the Dreamcast from 2000 all the way to 2009, followed by the PS2. So much classics.
Yep. Some of the best visuals at the time. Quake3 was awesome. Me and buddies would split screen for hours blowing each other into chunks with the RL lol and imo those 2K sports games were better than EA sports at the time.
I've been using a Hanzo VGA Box +Atlona AT-HD500 upscaler for 5 years now. It was certainly pricey but totally worth it. Crystal clear 1080p output. Looks outstanding. Never experienced any "electrical noise" or "humming" in the audio as you say. Investing on better cables is a must here, the price indeed always gonna reflects quality.
So many great memories with the Dreamcast. Everyone had already migrated to the PS2 when I was playing it, but I would honestly say I had a lot better time with the Dreamcast than the PS2.
about the toro color issue, if you're using the ossc make sure you go into the menu > video in proc. > pre adc gain, change that to 7. the colors will look much more natural. good review 👍 i'd love to have this installed one day
Sega and M2 have already stated that a DC Mini (or a Saturn Mini) wouldn't be possible in this moment due to technology and costs reasons. I imagine that, if they want to make it now, it'd cost way too much. Considering that Dreamcast emulation has matured quite quickly, I think that would be the closest possibility. Saturn? Unless M2 makes a miracle, I don't see that happening in a short term.
I remember meeting with one of my friend 20 years ago who had a console shop and as usual we ended up talking about consoles and he came up with the dreamcast, i just barely heard anything about it. Playstation was the most popular - everybody knew it - so i asked him “how good is the console compared to psx”? He said its unbelivable, the graphics, the design of the console is just mindblowing. Without seeing even just once i bought one in the next year and absolutely amazed by the overall quality. I still remember the first game i completed on it, it was the Jet Set Radio. Few weeks ago i bought a dreamcast on Ebay with a vga cable (i’ve got a 40 inch 10 years old plasma tv) and im on way now to buy a gdemu to finish many games on it. I’ve got xbox one x and ps4 as well, got more than 250+ games on each but i just cant feel that satisfaction anymore playing with a game like back in the day. Im fed up with the in game purchases and loot boxes, half done overpriced shite games with zero content. ATM im playing games on wii, gamecube, psx, ps2 and xbox classics and honestly im not even thinking about buying any new console until im finishing all the interesting games on these platform that is takes years for sure :)
Cause the dreamcast is a generation apart from N64, it was the earliest released of the gamecube/ps2/xbox generation, not a late edition to the NG4/PS1 gen.
Eh, it was somewhere in between generations. It released closer to the N64 than it did to Gamecube and Xbox and about the same distance from the N64 as to the PS2.
Is DC's chip size and overall architecture closer to PS2 or to N64? Not the power/performance, but the parts. The insanely well made port of Virtual On OT would simply be unheard of on N64
Dreamcast is the first console I ever purchased with my own money from my first part time job. It melted my brain then and I still love it after all these years. DF & DC forever ❤️
I was PSX fanboy and when I saw Dreamcast's games I was pissed but I knew PS2 is comming... kinda shame DC died so fast, console landscape would be totally different now.
John, don't be discouraged from camera appearances by jerks making comments about your looks (you talked about this on Twitter) Think of it like this: a stable person who watched the video in good faith wouldn't leave a hateful comment about your appearance, like who honestly thinks a video is "ruined" by stuff like this? They probably had other reasons for hating the content, and just defaulted to the easiest way to hurt the author. Great video!
Dreamcast was epic. On that note, I fully expected your buddy Rich Leadbetter to edit a DC magazine at the time, having hyped it up in Sega Saturn Magazine throughout 1998. When he instead launched PSW (Playstation World) magazine in 2000 and declared in his first editorial that he was "disappointed by the Dreamcast" I was shocked to say the least. Wonder if he still feels that way?
Dayum son! Proud of you for showing some love for my dreamcast❤️ that system was awesome as hell! Xbox controllers were HIGHLY influenced by the the design of the DC controller 🎮.
Seems like DF Retro episodes need to be more about selling/reviewing product these days to be made, and it's still high quality but I do miss the old episodes where it focused on games and their technology more often. Still, great video John!
The Crazy Taxi detail missing at 8:13 for the Toro box is ALSO missing on the Official VGA adapter at 6:48 - so it would appear that the Toro is exactly the same quality as the Official VGA box, it's just that the DC HDMI has special powers to pull a pure digital signal that gives the correct color output....I'm curious how these games look running on emulation and if the emulation is closer to the DC HDMI with the Toro/VGA box being lesser due to that analogue transformation.
Since the "retro" label came all old gaming stuff got really expensive... but that's for another time. Amazing solutions, nice to see dreamcast getting the light it deserves, the passion really is perceptible here. Hope someday I can apply such a solution at my console, today I just have a simple retrobit vga that I suspect is just like the cheapest of this video...
ren7a8ero You’re right about the “retro” label in many cases, but in this case the $150 price point was set pretty early on in the project’s history (years ago). It’s less to do with the “retro” label and more to do with the components. A cyclone 10 dev board is $100 off the bat already, and that’s pretty bare. Good FPGAs like this are just pricey stuff, and this is one of the cheapest good FPGAs out there.
More John! We need more Dreamcast! Excellent video as always, you've pretty much sold me on the DCHDMI, though I'll have to see if anyone can solder it and modify the case for me.
Excellent overview. I will definitely be keeping an eye out on this mod. I recently got the Ultra HDMI done on my Nintendo 64 and it's incredible, and the DC HDMI looks just as good if not better/more fully fledged. Though, looking at your comparison footage, I could also just look into getting an official VGA box as that still seems to look pretty great through the OSSC. Hm.. Lots of things to think about now.
The SEGA Dreamcast - the console that introduced me to Phantasy Star, got hooked into it after that and played the classic Phantasy Star games and still plays PSO2 to this day. Great stuff
Hey John. I'm glad that someone other than me has been criticising the rather poor design of those custom cables made by Behar Bros. I've had to order two replacements from them and through the emails i sensed that they seemed annoyed with me, claiming that I probably wasn't holding the cable right when I plugged it and unplugged it from the Toro. My third replacement cable has broken again, which started with the same onset issues you described in this video (colour issues). I haven't bothered to email them to ask for another replacement, as I'm kinda bummed out that I effectively can't use the device.
Were the games featured in the title a deliberate call out to that 4-game shmup disc somebody put together and did the rounds on emu sites? All 4 were amazing, especially Border Down. Stoked to see it featured here heavily!
I remember I was in Yodobashi Camera, collecting brand new discounted games for the dead Dreamcast like candy. I just walked into the store, bought Border Down on release day, and left all in 10 minutes. Except it feels like 3 years ago instead of EIGHTEEN
Damn it man. I'm still waiting to order a GBA Consolizer, and now this pops up in my RUclips feed! I installed an internal VGA mod in my Dreamcast years ago, and it technically worked, but everything about it was a disaster. Hacky soldering, totally unplanned wire routing, and a case mounted connector that barely fit when I put it all together. I need the DCHDMI in my life now.
The ammount of content about G.Rev you showed was amazing to me... as a Senko no Ronde and G.Rev adepto overall haha. I'm a Dreamcast enthuasiast, it was my first console and I really do love the nostalgia I get from it, so... 150 for what you showed to us is not really something that scares me, the thing that scares me is I need to find a guy to mod my console because I'm not that good at soldering.
Great video. I have an Akura box, my TV actually displays the picture by keeping the ratio and multiplying by 2 the resolution (it seems), since I have small black borders top and bottom. Pretty good solution if you ask me, of course inferior to DCHDMI, that's for sure. Scanlines can be useful for 240p games, since these had scanlines when played on CRT. It is also a great feature for the SNK ports that don't support 240p : MotW, KOF 2000 2001 2002 output at 480i, so you don't have scanlines on CRT. With the Akura box (or DC HDMI) you can put back scanlines and display the games as they were meant to be displayed. Of course putting scanlines on games that are made for 480i/p is pointless, you are actually losing image detail by doing so, and CRT don't display scanlines in 480i.
Cheap VGA cables for Dreamcast are still available on aliexpress. I had a 3rd party VGA cable back when the DC was still somewhat recent, and I didn't notice any issues on a CRT monitor, though I wasn't looking for any. I do remember Soul Calibur looking fantastic, and didn't notice anything that seemed off in comparison to using the monitor with a PC. I'd imagine even using this with an older LCD TV/monitor that has VGA in, should look very good in many cases.
Good video. Honesty, a VGA Box + OSSC is the most convinient combo for users of many retro systems. It doesn't requiere heavy modifications and it's easy to use.
If you use the Pound cable and the Marseille mCable it will correct the dark image, and create an upscaled picture. See my Dreamcast in 1080p video. It will cost around $125 for both but it’s all plug and play. Plus the mCable can be used on other consoles.
mCable is no where near as good. This is an internal mod for a reason. It patches into the frame buffer and high jacks the raw digital signal. It’s never converted to analog for output. In fact, it’s never technically “output” at all so it is compatible with every game. This basically takes everything that makes the OSSC great and cranks it up to 11. I understand wanting to puff up your own solution that you use, but it’s objectively inferior to the DCHDMI. It’s much cheaper and doesn’t require an internal mod though, so there is that.
I used a third party VGA cable for the Dreamcast fed to a cheap VGA to HDMI converter and the results were fantastic on my end with minimal blur if even any at all. Sadly, it seems both the cable and adapter I bought are both no longer available with the cable absolutely gone and the adapter was updated so it isn't really the same product.
The only reason I passed on the Dreamcast was the missing bumpers on the controller which limited the complexity of control possible. Never understood why SEGA designed the controller with only triggers.
Vance G Bumpers weren’t standard yet. Only Sony had done that at that point. Xbox launched 3 full years later (going from Japanese launch) same with GameCube which only had the Z bumper. Same with dual thumb sticks for that matter and even then they weren’t commonly used until halfway through the generation.
@@joshreynolds869 - Sony PlayStation was the primary competition for the Dreamcast and the DualShock had the four buttons on the back of the controller long before Dreamcast launched. The Xbox controller has triggers and bumpers and it came out just two years after the Dreamcast. To me this design was SEGA being stuck in the past and it really hurt the Dreamcast games limiting control options.
Vance G Actually the Xbox controller didn’t have bumpers. It had white and black buttons, a couple late third party controllers had buttons but they were from roughly the era of the 360 launch. Bumpers were not standard at all at the time. And the Dreamcast launched in Japan in November of 98, that’s 3 years.
What I liked about Dreamcast was the 3D games had that Sega “look” that the old 2D versions had on Genesis but it was 3D. Know what I mean? Like Sonic Adventure looked and felt like the old classic Sonic games but translated to 3D.
As always, delivering a wonderfully enjoyable, catchy special! Guys please go on with your retro E3 commentaries, perhaps one from the xbox one launch? ;)
Honestly I'm still impressed by the visual fidelity of the Dreamcast especially for the time period it came out.
True. Way ahead of its time. Not mentioning the introduction of online play and internet access.
Dreamcast graphics have a very unique look. So crisp and sharp! Makes it timeless and transfers well to HD
Cool new intro!
Blue skies never die! LOVE the Dreamcast.
Beat that game so many times I lost count! What was up with that dude's crotch 🤣😱
Great review, John! I'm kinda frustrated that all of these new HDMI options popped up after I invested in the upscalers, VGA boxes, GC component cables, etc. but still looks like this stuff is the way to go!
I literally had the DCHDMI ordered before I was done watching this video. After investing in an Analogue Super NT and Mega SG, I want quality video out of the last remaining console I truly give a damn about from the composite era (now only waiting for 'hopefully' a cheaper Analogue NT).
Also, love your channel as well! I've used several of your OBS videos to get my setup right!
@@TheXev :D
John, your content is quickly becoming some of my favorite on RUclips. DF Retro is awesome. I can't get enough of it. I also love that you included footage of Test Drive Le Mans in this, it's one of my favorite racing games ever.
I'd like to see you do a comparison of some of the games that started on DC and got ported to PS2. As I remember it, the DC versions were actually usually superior at least in terms of graphical quality. I had a VGA box back when the DC was released (my console still works perfectly fine after all these years, too) and I remember how amazing Soul Calibur looked on my PC monitor.
I'm very good at soldering, I've done component-level board repair and have a nice bit of equipment for those types of jobs, so I could easily do the necessary work to install this. I am definitely going to buy one of these for my DC.
Back in the day I was the only kid in school with an dreamcast and a VGA Box.
I hooked it up to my CRT Monitor and all of my friends said: wow, it looks so sharp and smooth.😅
When 480p @ 60Hz was the shit. 😂
Me too! I had that see thru orange box that allowed VGA to my monitor. I remember when I saw skies of arcadia for the first time on it, I couldn't believe how sharp the image looked.
Vga can do 1080
@jvalex18 exactly. The best analog cable ever and 40 years almost right? I have both bag and HDMI going into my tv from pc...i prefer warm analog colors bit HDMI is clear af...however for analog vs digital both are great. But getting 1080 html instead 480 vga better why can't dreamcasr do vga 1080?
@jvalex18 I would suggest hooking up your vga and hdmi to your tv ... I have mine at 1200 x 700 or something and it looks near HDMI 1080...basically a 40 year old analog cable can look close to a 8 year old hdmi digi signal basically...which is impressive besides ever hear or supervga or ultravgano cutting at 1080 or 2k still analong 😲 right
@jvalex18 I didnt exactly say it was 1200 x 700 it was less than 1080 but still looked good coukd have been 1800x900. Think your missing my point of 4 decade old tech vs 1 decade old and analog vs digital tech. Vga is still pretty damn good.
That DOA2 and Shenmue footage still gives me goosebumps.
Awesome games for their time, haven't seen such technological jumps pound for pound since in my opinion.
Dreamcast was so ahead of its time, incredible system with a surprisingly large and varied library considering it's short time on the market.
"varied library"', really? ... almost no RPGs, survival horror, shooters, platformers, beat em ups/ action games. The DC was all about fighting games, sport games and shoot em ups. I love the console btw but It`s library was far from varied even considering it`s short time on the market.
@@segamon yeah and El Dorado Gate that no one played and Elemental Gimmick Gear, but would you say that 10 RPG games are a solid RPG library VS the 80+ RPGs on PS1 and PS2?
@@segamon who said it wasn`t worth it? I`m just saying that the DC didn`t have a varied library.
Sudaca Gaming
You're talking about a console that was on the market for 2 years and comparing it to 2 consoles that were on the market for 12 & 13 years. The libary is plenty varied enough for the time it was on the market, if you were to look at the first 2 years of PS1 or 2 i doubt there will be to much difference.
@@RetroGamesBoy78 The PS2 already had a more DIVERSE library by 2001, I`m not saying it was better, In fact, I bought a Dreamcast almost exclusively for fighting games and for the perfect arcade ports. I bought a PS2 on 2001, when FFX and SH2 came out. Again, the DC was a hell of a console but It didn`t have a varied library, period. It had more potential?, It was dead too soon?, yes, but the reason It failed wasn`t because it was an "underrated" console or whatever stupid theories DC fanboys have, It died because the PS2 was just a more powerful console and it was aimed both for casuals and hardcore gamers. Sega never understood (or didn`t want to) that the public was changing.
One of the greatest consoles every made. I remember when I was eighteen and 1st came back from Italy. All I could think about at the time while on vacation was about buying one. I had never anticipated a gaming console so much, and let me remind you how amazing the launch lineup was. Unfortunately, Sega killed this beloved machine to the detriment of us former Dreamcast owners. Even though I eventually bought a Playstation 2 I never loved that console as much as the DC
I screamed openly at 2:30am in the morning when I read about Sega going third party. It was a huge betrail I'll never get over. My parents thought I was crazy... and at that moment I was. I knew it was coming but I still hated it. I knew Sega would never be as good of a company as it was then, and I hate being right about that. I too eventually owned a PS2, only owned a handful of games then sold it for food money. I never understood the appeal.
as much as I hated it also the company would probably not exist at all to this day if they had not made that painful decision. it was annoying being a sega fan after that because the games were released on different platforms, I tried to stick to xbox (and some Nintendo) ever since, fuck sony
Lack of public enthusiasm for the Dreamcast killed it - hype for Playstation2 was in overdrive - and from a JP DC owner at the time of the PS2's JP release I felt the JP PS2 was a mess, with the launch games all underwhelming, especially considering Sony's pre-release hype around its hardware - it didn't even utilise simple anti-aliasing - causing many games to suffer from resolution 'jaggies'.
TTT (best of the JP Launch games imo) got reprogrammed in the west and software smoothing is added to remove 'aliasing issues'. Eventually the PS2 became a great console - with a superb library - but on launch it was a mess especially compared to the already available and capable Dreamcast.
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-RUclips I agree with you 100% that the Dreamcast was a breaktaking, and original game console; in many ways what the Sega Saturn should have been. Unfortunately, Sega had many years of mediocre/half-baked released under their belt which ruined their repertoire with gamer's. The original launch lineup for Dreamcast was utterly amazing with Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Powerstone, etc. What really killed the Sega Dreamcast was not only Playstation 2 hype, but a lack of support from Sega. The Playstation 2 was very mediocre at launch but did buildup one of the greatest libraries in gaming. In term's of it's graphics the GS accelerator wasn't particularly advanced, and in many ways shared IQ similar to a Voodoo 2 - that's why it's graphics didn't look sufficiently cleaner than Sega Dreamcast - also make note that it used lower resolution 8-bit palatalized textures.
@@TheKayliedGamerChannel-RUclips I love the DC and it was and still is my console of choice. I think what ultimately led to its demise was lack of 3rd party support. SEGA was very possessive of its GDRom technology and would not let 3rd parties manufacture and produce games unless it went through one of their factories and studios. It was their way of control and helping stop piracy (ironically though the DC became the easiest console to pirate later on) I think if SEGA went through a traditional copyright style system the same way the Playstation and XBox did with mod-chips and opened up its GDRom burners and tech to third parties they would have fared a whole lot better. So many of the great DC games were basically SEGA games. Its a shame because I always felt SEGA was always pushing the boundaries when it came to hardware innovation, but they always fell because their library of games as a result suffered.
Man, it kinda makes me wish Sega could have remained in the console business.
kinda?
Genesis mini...new controllers...sega coming
@jvalex18 I literally gave up on console gaming when Sega went 3rd party. I have a Nintendo Switch now, but for years I had no interest in current gen consoles after the Dreamcast.
@@TheXev After the end of the Dreamcast it's like the console market fell entirely. Suddenly it felt so much poor and unisteresting. I went to pc gaming definitively and haven't bought another console since. The Switch is appealing though.
The more competition, the better. It could easily have changed what Sony or Microsoft did with their consoles to compete with Sega. Consoles would most likely be much more different than they are today.
John: 'I could go on and on about the Dreamcast...'
Please do, the Dreamcast was awesome.
Actually first shot at true arcade perfection came many years before Dreamcast. You forgot the Neo Geo.
Granted the price kept most people away, it was still arcade perfection at home first.
He was specifically talking about Sega delivering on their promise. Didn't discuss non-Sega consoles.
Well that's because the neo geo is arcade hardware.
Well Sega has lots of arcade perfect ports on the Dreamcast if you can’t afford a Neogeo console..
Dont forget the saturn and 3d0
But he specifically said the *first console*. Not first SEGA console.
I remember when 60 fps gaming felt more like the norm than the exception, I thought we will have it standard in the future. Instead we are still stuck with jerky 30 fps games most of the time on consoles. This also shows how ahead of its time the Dreamcast was. I wish Sega could've continued their way.
There wasn't a time in the 3d era when 60 was normal at home. N64 often ran at 20, Saturn the same (or lower). 60 isn't standard on Dreamcast either, it's mainly the arcade ports. Shenmue is 30, I think Sonic Adventure is 30. Sega Rally 2 and virtua fighter 3 ports were mishandled and had big slowdown. Consoles have always traded frames for detail and always will.
"gotta have 4K and 8K outputs now frame rate who cares 15 is good enough now" -Idiots
The glorious 6(0fps)th generation. wtf happened?
I am a PC gamers from the 90s and I can tell everyone that FPS did matter just as much as today. Thanks to affordable solutions from Voodoo, mainstream PC gaming were on It's way to high fidelity gaming that was reserved for enthusiasts couple years prior. Anyone saying we didn't care back then is simply wrong. Even DC was advertised as 60FPS gaming and it was one of the reason people got it.
You could say that gen was when 60fps was becoming more common than before, especially in terms of AAA/Exclusive games.
I remember most of the PS2 games I played back then being a steady 60: Ace Combat 4, Dark Cloud, Ratchet & Clank Going Commando, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Breath of Fire V, Burnout 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, SpongeBob BFBB, SSX 3, Downhill Domination, Sky Odyssey, Pac-Man World 2, etc.
When the Dreamcast died gaming was not the same anymore. Greatest console of all time.
Mario Wallberg when Sega left the console market, gaming as a whole died a little
definitely died too soon
Wouldn't say it was THE 'best console ever' but definitely 'one' of the best - the hardware and software SEGA made (specifically its Arcade heritage) was a major factor in mainstream gaming video console history right until DC production ended - the last big hurrah for Sega nowadays is probably the Yakuza series & OutRun2 was the most notable release prior to that.
The Dreamcast is my favorite aesthetically looking console. It's just so simple and compact but alluring. The feel of the power button or open tray button just have the best click.
I am running my Dreamcast with a Akura box through a Framemeister. It was probably the best picture quality you could get from a Dreamcast before the DCHDMI showed up. If I don't run the Akura box through the FM, the picture on my 65" TV is a tiny square in the middle of the screen, less than a foot big in both height and width, making it unplayable without a upscaler solution. So really the DCHDMI is affordable when you take that into account. I would recommend a professional install as soldering those flex cables to a chip can be daunting, and if you mess it up you have to pray that the supplier has more in stock.
I already purchased a DCHDMI kit a few months ago and my batch should be arriving soon. I am running a custom green case that were produced two decades ago by a third party and fetch a pretty penny on Ebay when they do show up. I did this to avoid cutting into the original shell as I believe in preservation of older consoles. I also have the GDEMU installed, and the Noctua fan mount making the system damn near silent and the ultimate way to play Dreamcast games.
Sadly I refuse to play it until the Retro Fighters Dreamcast controllers arrive. My hands are much bigger than they were when I originally used that claw grip controller. It feels very uncomfortable to wield those controllers now.
Wait, it can't be 20 years old, I was almost 20 when it came out that would mean......oh....OH MY GOD.
Yo time hit me real fast too. I remember playing the Original Xbox like yesterday... My dad had bought it with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and now it's 18 years old and I'm 21.. What happened?
I actually laughed out loud at that comment. Good job, sir!
Hahaha yeah
Time flies when you're having fun
The Dreamcast was such a jump above the competition. I remember playing Powerstone and Sonic Adventure for the first time and being blown away by the graphics and framerate, I'd never seen anything like it. Out of the box online gameplay, game DLC (always free)... Holy shit it was a marvel. Then Shenmue came out and it took a whole generation for another console game to match it in graphics fidelity. Phantasy Star Online (PSO) is everything Anthem wishes it was, 2 decades later.
It remains my favourite console of all time just for the feeling of sheer joy and the glimpse of the future of videogames it gave us, way back in 1998.
I bought the japanese dc just to play Marvel vs Capcom,Soulcaliber, and Dead or Alive 2.
I remember playing Soul Calibur on launch night, and going to the section where each character looks at you while reciting their win quotes. My mind was blown it was so lifelike back then
Agreed. The DC was so ahead of its time, it’s crazy.
Hey John, the Dreamcast was also the first console I preordered! **fistbump** 👊
Same here. Will never forget going to GameStop at 4 in the morning, no line, and picking up my system. While in college classes later that day, all I could think about was going back to playing NFL2K. It was all a game-changing experience; and my fondest as a lifelong gamer.
Keep on dreaming. Dreams become reality with the Dreamcast. Awesome
Long live the Dreamcast!
The Dreamcast is my favourite console! So many excellent games.
Still the only console I bought on launch day. Still has the best day-one launch titles of any console. How Sony got away with bullshitting their launch day sales numbers for PS2, I'll never know.
My personal faves: Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure 1&2, Dead or Alive 2: Resi: Code Veronica, the list goes on!!
Dave Atkins Toy commander, Crazy taxi, Powerstone, shenmue, skies of arcadia, dead or alive 2. the list goes on.
Mr. Digital Foundry, first of all, I want to say I found your video incredibly informative, you kept a very nice balance layman explanation while still going nicely in depth into the product. I'm sure if you ever attempted an in-depth/scientific video explanation of the product or if you made a how-to installation guide of the product you would do great. Either way you video was of incredible high quality (video engineering/audio engineering/script) in every aspect video, audio, images, presentation, everything REALLY. Most importantly to me your video is completely devoided of any pretentia. It's very easy to see that this product and this subject matter is of great importance to you and truly is a passion. So clean of pretentiousness is so rare to see in RUclips and it makes me so happy to see it in a subject matter that is important to me. Your video is truly the first 10/10 I have seen on youtube. If it was up to me you would be the number content creator of this subject matter. So far this is the only one of your videos I have watched, but I have a feeling all your videos are of this high caliber and high quality. Please keep on making videos after years of having a youtube account and watching videos you truly are the first content creator I willingly have subscribed to. Thank you so much for the great content and I wish very much for your continued success. I offer my support in your endeavor if you ever need it. Thank you once again sir and godspeed.
Man I love the Dreamcast so much. I was there on 9/9/99, and I still have my Dreamcast. But yeah, I don't have a good way to play it on my current TV, which is a shame. And modded options like this always scare me away. Anyway, thank you for showing the amazing Bangai-o! That game is a masterpiece!
I remember getting it day one and getting a hotel at the beach with some friends and lots of beer. We had a blast that weekend. I was 16 maybe but I remember friends asking me if they could borrow it after the party and I said HELL NO. I ended up staying up all night playing Soul Caliber with my homey Sunday night. Going from Nintendo 64 to that was like literally going to arcade at the mall but at home. Wish it would of suceeded.
For those wondering what the opening music game from, it's a game called "Border Down". A SHMUP for the Dreamcast and it's damned good.
Anxiously awaiting my pre-order DCHDMI kit to arrive! Excellent video which firmly justifies my impulse decision to by the unit!
I'm in the same boat, can't wait for it.
I love all of the Digital Foundry videos. But I particularly like the DF Retro video's, can you please cover the 8-bit era, computers and consoles?
Sometimes I feel like 6th gen games have aged better than 7th gen games
Are you sure
To a degree it's true, 6th gen was colourful, while the first half of the 7th gen hated colour for some reason, it was plagued by brown and yellow games with a shit ton of bloom. You know, the piss filter look. If you look at Gears 1&2 and compair them to 3 is a night and day difference, it's like suddenly they remembered brown wasn't the only damn colour.
6th gen games have a tendency to run at 60, not to mention 7th gen games started to have input lag
@@fenix_tx_1342 It's just art design, it changes with each generation, trial and error, trying something new, overuse it then try something different. I like the grim atmosphere of Gears 1.
@@Aristowi Sure, having that for a few games is fine. It was a nice thing for that specific series for the time. But when the majority of the games are brown during the 7th gen consoles, it became a problem. Though it probably was as bad with everyone making their own mascot platformers during the late 80s to early 2000s.
The best console released up to date, together with og xbox, and they both live today, ~20 years after
og Xbox or as I call it: Dreamcast 2 😁
12:25 LOL! The RetroRGB reference. Love it!
The Dreamcast was special part of my gaming childhood and I'm 24... powerstone, slave zero, crazy taxi, dead or alive sonic what a lineup
The HQ2X filter is amazing. Makes the games look the way I remember them.
Pound cable is the closest thing to what people got back then on TVs.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally someone covers the best way to get highest quality visuals & sound out of a Dreamcast in the modern era
Bob from RetroRGB popping up in the bottom right corner at 12:24 when "Bob-deinterlacing" was brought up got a genuine laugh out of me.
I really have to wonder how this console failed so badly. I mean, this game console is incredible! It looks awesome, even to my eyes in 2019! Back in 1999, this must’ve looked like the future! It’s so beautiful... And the games were so good! If I was around in this era, I would’ve loved this, as this was honestly ahead of its time.
I’m going to buy a Dreamcast and a VGA box for it as I now have a lovely CRT monitor.
Sega's terrible management, unfortunately
Good to see you guys acknowledge it came out in Japan a lot of Americans and some Europeans don't count the Japanese launch stating it was first released 9/9/99. They do it with other consoles too to be fair like the Famicom/NES or Super Famicom/SNES.
Sega fan here since childhood, first console was a white Sega Saturn. Just installed Redream and discovering the Dreamcast's library (but i had played some of its games on PC ports over the years). Might be my new favorite system. I like arcade/pick-and-play games, and the console has a very 2000's feeling other 6th gen consoles don't have.
Everybody is focused on improving image quality when the most important thing here is how to make these consoles last much longer
What a profound insight the Dreamcast that came out two and a half years after the N64 (starting the next generation of consoles) looks like a generation apart. Brilliant!
I remember when I got my DC, it was about 2 weeks after it released and I got sonic with it, I was so blown away by the graphical jump of previous consoles and I dont think that ever happened to me again until the original crisis was released on PC.
This weekend was shit until I saw DF Retro had a new video. Thanks, John!
I hope you talk about the Saturn soon, I love these videos.
Much better than the other video out on RUclips about this. Shut it down when 20 minutes had passed and he hadn't even gotten to the mod yet.
Dreamcast was and still is the most played console I ever owned. I played the Dreamcast from 2000 all the way to 2009, followed by the PS2. So much classics.
Quake arena looked amazing and so did the sports games. I remember playing NFL and NBA 2k and being blown away.
Yep. Some of the best visuals at the time. Quake3 was awesome. Me and buddies would split screen for hours blowing each other into chunks with the RL lol and imo those 2K sports games were better than EA sports at the time.
Really loved playing Skies of Arcadia.
Lost it at "Bob deinterlace" :D
I've been using a Hanzo VGA Box +Atlona AT-HD500 upscaler for 5 years now. It was certainly pricey but totally worth it. Crystal clear 1080p output. Looks outstanding. Never experienced any "electrical noise" or "humming" in the audio as you say. Investing on better cables is a must here, the price indeed always gonna reflects quality.
So many great memories with the Dreamcast. Everyone had already migrated to the PS2 when I was playing it, but I would honestly say I had a lot better time with the Dreamcast than the PS2.
about the toro color issue, if you're using the ossc make sure you go into the menu > video in proc. > pre adc gain, change that to 7. the colors will look much more natural. good review 👍 i'd love to have this installed one day
Man, watching this makes me really hope Sega releases a Dreamcast classic (which I guess it might depend on how well the Genesis classic does).
Wingman1977 Saturn forever ignored ;_;
ashfury Too complex. It’d only work if M2 was brought on board, as they can find a way to make Saturn games run authentically on weaker machines.
Sega and M2 have already stated that a DC Mini (or a Saturn Mini) wouldn't be possible in this moment due to technology and costs reasons. I imagine that, if they want to make it now, it'd cost way too much.
Considering that Dreamcast emulation has matured quite quickly, I think that would be the closest possibility. Saturn? Unless M2 makes a miracle, I don't see that happening in a short term.
I remember meeting with one of my friend 20 years ago who had a console shop and as usual we ended up talking about consoles and he came up with the dreamcast, i just barely heard anything about it. Playstation was the most popular - everybody knew it - so i asked him “how good is the console compared to psx”? He said its unbelivable, the graphics, the design of the console is just mindblowing. Without seeing even just once i bought one in the next year and absolutely amazed by the overall quality. I still remember the first game i completed on it, it was the Jet Set Radio. Few weeks ago i bought a dreamcast on Ebay with a vga cable (i’ve got a 40 inch 10 years old plasma tv) and im on way now to buy a gdemu to finish many games on it. I’ve got xbox one x and ps4 as well, got more than 250+ games on each but i just cant feel that satisfaction anymore playing with a game like back in the day. Im fed up with the in game purchases and loot boxes, half done overpriced shite games with zero content. ATM im playing games on wii, gamecube, psx, ps2 and xbox classics and honestly im not even thinking about buying any new console until im finishing all the interesting games on these platform that is takes years for sure :)
Cause the dreamcast is a generation apart from N64, it was the earliest released of the gamecube/ps2/xbox generation, not a late edition to the NG4/PS1 gen.
Eh, it was somewhere in between generations. It released closer to the N64 than it did to Gamecube and Xbox and about the same distance from the N64 as to the PS2.
Is DC's chip size and overall architecture closer to PS2 or to N64? Not the power/performance, but the parts. The insanely well made port of Virtual On OT would simply be unheard of on N64
sausagesausage DC was part of the 6th generation of consoles. That’s a fact.
Dreamcast is the first console I ever purchased with my own money from my first part time job. It melted my brain then and I still love it after all these years. DF & DC forever ❤️
I was PSX fanboy and when I saw Dreamcast's games I was pissed but I knew PS2 is comming... kinda shame DC died so fast, console landscape would be totally different now.
John you are a true role model may God bless you
It's a crime this channel has less than 1m subs. John, stellar work as usual! :)
John, don't be discouraged from camera appearances by jerks making comments about your looks (you talked about this on Twitter)
Think of it like this: a stable person who watched the video in good faith wouldn't leave a hateful comment about your appearance, like who honestly thinks a video is "ruined" by stuff like this? They probably had other reasons for hating the content, and just defaulted to the easiest way to hurt the author.
Great video!
I can't wait to see more videos from the Dreamcast! So many good memories
Thank you, from the Dreamcast Junkyard.
Dreamcast was epic. On that note, I fully expected your buddy Rich Leadbetter to edit a DC magazine at the time, having hyped it up in Sega Saturn Magazine throughout 1998. When he instead launched PSW (Playstation World) magazine in 2000 and declared in his first editorial that he was "disappointed by the Dreamcast" I was shocked to say the least. Wonder if he still feels that way?
Dayum son! Proud of you for showing some love for my dreamcast❤️ that system was awesome as hell! Xbox controllers were HIGHLY influenced by the the design of the DC controller 🎮.
Seems like DF Retro episodes need to be more about selling/reviewing product these days to be made, and it's still high quality but I do miss the old episodes where it focused on games and their technology more often. Still, great video John!
The Crazy Taxi detail missing at 8:13 for the Toro box is ALSO missing on the Official VGA adapter at 6:48 - so it would appear that the Toro is exactly the same quality as the Official VGA box, it's just that the DC HDMI has special powers to pull a pure digital signal that gives the correct color output....I'm curious how these games look running on emulation and if the emulation is closer to the DC HDMI with the Toro/VGA box being lesser due to that analogue transformation.
Thank you so much for sharing this! It’s super helpful
I love that console, so underrated
Subbed off this vid, what a great overview enjoyed all of this.
Since the "retro" label came all old gaming stuff got really expensive... but that's for another time.
Amazing solutions, nice to see dreamcast getting the light it deserves, the passion really is perceptible here. Hope someday I can apply such a solution at my console, today I just have a simple retrobit vga that I suspect is just like the cheapest of this video...
ren7a8ero You’re right about the “retro” label in many cases, but in this case the $150 price point was set pretty early on in the project’s history (years ago). It’s less to do with the “retro” label and more to do with the components. A cyclone 10 dev board is $100 off the bat already, and that’s pretty bare. Good FPGAs like this are just pricey stuff, and this is one of the cheapest good FPGAs out there.
Where’s the song from 0:04 from??
I love these Sunday morning DF Retros!
John!! Your my hero bro!! Nice job and the passion you have is evident!
More John! We need more Dreamcast! Excellent video as always, you've pretty much sold me on the DCHDMI, though I'll have to see if anyone can solder it and modify the case for me.
On Black Dog Technology's site there is a confirmed list of people who can do the job. Thank goodness.
Virtua Strike always forgotten. Digital Foundry, please, make a review of this game so ahead of its time!
Excellent overview. I will definitely be keeping an eye out on this mod. I recently got the Ultra HDMI done on my Nintendo 64 and it's incredible, and the DC HDMI looks just as good if not better/more fully fledged. Though, looking at your comparison footage, I could also just look into getting an official VGA box as that still seems to look pretty great through the OSSC. Hm.. Lots of things to think about now.
The SEGA Dreamcast - the console that introduced me to Phantasy Star, got hooked into it after that and played the classic Phantasy Star games and still plays PSO2 to this day. Great stuff
All these reviews ever tell me is I should just stick to using an old CRT for my retro gaming needs.
Sure, if you want to be stuck with interlaced video.
I do. And unless you have an OLED display the contrast is unmatchable.
All my retro consoles are connected to a crt (Bang&Olufsen MX8000). Amazing image quality, especially when connected with scart.
That Techromancer gameplay gave me the feels. Love the video!
Hey John. I'm glad that someone other than me has been criticising the rather poor design of those custom cables made by Behar Bros. I've had to order two replacements from them and through the emails i sensed that they seemed annoyed with me, claiming that I probably wasn't holding the cable right when I plugged it and unplugged it from the Toro. My third replacement cable has broken again, which started with the same onset issues you described in this video (colour issues). I haven't bothered to email them to ask for another replacement, as I'm kinda bummed out that I effectively can't use the device.
Of all the consoles I want a 'Classic' variant of, the Dreamcast would be the one I most want to happen
Were the games featured in the title a deliberate call out to that 4-game shmup disc somebody put together and did the rounds on emu sites? All 4 were amazing, especially Border Down. Stoked to see it featured here heavily!
More late 90's retro stuff please. This was fantastic!
I remember I was in Yodobashi Camera, collecting brand new discounted games for the dead Dreamcast like candy. I just walked into the store, bought Border Down on release day, and left all in 10 minutes. Except it feels like 3 years ago instead of EIGHTEEN
Damn it man. I'm still waiting to order a GBA Consolizer, and now this pops up in my RUclips feed!
I installed an internal VGA mod in my Dreamcast years ago, and it technically worked, but everything about it was a disaster. Hacky soldering, totally unplanned wire routing, and a case mounted connector that barely fit when I put it all together. I need the DCHDMI in my life now.
The ammount of content about G.Rev you showed was amazing to me... as a Senko no Ronde and G.Rev adepto overall haha.
I'm a Dreamcast enthuasiast, it was my first console and I really do love the nostalgia I get from it, so... 150 for what you showed to us is not really something that scares me, the thing that scares me is I need to find a guy to mod my console because I'm not that good at soldering.
Great video. I have an Akura box, my TV actually displays the picture by keeping the ratio and multiplying by 2 the resolution (it seems), since I have small black borders top and bottom. Pretty good solution if you ask me, of course inferior to DCHDMI, that's for sure. Scanlines can be useful for 240p games, since these had scanlines when played on CRT. It is also a great feature for the SNK ports that don't support 240p : MotW, KOF 2000 2001 2002 output at 480i, so you don't have scanlines on CRT. With the Akura box (or DC HDMI) you can put back scanlines and display the games as they were meant to be displayed. Of course putting scanlines on games that are made for 480i/p is pointless, you are actually losing image detail by doing so, and CRT don't display scanlines in 480i.
Cheap VGA cables for Dreamcast are still available on aliexpress. I had a 3rd party VGA cable back when the DC was still somewhat recent, and I didn't notice any issues on a CRT monitor, though I wasn't looking for any. I do remember Soul Calibur looking fantastic, and didn't notice anything that seemed off in comparison to using the monitor with a PC.
I'd imagine even using this with an older LCD TV/monitor that has VGA in, should look very good in many cases.
This channel keeping the passion heart of 90's gaming alive
Good video. Honesty, a VGA Box + OSSC is the most convinient combo for users of many retro systems. It doesn't requiere heavy modifications and it's easy to use.
If you use the Pound cable and the Marseille mCable it will correct the dark image, and create an upscaled picture. See my Dreamcast in 1080p video. It will cost around $125 for both but it’s all plug and play. Plus the mCable can be used on other consoles.
The dc component cable will be out soon.
mCable is no where near as good.
This is an internal mod for a reason. It patches into the frame buffer and high jacks the raw digital signal. It’s never converted to analog for output. In fact, it’s never technically “output” at all so it is compatible with every game.
This basically takes everything that makes the OSSC great and cranks it up to 11.
I understand wanting to puff up your own solution that you use, but it’s objectively inferior to the DCHDMI.
It’s much cheaper and doesn’t require an internal mod though, so there is that.
Gosh the Dreamcast is still beautiful to this day...!
I used a third party VGA cable for the Dreamcast fed to a cheap VGA to HDMI converter and the results were fantastic on my end with minimal blur if even any at all.
Sadly, it seems both the cable and adapter I bought are both no longer available with the cable absolutely gone and the adapter was updated so it isn't really the same product.
Many thanks for another competent Retro Episode. I appreciate the good, background info filled content, top👍.
12:30 - That Bob deinterlacing looks wrong to me. Does that game not run at 60fps?
No, Hydro Thunder doesn't run at 60, not even the arcade version.
Yes! A new one right as I was about to finish watching the last of the old ones!
The only reason I passed on the Dreamcast was the missing bumpers on the controller which limited the complexity of control possible. Never understood why SEGA designed the controller with only triggers.
Vance G Bumpers weren’t standard yet. Only Sony had done that at that point. Xbox launched 3 full years later (going from Japanese launch) same with GameCube which only had the Z bumper. Same with dual thumb sticks for that matter and even then they weren’t commonly used until halfway through the generation.
@@joshreynolds869 - Sony PlayStation was the primary competition for the Dreamcast and the DualShock had the four buttons on the back of the controller long before Dreamcast launched. The Xbox controller has triggers and bumpers and it came out just two years after the Dreamcast. To me this design was SEGA being stuck in the past and it really hurt the Dreamcast games limiting control options.
Vance G Actually the Xbox controller didn’t have bumpers. It had white and black buttons, a couple late third party controllers had buttons but they were from roughly the era of the 360 launch.
Bumpers were not standard at all at the time.
And the Dreamcast launched in Japan in November of 98, that’s 3 years.
What I liked about Dreamcast was the 3D games had that Sega “look” that the old 2D versions had on Genesis but it was 3D. Know what I mean? Like Sonic Adventure looked and felt like the old classic Sonic games but translated to 3D.
The DC can natively output VGA, no need for a "box". The official VGA box just rerouted the connections.
MDK 2! I love the nostalgia bombs in these DF Retro videos.
As always, delivering a wonderfully enjoyable, catchy special! Guys please go on with your retro E3 commentaries, perhaps one from the xbox one launch? ;)
Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles of all time. I absolutely love it. Going to definitely look into this HDMI solution