Thinking About Buying A Dreamcast

[Phillyman]

Well I guess I should rephrase, I already have a Dreamcast, I paid about $20 for it....but it suffers from the discoloration that plagued my my SNES. So I am thinking about buying a brand new boxed Dreamcast. They seem to run about $80 on Ebay, I just need to know what version I should be looking for :fear:

[meppi]

Hmm, what do you mean by version actually?

[Phillyman]

Hmm, what do you mean by version actually?

Supposedly some of the models of Dreamcast did not have any type of protection, so they could run copies of games or homebrew

[meppi]

Ah, I don't have any experience with that myself.

But I read somewhere that only the latest DCs had some kind of protection built in.

So for the majority of them it wouldn't be any problem.

[Backster]

I have a nice selection of console systems.

Atari 2600+5200

Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64

Dreamcast

Playstation and PS2.

Xbox

The Dreamcast was surely the easiest one to play copied games. Had no protection and would boot up every game copied. BTW I have about 150 games just for the DC.

Back in the day the Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and had a very nice selection of games. I am not sure of the exact models that would or could not play copied games.

I have 2 Dreamcast systems and they both play fine. I could give you the model #'s if needed, so you know what to look for.

[SuperCheeser]

I wasn't aware of the region coding, all I ever used was a gameshark and it seemed to work fine on my DC.

[Gnash]

You just have to be careful of the manufacturing dates. The older Dreamcasts can play homebrew and backups while the newer ones can't. I still have to see a DC that doesn't run backups but I read that somewhere.

[mikecox]

The old ones are better, and with a VGA Adapter is much better!

[RPG-Joe]

I have a DC and with the Utopia boot CD I don´t have any problems playing copies or japanese games... but anyway I just use the boot CD to play imports, I don´t like the copies.

[Str8Chutr]

I bought my Dreamcast on ebay for about $60 shipped. Didn't need a ton of games with it, so that saves money.

I remember when I was looking that they said ALL Dreamcasts could play backup-games (ie. burned). I don't know 100% if that is true, but in reading around it does appear you're okay. If you get an earlier model, you'll be assured of no problems... as only later models had copy protection (if at all).

ALSO, check Craigslist. A number of people on Craigslist will tell you if it can play backup games.

Edited June 5, 2008 by Str8Chutr

[WalkingTiger]

I believe only the final releases of the Dreamcast hardware implemented some copy protection schemes, which unfortunately for Sega, was too little, too late;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast may have some further details on the hardware/software revisions that did or did not have such protection at the time;

~WalkingTiger

[lisalover1]

Yes. Get a Dreamcast. It's like, the greatest console ever created by humankind. It is definitely the easiest console to illegally play games on, which makes it all the better for a retro fan to sample its games, which there were many. Perfect Neo-Geo ports, amazing 3-D graphics, colorful 2-D graphics, 3rd party online support still operating, even many PC ports, including Half-Life, Counter Strike, and Quake 3! The Dreamcast was, is, and shall ever be absolutely impeccable.

[Thor]

Anything from the Sega Sports System (black system) and earlier are what you want. Which I believe would be manufactured by or before Aug 2000. It might work on some of the slightly after that I don't toally remember. But I know at least before that date you'd be fine and it says right on the bottom of the system when it was manufactured.

[edit]

Damn! Yet another old thread that I didn't notice. Well I still hope this info will help you Phillyman.

[KiwiArcader]

From memory when I got my Dreamcast I think I was told to make sure it had a manufacturing date earlier than Sept 2001? to guarantee you could play backups. Not sure about those new Dreamcasts for sale on EBAY as I was thinking of getting one too but the seller wouldn't answer questions on the manufacturing date. Considering the box has a window where you can look inside and see the date without having to open it up one wonders what he was hiding?

I do know that there were lots of complaints over the black SEGA Sports edition DC's as they won't play copies and to avoid those. Hope that helps!

Unless you want to play originals in which case anything goes

[cool3865]

Anything from the Sega Sports System (black system) and earlier are what you want. Which I believe would be manufactured by or before Aug 2000. It might work on some of the slightly after that I don't toally remember. But I know at least before that date you'd be fine and it says right on the bottom of the system when it was manufactured.

[edit]

Damn! Yet another old thread that I didn't notice. Well I still hope this info will help you Phillyman.

really?? i have the sega sports one and it doesnt play back up cd's, i need to use the gameshark cd to "trick" the dreamcast

[Spongeman56]

Hope this isnt out-dated but in my opinion, save your money and wait for new games that are coming out or some old SNES games. Im not really a fan of Sega systems except for the Genesis which is amazing. The Dreamcast is good but I wouldn't buy it. Im a Nintendo fan boy not a Sega one but if your a Sega one go out and get it. I had one and I didnt really like the game selection on it so I sold it. Its a good system and some of the games are good (Dead or Alive 2, GTA II, Rayman II, Resident Evil II, Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure I and II) but other than that I would save my money.

[meppi]

Hope this isnt out-dated but in my opinion, save your money and wait for new games that are coming out or some old SNES games. Im not really a fan of Sega systems except for the Genesis which is amazing. The Dreamcast is good but I wouldn't buy it. Im a Nintendo fan boy not a Sega one but if your a Sega one go out and get it. I had one and I didnt really like the game selection on it so I sold it. Its a good system and some of the games are good (Dead or Alive 2, GTA II, Rayman II, Resident Evil II, Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure I and II) but other than that I would save my money.

Well that the thing there. Saturn and DreamCast have always been arcade machines first and a home console second, so that really shines through in the games catalogue.

It all depends on if you're crazy about arcade games or now, and I love them.

[Spongeman56]

Yea, im not really an arcade game fan so thats why I don't like the DreamCast but I think the Saturn is the second best Sega system next to the Genesis.

[perudon]

The Retronauts podcast (1up Network) just did an episode about the Dreamcast and I would love to buy one. Ebay is the obvious source for one and it sounds like a lot of people who have posted to this thread have bought from there. Are there any recommendations of other sources for Dreamcast hardware & games? I should have just bought my brother's when he sold it, but I wasn't interested at the time. Darn!

I think I would be interested in a Saturn too. I've seen a few prices quoted in this thread too. What do you think would be a decent price to pay of a Dreamcast? How about the Saturn?

[lisalover1]

Get a Dreamcast. I've made a lot of good and bad gaming choices over the years, but getting a Dreamcast was the best gaming choice I've ever made.

[konnichiwa]

I bought a second one last week cause my old one was almost dead..and two extra controllers to play with my friends.

[forbid89]

I have to agree with everyone else, get a Dreamcast you won't regret it. I have a few with quite a few of the accessories and its just about my favorite console. If you are an arcade fan try to pick up a least one of the Dreamcast arcade sticks, they are great.

[ocelot]

I would love to get my hands on Mortal Kombat Gold if I can get it...

[Rave92]

Well I have DC, and like 80 games for it of which most I didn't even play . But it is a great system, but knowing you already owning it well... if it is that important for you, get it.. why not? Just for me it is waste of money to give for something you already have.