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Post by englishinvader on Sept 6, 2011 14:28:28 GMT
I was thinking about the possibility of the Dreamcast being able to play DVDs. IMO there isn't much on the XBox/PS2 that couldn't have been done for the DC and the VGA output facility should lead to some awesome sound/picture quality.
As far as I can see, there are two main obstacles:
1) the GD-Rom drive would need to be replaced with a DVD drive that is able to read GD discs and be recognised by the DC operating system.
2) software would need to be created to turn the DC into a DVD player. It could take much the same form as an Action Replay disc or freeloader. If that were possible, it would be fairly easy to make the DVD player multi-region.
Any thoughts?
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Post by Batman666 on Sept 6, 2011 16:26:35 GMT
No thoughts about the project per se. Only historical regret that SEGA didn't use DVDs insted. If they did i'm sure we would have a Dreamcast 2 today.
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Post by playgeneration on Sept 6, 2011 16:35:32 GMT
It would have made a big difference had they used DVD originally, since at the time standalone players were expensive, and it probably would have helped with piracy too since DVD recording was more expensive than CD-R. I suppose they would have done it if they could, but it would have made the console too expensive I expect.
There would be little point in trying to retrofit DVD capabilities now, any homebrew games still being made are more than likely to fit on CD, there are flash card readers available now I believe too for extra capacity, and of course DVD players are very cheap now.
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zavias
Wonderboy
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Post by zavias on Sept 6, 2011 17:03:58 GMT
there are flash card readers available now I believe too for extra capacity Really? That would be awesome. Especially for some of the games that require special CDr's like Shenmue 2... |
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Post by playgeneration on Sept 6, 2011 18:03:11 GMT
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 6, 2011 19:30:59 GMT
No thoughts about the project per se. Only historical regret that SEGA didn't use DVDs insted. If they did i'm sure we would have a Dreamcast 2 today. I strongly doubt it. First of all, with a DVD-Drive the productions cost would've been even higher, forcing Sega (who already sold the Dreamcast at a loss per Unit) to raise the price. That would've been a bad move. A DVD drive would've never compensated the lack of third party support and the PS2 announcement. In 1999 DVD was really going strong basically only in Japan and North America. Europe still relied mostly on VHS and DVD was still rather unknown. I don't think it would made a big difference. |
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Sept 7, 2011 10:29:56 GMT
The Dreamcast was dead before DVD took off properly. It would've been nice to have it and it may have shifted a few more units (I know people who bought a PS2 because it was a cheap DVD player). More concerning regarding DVD is that the Wii can actually play DVDs but Nintendo suppress the functionality!!
I also strongly disagree with the piracy aspect. You couldn't do it yourself because internet speeds were so slow (dialup fun!) and CD-R drives weren't cheap or common... so you're relying on the shady boot sales and dodgy guys that come round pubs. I can't see that it took much in the way of software sales at the time. Sony had the casual market, EA's sports licenses and a big market lead from the PSX. Sega spent all their marketing money on a function (online) which was supported by about 4 games.
You won't get a DVD drive that can read GD-ROM unless you build it yourself, and you'd have to either modify the console's OS or write a boot disk for DVDs to play them... so good luck with that! I'm sure I saw you can play DivX videos on the DC with something (I think via a USB mod), so that's more viable. And yeah, you can get a decent DVD player for about £20.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Sept 7, 2011 12:41:26 GMT
I also strongly disagree with the piracy aspect. You couldn't do it yourself because internet speeds were so slow (dialup fun!) and CD-R drives weren't cheap or common... While Dialup was still common by 2000, even here in Germany we already had DSL with Flatrates available. I think north americans had cable connection even before? Downloading the games was never a big problem thanks to Usenet. Buying a CD-R Drive and 10 CD-Rs was still cheaper then buying 10 games at full price. Piracy was also very big on the Playstation. Those "Mod Chips" sold like crazy and it wasn't because everyone wanted to play weird japanese games. Even back on the Mega Drive or SNES was Piracy big, i remember all the advertisements for those copy stations in magazines. You bought that thing for 400 DM, got some floppy discs and then got games from friends, rental places or whereever and copied them. Piracy though gets blown out of proportions, it never destroyed a console and if the Dreamcast died because of it, the Playstation 2 should've been killed in 2003 because on that system, Piracy is even easier. After all, you just need a normal Hard Drive (which was even mandatory for some games like Final Fantasy 12) and the HD Loader program. Yet, even with the piracy the console still lives after 11 years on the market. |
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zavias
Wonderboy
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Post by zavias on Sept 7, 2011 13:51:00 GMT
I had a really fast cable connection here in Canada in 2000, so I was easily able to get all of the dreamcast isos from newsgroups at the time. CD-Rs were pretty cheap ($1 or so a piece) at that time, so the cost was very low. I love the homebrew scene of the dreamcast also. That is the major reason I still play with the Dreamcast all the time. And also because of Twinkle Star Sprites. lol
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